Microsoft has released a Community Technology Preview of the new version 1.3 of Visual Studio 2008 extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. This release builds upon VSeWSS v1.2, providing an incremental improvement until Visual Studio 2010 is released with significantly improved SharePoint development tools. The final release of VSeWSS 1.3 is scheduled for "North American Spring of 2009."
VSeWSS v1.3 includes several features SharePoint developers have been anticipating:
- Can be installed on x64 Server OS machines running SharePoint x64. Previously only x86 Server OS could be used.
- 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
- Separate build commands for package, deploy and retract are added
- Refactoring support for renaming of Web Parts. Previously renaming a web part required changes in several files in the project
- WSP View improvements for consistency of deleting feature elements, merging features and adding event receivers to features
- Solution Generator can now generate solutions from publishing sites. Previously only regular sites could be generated
- Allowing partial trust BIN deployments of web parts. CAS configuration must still be provided by the developer.
- 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
VSeWSS 1.3 CTP has a Microsoft Connect portal to download the installation files and allow direct feedback to the development team. The features selected for v1.3 were selected largely because of community feedback, and Paul Andrew (Product Manager of SharePoint) has stated that feedback made in the next 30 days will still be able to make an impact on this release.