Extending Visual Studio 2010 - Replace text in editor with keyboard shortcut

Question

I want to write an extension for the Visual Studio 2010 editor, that replaces/edits the selected text. I've figured out how to do this the "old way" by selecting a "Other Project Types - Extensibility - Add In", but as far as I know, this is pretty much legacy, and includes alot of COM Interop and mess like that.

The samples I can find online for the new type of extensibility-project ("New Project - C# - Extensibility") only manipulates stuff like colors and makes boxes around letters and useless stuff like that.

Can this be done with MEF and VSIX, or do I have to fall back to the legacy-method?

What I want to do:

• Create an extension that adds a menu item (and maybe a toolbar button)
• When the user clicks the button/menu item (or a assigned keyboard shortcut), the current selected text is changed according to the add-ins behavior.

I've managed to do this with legacy add-in, but it feels "wrong" working with so much interop, when the new MEF stuff is out there. Any samples, code examples, tutorials etc. is greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Legacy approach is to use Visual Studio Integration Package services, but now you can leverage power of the MEF Framework . Take a look here:

• Extending the Editor
• Managed Extensibility Framework in the Editor
• Walkthrough: Highlighting Text