Create a WPF Toolbox Control

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Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual 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

The WPF (Windows Presentation Framework) Toolbox Control template lets you create WPF controls that are automatically added to the Toolbox when the extension is installed. This walkthrough shows how to use the template to create a Toolbox control that you can distribute to other users.

Starting in Visual Studio 2015, you do not install the Visual Studio SDK from the download center. It is included as an optional feature in Visual Studio setup. You can also install the VS SDK later on. For more information, see Install the Visual Studio SDK.

Create the Toolbox Control

Create an extension with a WPF Toolbox Control

  1. Create a VSIX project named MyToolboxControl. You can find the VSIX project template in the New Project dialog by searching for "vsix".

  2. When the project opens, add a WPF Toolbox Control item template named MyToolboxControl. In the Solution Explorer, right-click the project node and select Add > New Item. In the Add New Item dialog, go to Visual C# > Extensibility and select WPF Toolbox Control. In the Name field at the bottom of the window, change the command file name to MyToolboxControl.cs.

    The solution now contains a user control, a ProvideToolboxControlAttribute RegistrationAttribute that adds the control to the Toolbox, and a Microsoft.VisualStudio.ToolboxControl Asset entry in the VSIX manifest for deployment.

To create the control UI

  1. Open MyToolboxControl.xaml in the designer.

    The designer shows a Grid control that contains a Button control.

  2. Arrange the grid layout. When you select the Grid control, blue control bars appear on the top and left edges of the grid. You can add rows and columns to the grid by clicking the bars.

  3. Add child controls to the grid. You can position a child control by dragging it from the Toolbox to a section of the grid, or by setting its Grid.Row and Grid.Column attributes in the XAML. The following example adds two labels on the top row of the grid and a button on the second row.

    <Grid>
    <Label Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" Name="label1" />
    <Label Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1" Name="label2" />
    <Button Name="button1" Click="button1_Click" Grid.Row="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="2" />
</Grid>

Renaming the control

By default, your control will appear in the Toolbox as MyToolboxControl in a group named MyToolboxControl.MyToolboxControl. You can change these names in the MyToolboxControl.xaml.cs file.

  1. Open MyToolboxControl.xaml.cs in the code view.

  2. Find the MyToolboxControl class and rename it to TestControl. (The fastest way to do this is to rename the class, then select Rename from the context menu and complete the steps. (For more information about the Rename command, see Rename refactoring (C#).)

  3. Go to the ProvideToolboxControl attribute and change the value of the first parameter to Test. This is the name of the group that will contain the control in the Toolbox.

    The resulting code should look like this:

    [ProvideToolboxControl("Test", true)]
public partial class TestControl : UserControl
{
    public TestControl()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }
}

Build, test, and deployment

When you debug the project, you should find the control installed in the Toolbox of the experimental instance of Visual Studio.

To build and test the control

  1. Rebuild the project and start debugging.

  2. In the new instance of Visual Studio, create a WPF Application project. Make sure the XAML Designer is open.

  3. Find your control in the Toolbox and drag it to the design surface.

  4. Start debugging the WPF application.

  5. Verify that your control appears.

To deploy the control

  1. After you build the tested project, you can find the .vsix file in the *\bin\debug* folder of the project.

  2. You can install it on a local computer by double-clicking the .vsix file and following the installation procedure. To uninstall the control, go to Tools > Extensions and Updates and look for the control extension, then click Uninstall.

  3. Upload the .vsix file to a network or to a Web site.

    If you upload the file to the Visual Studio Marketplace Web site, other users can use Tools > Extensions and Updates in Visual Studio to find the control online and install it.