Visual Studio 2010 XAML Editor IntelliSense Presenter Extension

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30 Jun 2010CPOL3 min read

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Visual Studio 2010 XAML Editor IntelliSense Presenter Extension

I've come to appreciate the new Visual Studio 2010 code editor IntelliSense features like Pascal case lookup and the narrowing list that is presented as you type. Unfortunately, these new code editor features did not make it into the XAML Editor. But not to worry…

FullNamespace

Features

Pascal case lookup
Optional narrowing list filter
Filtering based on item type
xmlns IntelliSense options
- Show/hide only solution assemblies
- Show/hide schemas
Filter settings persist for the current Visual Studio session

Pascal Case Lookup

Pascal case lookup is always enabled regardless of the narrowing filter option. When all of your text is upper case, this feature kicks in to quickly locate the item you are looking for. Note, this feature requires at least two upper case characters be entered before kicking in.

The below image demonstrates the Pascal case lookup:

PascalLookupOne

Locating an assembly using the xmlns Pascal case IntelliSense is super fast.

PascalLookupTwo

Narrowing List Filter

When the narrowing list filter is enabled, it provides two features.

Narrows the list of displayed items by only including items that contain your text
List item selection priority
- Selects the first match that starts with your text
- Selects the first entry that contains your text

Narrowing List Filter Enabled	Narrowing List Filter Disabled

With narrowing enabled, see how easy it is to locate `Grid.Row` or `Grid.RowSpan`.

List Item Type Filter

This was my original driving force behind writing this extension. I found myself frustrated when a type in XAML had 2 properties, 4 events and 75 namespaces listed in the IntelliSense listing. Problem solved.

Standard list of items, notice the multitude of namespaces that are listed.

Namespaces

Toggle the namespaces ToolBar button by clicking it and they are filtered for you.

NoNamespaces

The other ToolBar filter buttons work the same. The gray background is the enabled state. The white background with grayscale image is the disabled state.

xmlns IntelliSense

The below image demonstrates the two filter buttons in the xamls IntelliSense presenter.

Show only solution assemblies is enabled
Remove schema entries is enabled

xmlnsOne

Another way to locate your assemblies very quickly is demonstrated in the below image. There are two filter buttons in the default state and I entered WC to quickly find an assembly in my solution.

xmlnsTwo

In the below image, I'm taking advantage of the narrowing filter to locate all assemblies that have the word media. When searching the text with this type of search, the entire entry line of text is searched including the assembly name inside the (…).

xmlnsThree

Extension Manager

To view your installed extensions, use the Visual Studio 2010 menu, Tools, Extension Manager…

ExtensionManager

From here, you can either disable or uninstall extensions.

ExtensionManagerTwo

You can also configure settings for extensions using the Tools, Options dialog.

ToolsOptions

Requirements

Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate or later version.

This will probably work on Visual Studio 2010 Beta2, but I have not tested it.

Downloads

XAML Editor IntelliSense Presenter Extension VSIX Installer (41KB)

Source Code Please Read

If you elect to download the source and possibly modify to meet your needs, you MUST uninstall the Extension if you used the VSIX to install it.

Additionally, I got burned when I first started this project and I had been studying a sample on CodePlex. If you want to develop your own extension, be sure the following folder is cleared out before you start a new project. If you have a conflicting project, i.e., another IntelliSense extension in the below folder, you could get conflicts when debugging.

C:\Users\<your login in name is here>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0Exp\Extensions

How Does This Work?

I learned SO MUCH writing this extension. Over the next week or two, I'll do a blog post explaining this extension and what is so different about this extension and the extension samples on CodePlex.