Visual Studio integration

To enhance the developer experience, custom ArcGIS templates, wizards, classes, and dialog boxes have been added to the Visual Studio integrated developer environment (IDE). The ArcGIS Visual Studio IDE Integration Framework is an optional installation feature included with the ArcObjects software development kit (SDK) for .NET.

The IDE Integration Framework includes features for both add-in development (introduced with ArcGIS 10) as well as extending ArcObjects. See the following topics for additional information about each of the IDE frameworks:

In addition, there are IDE integration components that both add-in developers and developers extending ArcObjects will find useful. These are covered in the following topics:

To assist you in migrating your code to ArcGIS 10, the ArcGIS Code Migration Analyzer has been provided as an add-in to Visual Studio. See How to run the ArcGIS Code Migration Analyzer for details.

The core framework is available for Visual Studio, Visual Basic Express, Visual C# Express, and Visual Web Developer Express editions. However, due to limitations in the Express versions of Visual Studio, not all features of the framework are supported for use in the Express editions.

You may also encounter issues when working with IntelliSense and F1 help. If you do encounter issues, review Common issues with IntelliSense and F1 help to understand them.