Differences between Visual Studio 2010 add-in manager and extension manager

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+2 Q:

Differences between Visual Studio 2010 add-in manager and extension manager

The difference between Add-In and Integration Package is still unclear and now with Visual Studio 2010 an extension manager appears along with the add-in manager.

What are the differences between the add-in manager and the extension manager?
Can an add-in be in both manager at the same time?

+4 A:

Add-ins implement an extensibility interface that was first created for Visual Studio.Net for customizing and automating the IDE. These add-ins are supported in Visual Studio 2002/2003/2005/2008/2010.

Extensions are MEF components and do not normally implement the Add-in interface. Visual Studio 2010 is the first version of Visual Studio to support MEF components.

Only Add-ins appear in the Add-in Manager. Only Extensions appear in the Extension Manager.

I don't know if an MEF extension could also be loaded by Visual Studio as an add-in, but there's really not much reason that to happen. An extension can use the add-in DTE interfaces without actually being loaded as an add-in.

sean e 2010-05-08 16:34:20

This isn't entirely accurate. While you are correct that addins and extensions are different, the new VSIX "extensions" in 2010 are not just limited to MEF.VSIX extensions support MEF, VS Integration Packages, Project and Item Templates, custom Start Pages, Toolbox Controls, and "custom" extension types (http://blogs.msdn.com/visualstudio/archive/2010/04/16/custom-extension-types-with-vsix.aspx)

Aaron Marten 2010-05-17 13:50:28

"An extension can use the add-in DTE interfaces." Can you point me to an example? It might save me from shooting myself in the foot. :)

ewwwyn 2010-08-29 03:54:39

ansaurus

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Differences between Visual Studio 2010 add-in manager and extension manager

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