“Feature Builder Power Tool” Preview Released – A power tool to help you build tools/extensions/etc for Visual Studio 2010, a tool to help build tools… - Greg's Cool [Insert Clever Name] of the Day

Skinner's Blog - Announcing the Preview release of “Feature Builder”

“Today we released the Feature Builder Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010 Preview for RC on the Visual Studio Gallery. This power tool helps you easily create rich Visual Studio extensions which you can share with others on the Visual Studio Gallery. These extensions can include tools (Visual Studio automation), code (your sample code or binaries you wish to share with others) and a map (a set of steps your users will want to follow to get the best experience with your extension). You can use this power tool to quickly package up sample code with custom menus, or take the time to create complete automated guidance experiences targeted toward a specific technology.

You can create two different kinds of extensions using Feature Builder. A standard Feature Extension can contain tools, code, and a simple map - it will run on the Visual Studio Premium and Visual Studio Professional editions (in the final version of this tool). A more advanced extension, called an Ultimate Feature Extension, can contain everything a standard Feature Extension can contain, as well as rich modeling and visualization tools that can take advantage of the modeling features found inside the Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate edition (required).

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This tool was produced by the Visual Studio product group in collaboration with patterns & practices, the Developer Platform Evangelism group, and Microsoft Consulting Services.

An update to this power tool based on the RTM version of Visual Studio 2010 will be available after the RTM release..”

Adventures In SoftwareLand - Announcing the Feature Builder Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010 (Preview)

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Today, I am finally able to talk about what I’ve been doing since last February: the Feature Builder Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010!

Feature Builder is a completely re-thought implementation of the automated guidance + tools + templates work I’ve been doing for nearly 6 years here at Microsoft. Some of you may remember Project “Glidepath” and the two versions of Blueprints which were released between 2006 and 2009. Feature Builder tops them all in terms of functionality, integration within Visual Studio and most importantly product group alignment.

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Adventures In SoftwareLand - Feature Builder for VS2010 FAQ

“Q: #1 What do I need to have installed to use Feature Builder?

A: Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Edition Release Candidate, the Visual Studio SDK for RC

Q: #2 What do users need to run my Feature Extension?

A: If it is an Ultimate Feature Extension, then VS2010 Ultimate Edition is required. If it is not an Ultimate Feature Extension, then it will run on Visual Studio 2010 Professional Edition Release Candidate or Visual Studio 2010 Premium Edition Release Candidate. In either case, your users will *not* need the Feature Builder. The Feature Extension runtime library that supports all feature extensions is included in your VSIX and will be automatically installed if necessary.

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Visual Studio Gallery - Feature Builder Power Tool

“Feature Builder is a Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010 (preview) which helps you easily create rich Visual Studio extensions. These extensions include tools (Visual Studio automation), code (your sample code or binaries you wish to share with others) and a map (a set of steps your users will want to follow to get the best experience with your extension). You can use this power tool to quickly package up sample code with custom menus, or take the time to create complete automated guidance experiences targeted toward a specific technology. You can share your extension with users by distributing a .vsix file, or posting to the Visual Studio Gallery.

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This preview requires Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Edition, and the installation of the Visual Studio SDK (RC1 Version) to build Feature Extensions. The Feature Extensions you create have the same requirements except for the SDK. The RTM version of this tool will require Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Edition to create Feature Extensions, but will allow you to create Feature Extensions which do not require the Ultimate Edition to run.

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I dig tools that help us build tools. The extensibility of VS2010 is pretty amazing and tools like this will help us all take advantage of that... (“Let the hounds of VS extensibility loose!…” ;)