Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2008 extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, v1.3 - Feb 2009 CTP

SharePoint project and item templates for Visual Studio 2008 - VSeWSS 1.3 (Feb 2009 CTP). This is the SharePoint developer tools for Visual Studio 2008. These tools are suitable for use with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. It includes project and item templates for common SharePoint artifacts, it includes build, packaging and deployment for SharePoint solutions and it includes the SharePoint Solution Generator which creates a new Visual Studio 2008 project from a SharePoint site.

The tools provide item templates for List Definition, List Definition from Content Type, Content Type, Field Control, Web Part, Module, Root File, Template, Event Receiver, and List Instance. It provides project templates for Team Site Definition, Blank Site Definition, List Definition, Web Part and Empty. It works with Visual Basic .NET and C# languages and a comprehensive user guide is included. It does not include the SharePoint Workflow templates as they are built in with Visual Studio 2008.

New features in version 1.3 include:
Can be installed on x64 Server OS machines running SharePoint x64. Previously only x86 Server OS could be used
Separate build commands for package, deploy and retract are added as Visual Studio menu items
WSP View improvements for consistency of deleting feature elements, merging features and adding event receivers to features
Command line build, package and retract commands are included enabling continuous integration and build servers. Previously command line build of SharePoint projects was very difficult
Refactoring support for renaming of Web Parts. Previously renaming a web part required changes in several files in the project
Solution Generator can now generate solutions from publishing sites. Previously only regular sites could be generated
Allowing partial trust BIN deployments of web parts
New project item template for SharePoint RootFiles items
Deployment will now optionally remove conflicting existing features on the development server prior to redeployment. Previously any feature name conflicts would result in an error
Ancillary assemblies such as for business logic can now be added to the SharePoint Solution WSP
Hidden features related to Site Definition projects are now shown in WSP View. They are no longer hidden
For advanced users a fast deploy is included to update only the compiled assembly on the SharePoint development installation
Deployment step logging is included
The List Definition from Content Type template now allows for the creation of a List Definition Event Receiver
The User Guide is now installed with the extensions instead of being a separate download


This download is not supported by Microsoft support. We encourage you to visit the MSDN Forum for SharePoint Development to discuss it.

Download details: VSeWSS 1.3 Feb 2009 CTP