Microsoft Visual Studio 11 Unleashedis an end-to-end deep-dive into the Visual Studio 11 development environment. It provides guidance on how to squeeze the ultimate productivity out of the many features built into the most popular IDE in the world. Understanding how to use these tools will make the reader a better developer. The authors have folded in real-world development experience alongside detailed information about the IDE. The result is practical, easy-to-employ guidance that will make the reader a more productive and complete developer. The book also helps to ease the transition from other development environments, including previous versions of Visual Studio. It covers all the new features in Visual Studio 11, including updates to reflect the radical UI changes in Visual Studio 11, and will also include the new development additions including building applications against the Windows RunTime (WinRT/Windows 8), building HTML5 applications, and using LightSwitch.

Mike Snell runs the Microsoft Practice at CEI (ceiamerica.com). A Microsoft Regional Director, he is a software architect, consultant, and .NET mentor who has built enterprise-level and commercial software, and mentored hundreds of developers. Lars Powers is a Software Development Manager with 3M’s Health Information Systems Division. Prior to joining 3M, Lars spent many years with Microsoft as a platform evangelist focused on emerging technologies. Snell and Powers are authors of several previous books, including Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 Unleashed.

Introduction     1

Part I An Introduction to Visual Studio 2012

1 A Quick Tour of Visual Studio 2012     5

2 The Visual Studio IDE     49

3 The .NET Languages     83

Part II An In-Depth Look at the IDE

4 Solutions and Projects     151

5 Browsers and Explorers     181

6 Introducing the Editors and Designers     209

7 The .NET Community: Interacting Online     269

Part III Writing and Working with Code

8 Working with Visual Studio’s Productivity Aids     315

9 Testing Code     349

10 Refactoring Code     379

11 Debugging Code     407

12 Deploying Code     467

Part IV Extending Visual Studio

13 Introducing the Object Automation Model     489

14 Writing Add-Ins and Wizards     545

15 Extending the Code Editor Using Managed Extensibility Framework     599

Part V Creating Enterprise Applications

16 Creating ASP.NET Form-Based Applications     623

17 Building Web Sites with Razor and ASP.NET MVC     725

18 Building Windows Forms Applications     757

19 Creating Richer, Smarter User Interfaces     793

20 Working with Databases     839

21 Service-Oriented Applications     911

22 Embedding Workflow in Your Applications     945

23 Developing Office Business Applications     1013

24 Developing Applications in the Cloud with Windows Azure     1039

25 Writing Windows Store Applications Using the Windows Runtime Library     1071

Index     1115