Visual Studio 2008 for. Office Development

Transcription

1 Visual Studio 2008 for Office Development

2 Overview of Visual Studio 2008 Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 is the development environment for designing, developing, and testing next-generation Windows -based solutions, Web applications, and services. By improving the development experience for Windows, the Web, mobile devices, and the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Visual Studio 2008 helps individuals and organizations rapidly create and deliver complete, connected, comprehensive, and compelling software solutions. Microsoft Visual Studio Team System expands the product line with new software tools that enable greater communication and collaboration throughout the development lifecycle. Interaction between developers and designers is enhanced with Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft Expression Studio. Rapid Application Development From modeling to coding and debugging, Visual Studio 2008 delivers improved language, designer, editor, and data features that will help you experience a breakthrough in productivity. Create Outstanding User Experiences Visual Studio 2008 offers developers new tools that speed creation of outstanding, highly personalized user experiences and connected applications using the latest platforms, including the Web, Windows Vista, the 2007 Office system, Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Windows Mobile, and Windows Server Collaborate Across the Development Cycle Visual Studio 2008 enables developers, designers, testers, architects, and project managers to work together through shared tools and process integration, which reduces the time to solution. Visual Studio 2008 for Office Development

3 Visual Studio 2008 Enables Developers to Build Innovative Business Solutions on the Microsoft Office System Today s businesses are more data-driven than ever. Developers are tasked with finding ways to help users connect to that information quickly and efficiently. In today s increasingly complex corporate IT environments, this is a challenging proposition: Making disparate systems, data stores, and applications work together is difficult and time-consuming. Users waste time and lose focus switching between the multiple applications they must use to get work done. Seemingly promising IT investments produce unexpectedly low ROI because they either slow down users or are too complex to be of use to non-specialists. New systems that increase complexity and impede a seamless workflow can face adoption challenges from internal users. The company may have to invest significant time and money in training. Business opportunities are lost because data are not easily accessible to users. LOB systems may lack the flexibility to meet dynamic, day-to-day business challenges. Developers must choose the best path from among a number of architectures, languages, development strategies, and platform technologies. The ubiquity, extensibility, and ease of use of the Microsoft Office system make it an ideal choice for meeting these challenges. Solutions developed around Microsoft Office applications fit into established workflows and leverage familiar interfaces. In fact, the Microsoft Office system has evolved over time to become a complete platform for business solutions, integrating Microsoft server, client, and operating system technologies into a flexible yet powerful platform. Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition and Visual Studio Team System 2008 deliver a full-featured development environment for solutions targeting the Microsoft Office system. Formerly a standalone product, Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office system 3.0 (also known as Visual Studio Tools for Office) is now a fully integrated technology component of the Visual Studio IDE. Developers have full access to the frameworks, class libraries, and languages of the.net Framework 3.5, and can use their existing development skills to build compelling applications, Web services, custom controls, and more. Developers can use Visual Studio 2008 to create new Microsoft Office system experiences that help people capture, use, and analyze data; collaborate more effectively; get work done more quickly and easily; and make the most of other technology systems. Develop Microsoft Office Applications Faster and More Efficiently. Today s Web users want rich, interactive online applications. Exceed their expectations with the Web-centric tools in Visual Studio Target popular Microsoft Office applications instantly. One of the major benefits of working in Visual Studio is the set of templates it provides for various types of software projects. Now, developers have a wider choice of project templates from which to choose. Visual Studio 2008 includes document- and application-level project templates for Microsoft Office Word 2007 and Microsoft Office Excel 2007, in addition to application-level project templates for the 2003 and 2007 versions of Microsoft Office InfoPath, Microsoft Office Outlook, Microsoft Office PowerPoint, Microsoft Office Project, and Microsoft Office Visio. These templates are available for both the Microsoft Visual Basic and Microsoft Visual C# languages. Develop Microsoft Office system applications as you would any other application. Before the introduction of development for the Microsoft Office system in Visual Studio, the tools for developing Microsoft Office applications was limited to toolsets specific to each application. Visual Studio Tools for Office brought Microsoft Office development into the Visual Studio world with the power of the Microsoft.NET Framework and object-oriented, managed-code development. Visual Studio Tools for Office is now included and fully integrated into Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition and Visual Studio Team System 2008, bringing developers who work with the Microsoft Office system the most powerful Windows-based development toolset. Developers can work with the language of their choice within the.net Framework, including Visual Basic, Visual C#, and more, in addition to taking advantage of the advanced presentation, Web services, data management, collaboration, and productivity advancements of Visual Studio A comprehensive set of.net Framework classes and objects for the 2007 Microsoft Office system is included, enabling developers to create solutions that target Office Word, Office Excel, Office PowerPoint, Office Visio, Office Outlook, Office InfoPath, Office Project, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

