Newly Updated Tools for SharePoint Developers using Visual Studio 2008 (Version 1.2)

Tools for developing custom SharePoint applications: Visual Studio project templates for Web Parts, site definitions, and list definitions; and a stand-alone utility program, the SharePoint Solution Generator.

The User Guide for this tool can be found here: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: Visual Studio 2005 Extensions User Guide, Version 1.1

The 1.1 version can be found here for Visual Studio 2005 support: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: Visual Studio 2005 Extensions, Version 1.1

Version 1.2 of the Visual Studio 2008 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services contains the following tools to aid developers in building SharePoint applications:

Visual Studio 2008 Project Templates

• Web Part
• Team Site Definition
• Blank Site Definition
• List Definition
• Empty SharePoint Project

Visual Studio 2008 Item Templates (items that can be added into an existing project)

• Web Part
• Custom Field
• List Definition (with optional Event Receiver)
• Content Type (with optional Event Receiver)
• Module
• List Instance
• List Event Handler
• Template

SharePoint Solution Generator

• This stand-alone program generates a Site Definition project from an existing SharePoint site. The program enables developers to use the browser and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer to customize the content of their sites before creating code by using Visual Studio.

Note: This download does not work with an x64 OS. We currently recommend a x86 development machine for SharePoint development when targeting x64 OS for test and production. Output binaries are all .NET assemblies so you can reasonably expect all .NET assemblies built on the x86 dev box to still work on your x86 OS test and production machines. The CLR will JIT compile the .NET assembly on each target machine and will optimize for x64 OS when run on that architecture. Testing on x64 after doing development on x86 is still recommended.

Here’s the download location: Click here