Building the Reflector Add-In

I've just written an article for the Code Project describing how you can easily create an VS.NET add-in like the Reflector one I posted screen shots of a while ago. I'm sorry I haven't got back to many of you who expressed interest in it. This reason is because I haven't been happy with the installation procedure (it too many steps). I'm very close to having an installer ready that does everything. I will email you all when this is ready. Hopefully then you can put your beta testing skills to more interesting problems than installation! If you would like to know when this is ready please drop me an email here.

In the mean time have a read of my article. I have entered Managed Add-Ins for the Visual Studio .NET add-in competition. Please check out the other entries and vote. At the moment it's a very close run.

Here is a screen shot showing how to run pretty much any Windows Forms application as an add-in.

After compiling your solution, right click on the project you want to run and select 'Managed Add-In..'. At this point the application should appear in a tool window. You can carry on developing with it running in the background as the assemblies it uses are shadow copied. When you want to refresh the add-in simply select 'Managed Add-In..' again. If you want to save the add-in for next time you load VS.NET or add 3rd party add-ins you have have to use the add-ins toolbox (accessible from 'Tools/Managed Add-Ins..'). You can drag-and-drop EXE files onto the toolbox. To launch them double click or right click and 'connect'.

I'm going to be setting up a gallery with screen shots and links to applications that work well as add-ins. If you have written or found and application that works well, please send me a screen shot and a link.  You can find Managed Add-Ins and the latest revision of my article here www.managedaddins.net. If you use the Reflector Add-In installer that is there, please let me know how you get on. Otherwise drop me a mail and I'll let you know when a version I am happy with is ready.

4 Comments

  • I can't seem to get past an issue on my XP System. I have VS.NET 2003 intalled with your VS AddIn. It works just fine inside VS 2003.



    I just can't seem to get past an error that say's



    "The following assembly name cannot be resolved automatically" Reflector, Version=3.2.5.0



    I try to point it to my Reflector.dll and I get the same error.



    Does anyone know what this is doing?

  • Well - I didnt know that I had the wrong version Relfector :: Does anyone know where I can get the older version Dll From?

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