VSIX Package Properties for LightSwitch Extensions

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When you create an extension in LightSwitch, properties in the source.extension.vsixmanifest file determine values that appear in the LightSwitch application designer and the Extension Manager. The following list identifies what package properties you can set and where the resulting values appear.

VSIX Package Properties

The heading area contains the following properties.

  • Product ID – Doesn’t appear in the user interface (UI) but must be unique. You can’t install two extensions that have the same Product ID in the same instance of Visual Studio. The default value is the solution name.

  • Product Name – Appears as the Name in the Extension Details section of the Extensions tab in the application designer. Also appears as the extension name in Extension Manager. The default value is the solution name.

  • Author – Appears as the Created by value in both the Extension Details section of the Extensions tab and Extension Manager. The default value is the Company Name that was specified when Visual Studio was installed.

  • Version – Appears as the Version value in Extension Manager. The default value is 1.0.

The Metadata tab contains the following properties.

  • Description – Appears in the Description box in the Extension Details section of the Extensions tab. Also appears as descriptive text in Extension Manager. The default value is the solution name plus “description” (for example, “MyExtension description”).

  • Language – Doesn’t appear in the UI. The default value is the locale of the installed version of Visual Studio.

  • License – Appears in the Visual Studio Extension Installer dialog box during installation. The dialog box also includes the text By clicking “Install”, you agree with the above license terms (if any). You can supply a text file that contains your terms of use or licensing agreement. The default value is empty.

  • Icon – Appears in Extension Manager next to the extension name. Supported formats include icon (ICO), bitmap (BMP), Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), Joint Photographics Experts Group (JPEG), Portable Network Graphics (PNG), and Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) images. If you don’t specify an image, a default icon appears.

  • Preview Image – Appears in the righthand pane of Extension Manager. Supported formats include bitmap (BMP), Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), Joint Photographics Experts Group (JPEG), Portable Network Graphics (PNG), and Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) images. For best results, use an image that’s 200 by 200 pixels. If you don’t specify an image, the same default image that’s used for the Icon property is used.

  • Tags - Adds text tags to be used for search hints.

  • Release Notes - Specifies a .txt or .rtf file that contains release notes. Also takes the URL of a website that displays the release notes.

  • Getting Started Guide - Appears as a Getting Started hyperlink in the righthand pane of Extension Manager. If you don’t specify a URL, the hyperlink is unavailable.

  • More Info URL – Appears as a More Information hyperlink in the righthand pane of Extension Manager. If you don’t specify a URL, the hyperlink is unavailable.

The Installation Targets tab contains the following controls.

  • Type of install

  • List of Installation Targets – Doesn’t appear in the UI. The default values are Microsoft.VisualStudio.Pro and, in Version Range, [11.0,12.0].

    Important

    Don’t change the values of the List of Installation Targets property. LightSwitch will recognize extensions only if the default values haven’t been modified.

  • This VSIX is installed for all users - If selected, this extension is installed for all users; otherwise, it’s installed for the current user.

  • This VSIX is installed by Windows Installer - If checked, this extension is installed by the Windows Installer (.msi file); otherwise, the extension is installed as a typical VSIX package (.vsix file).

The Assets tab contains the following property.

  • List of assets - Lists the Asset elements that describe the extension and the content elements that this package surfaces.

    Important

    Don’t change the values of the List of assets property. LightSwitch will recognize extensions only if the default values haven’t been modified.

The Dependencies tab isn’t used for LightSwitch extensions.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Set VSIX Package Properties

How to: Distribute a LightSwitch Extension

Reference

VSIX Manifest Designer