4 Streamline deployment with ClickOnce technology. Developers can now deploy applications for the Microsoft Office system created in Visual Studio 2008 using ClickOnce technology, a greatly streamlined and improved method of installing Windows-based applications. ClickOnce technology uses a version-independent security model that, unlike Windows Installer deployment, does not require administrative permissions, but grants only the system permissions necessary for the application. ClickOnce applications can be set to receive automatic updates that do not require re-installation of the application. They are self-contained and do not rely on shared components, making them less likely to cause version conflicts. They also enhance the flexibility of deployment by allowing applications to be installed from media, a network store, or a Web page. Office applications; integrate XML data streams into documents or applications; use Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) to implement scalable Web services architectures, ranging from simple to complex, and query, set, and transform any data type from within their language of choice. With Visual Studio 2008, developers have a greatly expanded palette of choices with which to create the n-tier business applications of tomorrow. Deliver Microsoft Office customizations that are more secure. One of the earlier challenges in developing solutions for the Microsoft Office system was ensuring that solutions remained secure. In the managed-code environment of Visual Studio 2008, document- and application-level customizations are stored in separate assemblies from the applications themselves, making them more secure. Integrate document customization into the development environment. Document customization in Office Word and Office Excel, in which the customization is contained in specific document or template, previously had to take place within the somewhat limited development framework specific to the application being used. In Visual Studio 2008, developers perform document-level customization inside the Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Developers can drag and drop controls; integrate Web services; and use standard and custom Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and hosted controls all of which include data-binding capabilities and rich event models. Debugging takes place within the IDE in tandem with the target Microsoft Office application. Document-level customizations can be deployed using ClickOnce technology, enhancing security, scalability, and ease of use. Implement the latest architectures in Microsoft Office applications. The 2007 Office system goes far beyond client-based productivity applications to include server and Web technologies that comprise a complete platform for business solutions. To provide the best solutions for their situations, developers need to be able to take advantage of the latest computing technologies, including the rich client model, Web services, and server-based services outside the context of a Web browser. They can do all that and more with Visual Studio 2008, especially using XMLbased 2007 Office system components. They can develop serverside ASP.NET functionality and call it from within Microsoft Create rich data access capabilities using objectoriented languages. Originally, data to be used in Microsoft Office applications were stored as part of documents or spreadsheets or imported as necessary from databases. With the growing need to access and process rapidly changing information stored in a variety of locations and formats, developers must create applications that can call and process data in real time from remote stores connected via intranet or the Web. However, the need to learn and use database-specific languages is a barrier to the flexible use of data sources, slowing down the development process and impeding innovation. Visual Studio 2008 removes this barrier with Language-Integrated Query (LINQ), extensions to.net languages that allow developers to query, set, and transform data of all kinds, including SQL and XML, using an objectoriented model rather than database-specific languages. The unification of data and application programming models promises to revolutionize development on the Windows platform, including that for the Microsoft Office system. Visual Studio 2008 for Office Development

5 Automate business processes with custom workflows. SharePoint technology is central to collaboration and automation on the Windows platform. With the release of Office SharePoint Server 2007, those capabilities have been greatly expanded. One of the most powerful aspects of Office SharePoint Server 2007 is the ability to use integrated workflows that automate the process of moving documents through a business process, which can enhance efficiency, reduce errors and missed opportunities, and get the business moving faster. Office SharePoint Server 2007 workflows are based on Windows Workflow Foundation, the Windows programming model for building workflow-enabled applications. Windows Workflow Foundation is fully integrated in Visual Studio 2008, enabling developers to design custom Office SharePoint Server 2007 workflows (in addition to workflows for Windows applications). Starting with a choice of Sequential Workflow or State Machine Workflow templates, developers can drag and drop Windows Workflow Foundation and SharePoint Workflow controls, integrate forms to gather data inside the workflow, and debug within the Visual Studio 2008 IDE using a default Office SharePoint Server 2007 document library. of programs known as Office Business Applications (OBAs). While OBAs can be constructed in several ways and contain any number of components, the basic idea is to make LOB data and processes available to users through familiar Microsoft Office applications. Visual Studio 2008 is the ideal tool set for developing OBA functionality, including Microsoft Office system add-ins, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 workflows, Web services that expose and consume LOB data, and more. Integrate the latest user interface features of the 2007 Office system. The Microsoft Office FluentTM Ribbon represents the most significant advancement in the Microsoft Office user interface in more than a decade. Before the release of Visual Studio 2008, customizing the Ribbon required writing relatively complex XML code and setting multiple parameters. Visual Studio 2008 delivers an intuitive, visual Ribbon designer for modifying and creating Ribbon elements in Office Outlook 2007, Office PowerPoint 2007, Office Word 2007, and Office Excel Create Outstanding User Experiences. Today s Web users want rich, interactive online applications. Exceed their expectations with the Web-centric tools in Visual Studio Unlock the power of LOB systems. Line of business (LOB) systems automate transactional business processes like business intelligence, enterprise resource planning, inventory and supply chain management, billing and payroll, and customer relationship management (CRM). Despite their great power, many of these systems fall outside the expertise of workers who find them foreign to their daily workflows and software knowledge. This can prevent businesses from getting the full return on investment from these systems. Users either have difficulty mastering them or avoid using them altogether. In addition, although LOB systems are very good at automating the highly structured portions of business transactions, they have not proven adept at capturing the more prosaic and unstructured daily activities of users. Actual business workers collaborate in unstructured ways under conditions that rarely conform exactly to rigid processes, resulting in poor automation of daily business tasks and reduced insight into what those tasks are or are not achieving. Visual Studio 2008 provides a complete solution for integrating back-end LOB systems with the real world of work through an emerging class Visual Studio Tools for Office enables developers to easily deliver custom functionality to 2007 Office system users through convenient task panes and ribbons.

