第 5 页

and the .NET Framework include strong support for working with databases and other

data sources. This part examines how to use DataSets, the Visual Database Tools, LINQ,

Synchronization Services and ADO.NET Entity Framework to build applications that work

with data. It also shows you how you can then present this data using Reporting.

.

Application Services: Through the course of building an application you are likely to require

access to services that may or may not reside within your organization. This part covers

core technologies such as WCF, WF, Synchronization Services and WCF RIA Services that

you can use to connect to these services.

.

Configuration and Internationalization: The built-in support for configuration files allows

you to adjust the way an application functions on the fly without having to rebuild it.

Furthermore, resource files can be used to both access static data and easily localize an

application into foreign languages and cultures. This part of the book shows how to use

.NET configuration and resource files.

introduction

.

Debugging: Application debugging is one of the more challenging tasks developers have to

tackle, but correct use of the Visual Studio 2010 debugging features will help you analyze

the state of the application and determine the cause of any bugs. This part examines the rich

debugging support provided by the IDE.

.

Build and Deployment: In addition to discussing how to build your solutions effectively and

getting applications into the hands of your end users, this part also deals with the process of

upgrading your projects from previous versions.

.

Customizing and Extending Visual Studio: If the functionality found in the previous part

isn’t enough to help you in your coding efforts, Microsoft has made Visual Studio 2010 even

more extensible. This part covers the automation model, how to write add-ins and macros,

and then how to use a new extensibility framework, MEF, to extend Visual Studio 2010.

.

Visual Studio Ultimate (available online): The final part of the book examines the

additional features only available in the Premium and Ultimate versions of Visual Studio

2010. In addition, you’ll also learn how the Team Foundation Server provides an essential

tool for managing software projects.

Though this breakdown of the Visual Studio feature set provides the most logical and easily

understood set of topics, you may need to look for specific functions that will aid you in a particular

activity. To address this need, references to appropriate chapters are provided whenever a feature is

covered in more detail elsewhere in the book.

what you need to use this book

To use this book effectively, you’ll need only one additional item — Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

Professional Edition. With this software installed and the information found in this book, you’ll be

able to get a handle on how to use Visual Studio 2010 effectively in a very short period of time.

This book assumes that you are familiar with the traditional programming model, and it uses

both the C# and Visual Basic (VB) languages to illustrate features within Visual Studio 2010. In

addition, it is assumed that you can understand the code listings without an explanation of basic

programming concepts in either language. If you’re new to programming and want to learn Visual

Basic, please take a look at Beginning Visual Basic 2010 by Thearon Willis and Bryan Newsome.

Similarly, if you are after a great book on C#, track down Beginning Visual C# 2010, written

collaboratively by a host of authors.

Some chapters discuss additional products and tools that work in conjunction with Visual Studio.

The following are all available to download either on a trial basis or for free:

.

Code Snippet Editor: This is a third-party tool developed for creating code snippets in VB.

The Snippet Editor tool is discussed in Chapter 8.

.

Sandcastle: Using Sandcastle, you can generate comprehensive documentation for every

member and class within your solutions from the XML comments in your code. XML

comments and Sandcastle are discussed in Chapter 12.

introduction

.

SQL Server 2008: The installation of Visual Studio 2010 includes an install of SQL Server

2008 Express, enabling you to build applications that use database files. However, for

more comprehensive enterprise solutions, you can use SQL Server 2008 instead. Database

connectivity is covered in Chapter 26.

.

Visual Studio 2010 Premium or Ultimate edition: These more advanced versions of Visual

Studio introduce tools for other parts of the development process such as testing and design.

They are discussed in Chapters 54-57 that are available online.

.

Team Foundation Server: The server product that provides application lifecycle management

throughout Visual Studio 2010. This is covered in Chapter 57.

conVentions

To help you get the most from the text and keep track of what’s happening, we’ve used a number of

conventions throughout the book.

Boxes with a warning icon like this one hold important, not-to-be forgotten

information that is directly relevant to the surrounding text.

The pencil icon indicates notes, tips, hints, tricks, or asides to the current

discussion.

As for styles in the text:

We .highlight new terms and important words when we introduce them.

We show keyboard strokes like this: Ctrl+A. .

We show file names, URLs, and code within the text like so: .

persistence.properties.

We present code in two different ways: .

We use a monofont type with no highlighting for most code

examples.

We use bold to emphasize code that's particularly important in the

present context or to show changes from a previous code snippet.

source code

As you work through the examples in this book, you may choose either to type in all the code

manually, or to use the source code files that accompany the book. All the source code used in this

introduction

book is available for download at http://www.wrox.com. When at the site, simply locate the book’s

title (use the Search box or one of the title lists) and click the Download Code link on the book’s

detail page to obtain all the source code for the book. Code that is included on the Web site is

highlighted by the following icon:

Listings include the filename in the title. If it is just a code snippet, you’ll find the filename in a code

note such as this:

code snippet filename

Because many books have similar titles, you may find it easiest to search by

ISBN; this book’s ISBN is 978-0-470-54865-3.

Once you download the code, just decompress it with your favorite compression tool. Alternately,

you can go to the main Wrox code download page at http://www.wrox.com/dynamic/books/

download.aspx to see the code available for this book and all other Wrox books.

errata

We make every effort to ensure that there are no errors in the text or in the code. However, no one

is perfect, and mistakes do occur. If you find an error in one of our books, like a spelling mistake or

faulty piece of code, we would be very grateful for your feedback. By sending in errata you may save

another reader hours of frustration and at the same time you will be helping us provide even higher

quality information.

