17 Free Tools for Visual Studio - Visual Studio Magazine (2023)

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17 gratis Visual Studio-tools

This is toolapalooza from our June issue. We look at the best free Visual Studio and .NET tools and plugins.

• passPeter Bird
• 06/05/2011

What developer doesn't love a new game? Especially when it's free and solves real problems you face every day. However, using tools is a very personal thing - just because something works for someone else doesn't mean it fits your development style. You need to choose from a wide variety of foods to find the ones worth keeping.

That's why I've sifted through dozens of tools and utilities to come up with a list of free tools that can help .NET developers do their jobs better. I've looked at both standalone tools -- which are valuable no matter what version of Visual Studio you're using -- and a Visual Studio plug-in that integrates directly into the IDE user interface.

I have a lot of respect for the people who created these .NET tools and Visual Studio plugins (and many more that don't fit into this article). Many of these tools were created by individual developers who not only built the products, but actively supported them over the years through multiple versions of the Microsoft .NET Framework. They are heroes. You must try what they made for you.

standalone tool
With two exceptions, the tools in this section work independently of Visual Studio. Some of these (like Regulator) have been around since .NET Framework 1.0 and Visual Studio .NET, but some developers don't seem to be aware of them. Others, such as LINQPad, have emerged more recently to support new .NET technologies.

LINQPad
linqpad.net

I'm a big fan of LINQ, but if I want to query my database interactively in Visual Studio, I have to use SQL. If you want a tool that will leverage your LINQ skills, check out LINQPad. After launching LINQPad from the Start menu, you can open a LINQ-to-SQL connection to a SQL Server database or open a DLL or EXE from an existing application that contains an Entity Framework model. You can then start issuing LINQ queries against the database or model and retrieve your data (see Figure 1). Error messages are written in LINQ-based syntax (which is pretty bad), and the free version doesn't include "auto-completion", which gives you the IntelliSense equivalent of LINQPad. However, if you are tired of dealing with relational databases, you can also use LINQPad to run LINQ queries against OData sources such as WCF data services orStackOverflow-website. Because LINQPad essentially compiles and runs any code you enter, you can also use LINQPad to test non-LINQ code without creating a Virtual Console/Windows Forms project (unfortunately, it doesn't support debugging though).

LInQ-visualizer
Website rajavenkatesh.com
While not a standalone tool, LInQ Visualizer is a great addition to LINQPad, so it's listed here. With the LInQ Visualizer installed, at run time you can hover over any variable containing a value returned by a LINQ query to the database and see the SQL used. Accessing this screen can be tricky: you have to move the mouse within a very narrow range on the drop-down arrow next to the magnifying glass. After clicking the drop-down arrow, you will see a floating button that opens the visualizer dialog. The journey is worth it. For those of you interested in what goes on behind the scenes in LINQ, seeing the SQL can be very reassuring -- it can help you understand LINQ better. From the visualizer dialog you can even run SQL to see the data you get. It's just the icing on the cake that your LINQ statements (in method-based syntax) are displayed along with your connection string and related connection information. The only downside is that while the LInQ Visualizer worked fine in my copy of Visual Studio 2008, I couldn't get it to work in Visual Studio 2010. Your experience may vary.

SMTP-implementatie4
smtp4dev.codeplex.com
SMTP4Dev is a small tool with limited ambitions. SMTP4Dev is a small SMTP server that runs on your system disk and accepts email messages from your application. It has a simple user interface for viewing and deleting emails generated by apps... and that's it. I've been using SMTP4Dev for a few years now when I need to test an application that sends email. SMTP4Dev is easy to install and run - just download the EXE, drop it somewhere and run it. One caveat: SMTP4Dev's UI has an "inspect" button that crashes SMTP4Dev when I click it to see what it does. I have stopped pressing this button. I use Java Apache Mail Enterprise Server (JAMES) when I need to handle more complex emails than sending email. But SMTP4Dev is very easy to install, so it's still my top choice.

p/call interop helper
clrinterop.codeplex.com
When I need to call COM code, I often find that although the documentation has sample code to show me what to do, it's all written in C or C++. The P/Invoke Interop Assistant provides me with sample code as a managed P/Invoke signature that I can copy and paste into my Visual Basic or C# application. If you have access to any of the standard Win32 features, you can simply search the built-in Windows features database. However, if you use a different DLL, you can load it into the utility and generate the function signatures you need. I don't often need to access COM functions, but when I do, P/Invoke Interop Assistant is a huge help.

stabilizer
osherove.com/tools
I must confess that I know nothing about regular expressions. But that's why I have the Regulator. The tool lets you enter a regular expression in one window and a sample string in the other (it even gets some IntelliSense-like support for typing regular expressions). Click a button and the Regulator will show you which sample sequences match your expression. The current version of Regulator also includes a segment manager, so once you've created a valid expression, you can drop it somewhere you can find it again. The Controller even generates the code you need to plug into your application to actually implement your expressions.