6 Developers can drag and drop controls, adjust layout and appearance, double-click to add event handlers, and add custom code as needed. Developers can still use XML-based Ribbon programming for other Microsoft Office applications and for more complex Ribbon customizations. Task panes in the 2007 Office system provide customizable regions within Office applications that can behave almost as standalone applications integrated into the Microsoft Office system user interface. Developers can use Visual Studio 2008 to create task panes that bind data, execute Web services, and perform other functions available as part of the.net Base Class libraries. Smart tags allow Microsoft Office System 2003 and 2007 Office system applications to recognize words, phrases, or strings of characters and perform tasks like searches and data calls automatically as a result. Visual Studio 2008 enables developers to create custom smart tags as Office Word or Office Excel document or template projects inside the IDE, using the power of the.net Framework to create innovative smart tag functionality. Customize Office Outlook for enhanced productivity and relevance to user activities. Office Outlook is a key productivity tool for many businesses. As with many Microsoft Office applications, its programmability has significantly increased over the years. Customizing Office Outlook to the needs of specific users for example, sales, accounting, or legal personnel is a common task for developers. Visual Studio 2008 provides the greatest advance yet for these developers, with a new model for extending Office Outlook 2007 forms. Office Outlook form regions are flexible objects that enable developers to modify or create Outlook functionality from within Visual Studio Developers can import form regions from Office Outlook 2007 or build them from scratch. A form region template gives developers a head start, while a handy wizard helps with layout and form type. Developers can create form regions visually by dragging and dropping controls, adjusting layout, and coding using Visual C#.NET and Visual Basic.NET. Debugging automatically generates files and settings that allow Office Outlook 2007 to run the form region. Form region design tools in Visual Studio 2008 enable rapid development of custom Office Outlook 2007 functionality with less code writing. Visual Studio 2008 for Office Development

7 Office Outlook customization sample scenario. CRM systems are a classic example of LOB applications that can face adoption challenges inside an organization. If salespeople and managers need to learn and use an entirely new interface for capturing and managing CRM data, they may use it sporadically or not at all. The need to transfer data manually into the CRM system and context-switch among applications wastes time and introduces the possibility for errors. In this situation, Visual Studio 2008 could be used to turn Office Outlook 2007 into a front-end for the CRM system. Developers could define custom form regions and connect them to the back-end systems, enabling users to update and interact with CRM data without leaving Office Outlook They could also use Visual Studio 2008 to create Office SharePoint Server 2007 workflows to automate proposal creation, approval, and tracking process and tie them into LOB systems using OBAs. Such a system could streamline the sales process, improve ROI on the LOB investment, and reduce missed opportunities, all through the power of the Microsoft Office application platform and Visual Studio regions. For example, a company could put a specific group in charge of managing legally required boilerplate language for commonly used documents. The required text could be defined in a restricted document region that could only be changed by authorized users, helping to ensure regulatory compliance. Extend the visual richness of 2007 Office system visualization tools. One of the most striking features of the 2007 Office system is its ability to take advantage of modern graphics processors to create professional-looking documents and spreadsheet visualizations. The included visualization and graphics capabilities are significant, but many organizations will wish to customize that functionality for advanced capabilities or industry-specific needs. The solution is Visual Studio 2008 and the.net Framework 3.5, which give developers the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), a powerful framework for creating compelling client visual experiences. WPF controls and functionality can be embedded in Office 2007 applications or developed as separate applications. Key Benefits of Visual Studio 2008 for Office Developers Instantly target a wide range of Microsoft Office applications using project templates included with Visual Studio Develop Microsoft Office customizations as you would any other application, including document-level customizations. Deploy Microsoft Office solutions more easily and seamlessly with ClickOnce technology. Enhance the security of Microsoft Office solutions. Put custom business functionality at users fingertips with the Visual Studio 2008 ribbon designer. Create structured content and rich behavior in Office Word documents. In a complex information environment, setting user controls for documents is important for enhancing security and regulatory compliances. User permissions tied to entire documents are useful, but are not sufficiently granular for many purposes. Visual Studio 2008 enables developers to use document controls, which define what certain regions may contain and who can do what with those regions. This is accomplished through new managed classes in the.net Framework 3.5 that provide developers with the ability to define content regions and permissions as well as complex custom behaviors content Use LINQ instead of database-specific languages to integrate data access into your Office system applications. Develop solutions that allow Microsoft Office system applications to be used as front-end clients for LOB systems. Implement Web services and distributed systems as part of your Microsoft Office system solutions. Develop SharePoint workflows using Visual Studio Use content regions to structure documents and control permissions. Extend the visual richness of Microsoft Office system applications using WPF. Use the advanced visual features of Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system in your applications.

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