1. Future Directions: Building Customizable Applications using.NET Eric Schnepp TLN205 Lead Program Manager Microsoft Corporation

2. 2 Agenda Why Customize Applications? Visual Studio Tools for Applications Technical Overview Demos

3. 3 Why Enable Customization? What the manufacturer builds…

4. 4 VSTA Value Proposition Application Rapidly add new features Extend and integrate Build an ecosystem Expand into new markets Create Software Building Blocks

5. 5 Application Customization Today Today, VBA is the primary tool for customizing Windows applications Used extensively by Office and over 350 licensees Large developer community (~8M developers) VBA technology targets COM-based applications We need a toolset that… Supports both COM and.NET applications, and Will keep pace with ongoing technical innovations

6. 6 Introducing “Visual Studio 2005 Tools For Applications” (VSTA) VSTA enables you to deliver highly- and easily-customizable applications to your customers Built on.NET and Visual Studio 2005 VB.NET and C# Productivity features like IntelliSense, Code Tasks, and customizable help Key debugging features such as Edit-and-Continue, breakpoints, watch/auto/locals windows, etc VSTA projects also work in Visual Studio Add-in management Simplifies loading and unloading of customizations Gives host control over app domain creation Running/debugging 64-bit customizations Running partially trusted customizations VSTA SDK launches with Office 12

7. 7 IDE Extensibility Options The Visual Studio DTE object model enables programmatic control over the VSTA IDE Possible features enabled by the DTE include Macro recording Provide app context when launching the IDE And much more… Additional customizations points include Creating a customized New Project Wizard Persisting customizations to locations other than the local disk

8. 8 Application Customization Scenarios Deep Application Integration Develop new business objects Connect disparate enterprise systems Third Party Add-ins Add-ins for Excel (Solver, etc.) CAD/CAM application plug-ins Other vertical-specific modules Application Automation Use Macro Recording to automate repetitive tasks Edit macro code in VSTA IDE

9. ShapeApp and VSTA

10. 10 VSTA Technology Stack Design time In-Process Host (IPH) (Optional) Visual Studio DTE VSTA Project VB C# Custom Help ISV Supplied Core Visual Studio VSTA VSTA IDE 32-bit Only

11. 11 VSTA Technology Stack Runtime Add-in Manager Security Manager AD Manager External Process Support ISV Supplied VSTA Managed AddIn Framework (MAF) Runtime 32- and 64-bit

12. ShapeApp V2 and VSTA

13. 13 Managing Add-Ins Default Resilient and Secure Add-ins are isolated Add-ins can be loaded/unloaded individually Low Code Complexity Host Process Host App Domain Add-in App Domain Add-in Add-in Host OM

14. 14 Managing Add-Ins Higher performance Higher Performance (but with less security) Add-ins can interact (for good and bad) Add-ins unloaded only with the app domain Low to Moderate Code Complexity Host Process Host App Domain Add-in App Domain Add-in Add-in Host OM

15. 15 End-User Debugging “In-Process” – launch a new instance of host app on F5 Default debugging behavior Same experience as WinForms App “External Process” – allows debugging of existing host on F5 Host state is not lost between debugging sessions Crashing add-in won’t crash the host

16. 16 In-Process Debugging VSTA.exe (IDE) <F5> Launch Host Process Terminate Process Host Process Host App Domain Add-in App Domain Add-in Host OM

17. 17 External Process VSTA.exe (IDE) VSTA_ep.exe Add-in App Domain Add-in Host Process Host App Domain Host OM <F5> Launch External Process Debug Stop Debugging Terminate Process Launch IDE “Alt+F11”

18. InfoPath 12 and VSTA

19. 19 VSTA Roadmap Summary The VSTA SDK enables Office and Microsoft Partners to provide a managed code customization environment in their applications VSTA builds on the strong foundation of Visual Studio and Visual Studio Tools for Office Version 1 will provide a rich set of out of the box features, as well as extensibility hooks that will enable development of ISV-specific features Future releases will include ongoing innovations in Visual Studio as well as high priority features requested by our customers Microsoft targets availability of Version 1 in H2 2006

20. 20 VSTA Timeline H1 2006 H2 2005 H2 2006 VSTA SDK Launches with Office 12!!! VSTA Announced at PDC! VSTA Betas VSTA Release Candidates

21. 21 Call To Action Attend related sessions (FUN309, Today @ 1:45) CLR: Designing Managed Add-Ins for Reliability, Security, and Versioning (OFF319, Thu @ 3:45) ''InfoPath 12'': Developing Forms for the Smart Client and the Browser Meet the team today at 3:00pm in the track lounge Check out VSTA at the Hands On Lab (TLNHOL11) and the Tools and Languages Track Lounge Contact eric.schnepp@microsoft.com or albert.ho@microsoft.com for additional information

22. 22 © 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.