To find the errata page for this book, go to http://www.wrox.com and locate the title using

the Search box or one of the title lists. Then, on the book details page, click the Book Errata

link. On this page you can view all errata that has been submitted for this book and posted by

Wrox editors. A complete book list including links to each book’s errata is also available at

www.wrox.com/misc-pages/booklist.shtml.

If you don’t spot “ your” error on the Book Errata page, go to www.wrox.com/contact/

techsupport.shtml and complete the form there to send us the error you have found. We’ll check

the information and, if appropriate, post a message to the book’s errata page and fix the problem in

subsequent editions of the book.

introduction

P2P wrox coM

For author and peer discussion, join the P2P forums at p2p.wrox.com. The forums are a Web-based

system for you to post messages relating to Wrox books and related technologies and interact with

other readers and technology users. The forums offer a subscription feature to e-mail you topics

of interest of your choosing when new posts are made to the forums. Wrox authors, editors, other

industry experts, and your fellow readers are present on these forums.

At http://p2p.wrox.com you will find a number of different forums that will help you not only as

you read this book, but also as you develop your own applications. To join the forums, just follow

these steps:

1 Go to p2p.wrox.com and click the Register link.

2 Read the terms of use and click Agree.

3 Complete the required information to join as well as any optional information you wish to

provide and click Submit.

4 You will receive an e-mail with information describing how to verify your account and

complete the joining process.

You can read messages in the forums without joining P2P but in order to post

your own messages, you must join.

Once you join, you can post new messages and respond to messages other users post. You can read

messages at any time on the Web. If you would like to have new messages from a particular forum

e-mailed to you, click the Subscribe to this Forum icon by the forum name in the forum listing.

For more information about how to use the Wrox P2P, be sure to read the P2P FAQs for answers to

questions about how the forum software works as well as many common questions specific to P2P

and Wrox books. To read the FAQs, click the FAQ link on any P2P page.

PART I

integrated Development

environment

: Chapter 1 .

A Quick Tour

.

.

.

: Chapter 2

: Chapter 3

: Chapter 4

The Solution Explorer, Toolbox, and Properties

Options and Customizations

The Visual Studio Workspace

Chapter. 5: Find and Replace and Help

1

A Quick Tour

What’S iN thiS Chapter?

.

Installing and getting started with Visual Studio 2010

.

Creating and running your first application

.

Debugging and deploying an application

Ever since we have been developing software, there has been a need for tools to help us write,

compile, debug, and deploy our applications. Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 is the next iteration

in the continual evolution of a best-of-breed integrated development environment (IDE).

This chapter introduces the Visual Studio 2010 user experience and shows you how to work

with the various menus, toolbars, and windows. It serves as a quick tour of the IDE, and

as such it doesn’t go into detail about what settings can be changed or how to go about

customizing the layout, because these topics are explored in the following chapters.

gettiNg StarteD

With each iteration of the Visual Studio product, the installation process has been incrementally

improved, meaning that you can now get up and running with Visual Studio 2010 with minimal

fuss. This section walks you through the installation process and getting started with the IDE.

installing Visual Studio 2010

When you launch Visual Studio 2010 setup, you see the dialog in Figure 1-1 showing you the

three product installation stages. As you would imagine, the first stage is to install the product

itself. The other two stages are optional. You can either install the product documentation

locally, or use the online (and typically more up-to-date) version. It is recommended that you

do search for service releases because it ensures you are working with the most recent version

of the product and associated tools.

4 .

Chapter 1 A Quick Tour

Figure 1-1

As you progress through the setup process you are prompted to provide feedback to Microsoft (left

image, Figure 1-2) and agree to the licensing terms for the product (right image, Figure 1-2).

Figure 1-2

The Visual Studio 2010 setup process has been optimized for two general categories of developers:

those writing managed, or .NET, applications, and those writing native, or C++, applications (left

image, Figure 1-3). The Customize button allows you to select components from the full component

tree as shown in the right image of Figure 1-3.

Getting Started .

5

Figure 1-3

Once you have selected the components you want to install, you see the updated progress dialog in

the left image of Figure 1-4. Depending on which components you already have installed on your

computer, you may be prompted to restart your computer midway through the installation process.

When all the components have been installed, you see the setup summary dialog in the right image

of Figure 1-4. You should review this to ensure that no errors were encountered during installation.

Figure 1-4

running Visual Studio 2010

When you launch Visual Studio the Microsoft

Visual Studio 2010 splash screen appears.

Like a lot of splash screens, it provides

information about the version of the product

and to whom it has been licensed, as shown in

Figure 1-5.

Figure 1-5

6 . Chapter 1 A Quick Tour

The fi rst time you run Visual Studio 2010, you see the splash screen only for a short period before

you are prompted to select the default environment settings. It may seem unusual to ask those

who haven ’ t used a product before how they imagine themselves using it. Because Microsoft has

consolidated a number of languages and technologies into a single IDE, that IDE must account for

the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) differences in the way developers work.

If you take a moment to review the various options in this list, as shown in Figure 1 - 6, you ’ ll

fi nd that the environment settings that are affected include the position and visibility of various

windows, menus, and toolbars, and even keyboard shortcuts. For example, if you select the General

Development Settings option as your default preference, this screen describes the changes that will