So I've played around with the Visual Studio 2005 extensions for Windows SharePoint Services, v1.0 for quite some time now. While the concept is extremely useful, the release is not. It has MANY problems. So I've looked for different workflows for developing against MOSS. The following tools enable me to create a fairly robust MOSS development environment, without the headache related to the MS VSeWSS tool. Can't wait until they update that!
The process defined works great for me. For everyone else, mileage may vary. However, I am super interested in any other ideas. I'm always looking for ways to increase my productivity.
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I use a Virtual Machine (who doesn't?)
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I use the following package: (
http://www.codeplex.com/sptemplateland). These are from
TheKid, who has VERY excellent posts. Basically, theses allow me to develop MOSS solutions (wsp) in Visual Studio. By using these, I can get over certain limitations of the VSeWSS package.
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I also use the VS Command Shell (
http://www.codeplex.com/VSCmdShell). This enables either a standard console window or a PowerShell window to be embedded within Visual Studio.
NOTE: There is a problem with the PowerShell integration. I'll make a seperate post an update on how to fix it.
This tool makes deployment, installation, retraction, etc. a snap. I modified the package in step 2 to build installation and removal batch files. So with the console window in Visual Studio already, I can just run the bat file from it. Create an Internet Explorer window in Visual Studio, and I never need to leave Visual Studio to do my development.
UPDATE:
How to fix the PowerShell intergration
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Download the updated source from
here. It fixes the friendly name portion, which was the issue.
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Open the source in Visual Studio and build the project.
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Assuming you have already installed the 1.1 build, replace the Microsoft.VSPowerToys.VSCmdShell.PowerShellHost.dll in the install directory from the copy in the build directory.