Reguliere Expression Editor-plug-in
bit.ly/dxCqnl
If you are using Regulator and Program in C#, consider getting the Regex Editor plugin from the Visual Studio Gallery. The Regex Editor is a Visual Studio add-on rather than a standalone product, as it provides as much functionality within Visual Studio as Regulator does outside. When you start declaring a new Regex object, the Regex editor opens a free-floating window where you can type your regular expression. The Regex Editor doesn't offer all the options that the Regulator offers, but it does let you test your expressions with sample entries, save regular expressions for later use, and provide IntelliSense support as you type expressions. Even with the Regex Editor, I still use the Regulator for two reasons: I've never been able to get the Regex Editor to work in Visual Basic, and I've never been able to use it to edit existing code. It's great when I type an expression, but when I need to make a change, I go back to the Regulator.

Violist
fiddler2.com
If you use AJAX/REST/JSON, it often doesn't work as you expect. I remember the first time I tried to get an AJAX compliant page with an ASP.NET MVC 2 site. Trying to figure out exactly what is being returned by the browser - and how to access it - is a nightmare. The only way to make it all work is to dig in and watch the actual messages go back and forth between the browser and the server. I've been using Firebug for years, an add-on for Firefox that lets me see what's going on. Lately I've been using a free tool called Fiddler, written by Eric Lawrence from Microsoft. Like Firebug, Fiddler allows me to view messages in a variety of formats (including the important plain text). Unlike Firebug, Fiddler works independently of any browser. Fiddler is also a working example of why everyone should take a UI design course. I think Fiddler can do whatever you want, but figuring out where to do it in Fiddler can be tough.

project converter
emmet-gray.com
Beginning with Visual Studio 2008, developers can develop "multi-target" by compiling code to earlier versions of .NET. There's just one problem: Each version of Visual Studio stores different information in project and solution files, which prevents earlier versions of Visual Studio from opening these projects. In fact, you can't just upgrade a few developers in your store or team to the latest version of Visual Studio, because once the "upgraded" developers open the project, all non-upgraded developers are locked out. ProjectConverter solves this problem by converting project and solution files between Visual Studio versions 2005, 2008 and 2010. You can launch it from the Start menu, but it also automatically appears in the Open with menu option in Windows Explorer for SLN files. A word of caution: it only repairs *PROJ and SLN files - it's still your job to make sure your code versions are compatible.

Visual Studio add-ins
Unlike previous tools, plugins are integrated into the Visual Studio user interface and respond to Visual Studio events. Microsoft has integrated the extension library into Visual Studio 2010 through the Extension Manager under the Tools menu. If you are a Visual Studio 2008 developer, you can find the Visual Studio Gallery tools at bit.ly/dxCqnl. While it's worth scrolling through the list to see what interests you, it's long. Here are some of the best tools in the library, as well as some plugins you won't find on Microsoft's list.

DevExpress CodeRush Xpress

DevExpress CodeRush is the Swiss army knife of plugins, offering dozens of features to increase developer productivity (see Figure 2). The full version costs money, but Microsoft has a license agreement with Developer Express Inc. which allows Visual Studio developers to download a smaller, free version called CodeRush Xpress. At the cost of learning more keys, you get more navigation options - jumping from one variable reference to another, for example. You also get more automated rebuilds than you might remember. With CodeRush XPress installed, you can experiment with consumer-first coding, where you write code and CodeRush writes a framework of classes to support it. To get CodeRush XPress, go to msdn.com, then in the Visual Studio Developer Center select Visual C# or Visual Basic in the Developer Tools and Languages ​​section, then select Download from the menu in the Language Center .

VS10x Codemap v2

If you're creating complex objects with multiple interfaces or nested classes - or just code-heavy classes - you should consider VS10x Code Map v2. It takes up quite a bit of space on the left side of the editor window, but if it speeds up your time in your code, you might be willing to squeeze some space on the right side of the editor window to make room for it. (Do you really need the solution pane open all the time?) A code summary splits your code into several entries on the left side of the editor pane, placing classes and interfaces under special headings (see Figure 3). You can navigate to the code by clicking on the code folder. You can also use cards to expand or collapse blocks in code; when you expand or collapse blocks in code, the cards also expand or collapse. The card also has built-in bookmarking support, so you can return to content you want to revisit.

data package
DPack is another swiss army knife pack that contains a different set of tools. If you are good at remembering keys, DPack might just be the software package of your dreams. DPack adds some new keystrokes for inserting and moving numbered bookmarks, packing code into different code blocks, and backing up your solutions. These features may not even be the most important to you - you may prefer specialized browsers (dialog boxes) for opening files, finding the desired class in the .NET Framework, and navigating to coding members. You know Object Browser takes a long time to find something, but you won't know how slow Object Browser is until you see the extremely fast response you get from the DPack Framework Browser.