How to: Distribute code snippets

Article
03/21/2019

Applies to: Visual Studio Visual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

You can give your code snippets to your friends and have them install the snippets on their own computers by using Code Snippets Manager. However, if you have several snippets to distribute or would like to distribute them more widely, you can include your snippet files in a Visual Studio extension. Visual Studio users can then install the extension to obtain the snippets.

Prerequisites

Install the Visual Studio extension development workload to get access to the VSIX Project project templates.

Visual Studio extension development workload

Set up the extension

In this procedure, you'll use the same Hello World code snippet that's created in Walkthrough: Create a code snippet. This article provides the snippet XML, so you don't have to go back and create a snippet.

Create a new project from the Empty VSIX Project template and name the project TestSnippet.

In the TestSnippet project, add a new XML file and call it VBCodeSnippet.snippet. Replace the content with the following XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<CodeSnippets
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005/CodeSnippet">
  <CodeSnippet Format="1.0.0">
    <Header>
      <Title>Hello World VB</Title>
      <Shortcut>HelloWorld</Shortcut>
      <Description>Inserts code</Description>
      <Author>MSIT</Author>
      <SnippetTypes>
        <SnippetType>Expansion</SnippetType>
        <SnippetType>SurroundsWith</SnippetType>
      </SnippetTypes>
    </Header>
    <Snippet>
      <Code Language="VB">
        <![CDATA[Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!")]]>
      </Code>
    </Snippet>
  </CodeSnippet>
</CodeSnippets>

Set up the directory structure

In Solution Explorer, select the project node and add a folder that has the name you want the snippet to have in Code Snippets Manager. In this case, it should be HelloWorldVB.
Move the .snippet file to the HelloWorldVB folder.
Select the .snippet file in Solution Explorer, and in the Properties window make sure Build Action is set to Content, Copy to Output Directory is set to Copy always, and Include in VSIX is set to true.

Add the .pkgdef file

Add a text file to the HelloWorldVB folder and name it HelloWorldVB.pkgdef. This file is used to add certain keys to the registry. In this case, it adds a new subkey to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\15.0\Languages\CodeExpansions\Basic key.

Add the following lines to the file.
```
// Visual Basic
[$RootKey$\Languages\CodeExpansions\Basic\Paths]
"HelloWorldVB"="$PackageFolder$"
```
If you examine this key, you can see how to specify different languages.
Select the .pkgdef file in Solution Explorer, and in the Properties window make sure that:
- Build Action is set to Content
- Copy to Output Directory is set to Copy always
- Include in VSIX is set to true
Add the .pkgdef file as an asset in the VSIX manifest. In the source.extension.vsixmanifest file, go to the Assets tab and click New.
In the Add New Asset dialog, set the Type to Microsoft.VisualStudio.VsPackage, the Source to File on filesystem, and the Path to HelloWorldVB.pkgdef (which should appear in the dropdown).

Test the snippet

Now you can make sure that the code snippet works in the experimental instance of Visual Studio. The experimental instance is a second copy of Visual Studio that is separate from the one you use to write code. It allows you to work on an extension without affecting your development environment.
Build the project and start debugging.

A second instance of Visual Studio appears.
In the experimental instance, go to Tools > Code Snippets Manager and set the Language to Basic. You should see HelloWorldVB as one of the folders, and you should be able to expand the folder to see the HelloWorldVB snippet.
Test the snippet. In the experimental instance, open a Visual Basic project and open one of the code files. Place your cursor somewhere in the code, right-click, and on the context menu select Insert Snippet.
You should see HelloWorldVB as one of the folders. Double-click it. You should see a pop-up Insert Snippet: HelloWorldVB > that has a dropdown HelloWorldVB. Click the HelloWorldVB dropdown.

The following line is added to the code file:
```
Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!")
```

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