Get started with source control plug-ins

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

To create a source control plug-in, you must create a DLL that implements the functions defined in the Source Control Plug-in API, and then to register the DLL with Visual Studio to make it available for use in source code version control.

Three versions of the Source Control Plug-in API (versions 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3) are available for source control plug-ins. The Source Control Plug-in API documented here is version 1.3. It was designed to be fully compatible with source control plug-ins supporting versions 1.1 and 1.2. The What's new in the Source Control Plug-in API Version 1.3 section details the new features supported in the latest version of the Source Control Plug-in API.

In this section

Describes how to make the registry entries that are required to plug in a source control DLL.

Provides a brief overview of the changes that were made to the Source Control Plug-in API in version 1.3.

Provides a brief overview of the changes that were made to the Source Control Plug-in API in version 1.2.

Provides a complete listing of all the elements in the Source Control Plug-in API.

Defines the Source Control Plug-in SDK and describes the included resources.