Register your own file type with a custom user interface editor in Visual Studio 2010

Question

I found an old article called LearnVSXNow and part # 30 - Custom Editors in Visual Studio . There is an example Blog Element Editor project that shows how to create your own file type assigned by a custom user interface editor for this file type extension (.blit). This example uses the VSXtra project, which was written for Visual Studio 2008 .

Can someone point me to some kind of tutorial, somehow or something, what to do for Visual Studio 2010 ? My goal is to register a file type user extension extension (for example, * .myext1) in visual studio 2010 and designate my own user interface (WinForms, obtained from UserControl) to visually edit the contents of such a file.

I found several samples, but each of them shows only the changes in the text editor of the code (highlight a few words, etc.). But I want to show my own tool with my user control inside it.

PS: The part of creating a custom tool window with my own user control inside it is not a problem, I use the VSPackage Builder Project Template to create and register it inside visx. My problem is how to register a custom file type in order to use this custom file editing tool.

Answer 1

Although the main text editor has changed significantly (an almost complete rewrite developed around MEF) in Visual Studio 2010, the overall infrastructure for registering and delivering custom editors / designers has not changed.

The Create Custom Text Editors and Designers page on the MSDN page is a good place to start. You must also go through the VSPackage wizard and select “Custom Editor” to get the basic editor. This will give you a simple RTF editor.

You can also check out these samples in the MSDN Code Gallery for more ideas and inspiration:

• Toolbox-enabled editor
• Design lookups through an XML editor

It is generally recommended that editors be in the document window (as opposed to the tool window). This is the paradigm that almost all built-in editors / designers use in Visual Studio, and this is what users expect when opening something from Solution Explorer. Editing things in ToolWindow may seem a little unnatural.

I understand that VSXtra provides additional helper / base classes (besides what Microsoft supports) to simplify the execution of various tasks (for example, creating a custom editor / constructor). However, you do not need to create your own editor.