Due to the wording (many meanings of "extension" and "method"), I am utterly unable to find any information about my question on the interwebs. So I am asking here:
Is it possible to deploy "extension methods" with a VSIX extension?
Clarification: By "extension method" I mean something like
public static string SomextExtension(this string s, string p) {
retrun s + p;
}
By VSIX extension I refer to a custom extension, that gets installed via a
SomeCoolExtension.vsix
The goal is:
A user installs the VSIX, gets a few features (mainly custom code generators in my case) and additionally has access to "Hello".SomeExtension(" World"); within their source code.
I am slowly thinking this just isn't possible as I have tried everything I could come up with and as stated in the beginning, it is virtually impossible to search for it on googls.
If it really is impossible, I would at least love to understand why. So a simple "no" might be a valid answer, but if you could elaborate, that would put my coding soul to rest :-)
Specs: I am using VS2017 and the new "Visual Studio AsyncPackage", but if you know an answer for older version, I sould be happy to try them.
You can use both approaches:
An extension (.vsix) provides the greatest flexibility, because it can provide commands (buttons on menus, context menus and toolbars) that, on demand by the user, can 1) Insert code in the active document 2) Add files with code or other assets 3) Add references to Dlls that the extension can deploy in the source folder of the project, etc. Also, it can do all that not only on demand, but automatically watching events and examining if some conditions are met, for example, a solution is created, or it is loaded, a project is added, it already contains a code file or not, it already has a reference or not, etc. Needless to say, all this flexibility comes from some complexity.
A NuGet package can add DLLs to the references or code files to a project, it can execute a PowerShell script when the NuGet package is added to a project that can modify the project, it can modify the build process adding new MSBuild targets/tasks (being the Microsoft.VSSDK.BuildTools NuGet package to create a VSIX extension the prime example). It is a one-time operation during installation on a project. After that, no events, no commands, etc. but for most scenarios is much simpler.