Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Add-In Users Guide
CUAE Engineering
Cisco Systems, Inc.
October 12, 2007
~Draft~
About the Add-In
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Add-In is a plugin provided by Etch framework to integrate Etch Compiler and Etch C# runtime library into Visual Studio 2005 IDE.  Developers who use C# to develop Etch network service and client can use this Add-In to generate Etch C# binding and stub code without leaving the IDE.  Also, Etch C# library is available in the list of standard .Net components.  Developers can reference the library without browsing into the Etch library directory.  
Installation and Uninstallation
A wizard-driven installer is available for developers to install and uninstall the Add-In effortlessly.  The installer, VSAddInSetup.exe, is in the plugins folder inside Etch home directory.  
To install the Add-In, run VSAddInSetup.exe and specified your Etch home directory and the install directory for the Add-In.  Please close all instances of Visual Studio 2005 before installation.  After installation, you can find Etch listed as one of the Add-Ins in the Add-In Manager (Tools, Add-in Manager…).     

To uninstall the Add-In, user can either perform the action from Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, Visual Studio for Etch or Start, All Programs, Visual Studio Add-In for Etch, Uninstall.  All instances of Visual Studio 2005 must be closed before uninstallation.  The uninstaller restarts Visual Studio 2005 when the uninstallation process is done.
Etch C# Runtime Reference
The Add-In adds the library path of Etch installation into Visual Studio 2005’s default assembly folders.  When developers need to add Etch C# runtime as one of the references into the project, the Etch4CS library can be easily located in the .NET tab of Add Reference window.    

Generate Etch C# Binding
The Add-In integrates with Etch Compiler for developers to generate Etch C# binding and stub code inside Visual Studio 2005 IDE.  The Add-In provides three context menu items in Solution Explorer; developers can right-mouse click on an Etch network service definition file (.etch)  in a development project then create the bindings and stub code by selecting one of the three Etch related menu items.

Etch (Both): Generate both server and client binding and stub code.
Etch (Server): Generate server side binding and stub code.
Etch (Client): Generate client side binding and stub code.

The Etch compiler generated files reside under the same directory as Etch network service definition file (.etch) file.  

To view Etch compiler generated files, developers can click on “Show All Files” toolbar button on Solution Explorer then select files and include them into the working project.