I have created a Debug Visualizer plugin.
My visualization plugin contains several DLLs that need to be deployed to the C:Program FilesMicrosoft Visual Studio2022CommunityCommon7PackagesDebuggerVisualizers folder so that the Visual Studio Debugger can pick them up and use them.
However, I don’t know how to tell the VSIX installer to deploy my DLLs to the abovementioned folder.
Could you please help me figure out how to configure VSIX to deploy my plugin and its dependent DLLs to the right folder?
2
It is impossible to do it using a VSIX installer.
Microsoft recommends using MSI installer instead for such scenarios: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/vsix-and-msi/
There are also several alternatives:
- A workaround presented in this sample VSIXDebuggerVisualizer.
However, this approach doesn’t allow proper uninstalling of the plugin. - Use new API: Create Visual Studio debugger visualizer.
It allows to create a Debugger Visualizer plugin that can be deployed using a VSIX installer. However, currently, this API is quite limited and might not work for every use case. A good example of usage of this approach is ExceptionVisualizer