Feature Builder Power Tool for VS2010 RTM-Preview Now Available

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The RTM-Preview version of the Feature Builder Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010 has just been posted to the Visual Studio Gallery.

These bits are compatible with the RTM release of Visual Studio and will also run side-by-side with the upcoming Visual Studio 2010 Feature Pack.

Here is the “read me” information for this release:

Welcome to the Feature Builder Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010 RTM-Preview:

  • 1. If you installed the RC-preview
    • a. You must uninstall the RC-Preview bits.  The easiest way is to use the Extension Manager in Visual Studio.
    • b. Download and install the Feature Builder Power Tool RTM-Preview from the Visual Studio Gallery
  • 2. If you have built any Feature Extensions using the RC-Preview:
    • a. You must uninstall all of your existing Feature Extension instances in both the regular and experimental “hive”.  The new runtime has namespace and interface changes which are incompatible with the RC-Preview release.
    • b. Upgrading your existing FX:
      • Click on the Feature.commands and remove the TextTransformationGenerator from the CustomTool property
      • Click on the GuidanceWorkflow.activitydiagram and remove the TextTransformationGenerator from the CustomTool property
      • Rename the .feature file to .featureid
      • Re-compile any existing Feature Extensions to pick up the namespace changes.
        • The pattern for interface changes was to add “Fxr” in between the I and the rest of the name (e.g. IUriServiceProvider becomes IFxrUriServiceProvider)
  • 3. What has changed in the RTM-Preview:
    • a. Added ability to run Side-by-side (SxS) with upcoming Visual Studio 2010 Feature Pack
    • b. As part of 3(a), the T4 runner inside the Feature Runtime’s copy of the Extensibility Pack, no longer leverages the Visual Studio custom tool integration (SingleFileGenerator).
    • c. API for Initializing Feature Extensions has improved
    • d. Added support for “stateless” FX
    • e. Added support for content files to be picked from Solution Folders
    • f. Guidance Workflow Explorer now auto-refreshes when a feature changes removing small delay on instantiation
    • g. Fixed issues when Features are instantiated when language and culture not EN-US
    • h. Removed auto creation of logging file (still logging to Feature Extensions section of output window)
    • i. Fixed bug which made a Feature Builder solution break when moved within the file system.
    • j. Fixed issue related to use of multi-project templates with Vs Template Launch Points
    • k. Fixed issues related to interactions between DSL and Activity diagram while authoring
    • l. The format of content:// URIs used to reference guidance in the current Feature Extension is now simplified thus reducing the number of things that must be changed when a Feature Extension is renamed.  The existing format (from your existing feature extensions) will still work.
      • content://./Content/ProcessGuidance/<filename>
        • instead of
      • content://<featurename>/Content/ProcessGuidance/<filename> -
    • m. Added extensibility to the Feature Builder guidance.  There will shortly be a series of Feature Builder Guidance Extensions (FBGX) which will be distributed in source code form on CodePlex and in binary form via the Visual Studio Gallery that will augment the guidance and functionality of the Feature Builder.

Support for the Feature Builder is available on the Visual Studio 2010 Visualization and Modeling Tools Forum