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Understanding Guidance Packages

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Guidance Packages are named collections of recipes, templates, value providers, type editors and converters, and actions. Guidance Packages must be first installed on the developer's computer and then enabled from within Visual Studio to be usable. Guidance Packages are packaged and installed as a unit.

  • Development of a Guidance Package for use in Visual Studio comprises of the following:
  • Defining recipes (including the definition of arguments, wizards, and actions)
  • Defining Visual Studio templates
  • Writing actions
  • Writing argument type editors and converters
  • Defining T4 templates (if an action uses a T4 template to generate code)
  • Testing the package
  • Building package setup files

A Guidance Package contains some or all of the following artifacts:

  • Guidance Package configuration file (required)
  • Visual Studio templates
  • T4 templates
  • DLL implementing actions, type editors, value providers, and type converters (a single DLL is recommended)

Guidance Packages, are usually used to group together artifacts that are closely related and are likely to be used in conjunction with one another. For more information about developing Guidance Packages, see Developing a Guidance Package. For information about installing and operating Guidance Packages, see Using Guidance Packages.

Before a Guidance Package can be used in a solution, it must be installed and enabled. A package can be enabled in one of two ways:

  • Unfolding a Visual Studio solution template that is defined to enable the package
  • Selecting and enabling the Guidance Package in Guidance Package Manager

See also

Concepts of the Guidance Automation Toolkit | The Recipe Framework | Understanding Recipes | Understanding Wizards | Understanding Visual Studio Templates | Understanding Template and Recipe Associations | Understanding Launch Points | Understanding Recipe References | Understanding the Meta Guidance Package