Create SharePoint Add-ins in Visual Studio

You can develop SharePoint Add-ins by using new templates for projects and project items in vsnv.

Project templates

When you use a project template in Visual Studio, it creates a solution that contains the project items and files that the project type requires. The following project templates appear in the New Project dialog box if you expand the Office/SharePoint node and then you select the Add-ins node. For information about the project templates under the SharePoint Solutions node, see SharePoint Project and Project Item Templates.

Office Add-in

Creates a webpage that's hosted inside an Office application, such as Excel or Outlook. An Office Add-in provides additional content and functionality in a document or Outlook item.

For more information, see Office Add-ins platform overview.

SharePoint Add-in

Creates a SharePoint Add-in based on the information that you specify in a wizard. This information includes the following data.

• The name of the add-in.
• The local or remote SharePoint site to use for debugging your add-in.
• The type of add-in that you want to create: provider-hosted or SharePoint-hosted.

For more information, see SharePoint Add-ins.

Project item templates

After you create a SharePoint solution, you can add project items to it by using the following templates, which appear in the Add New Item dialog box under the Office/SharePoint node.

Office Add-in

Adds an Office Add-in to your SharePoint Add-in. You can add a task pane add-in, a content add-in, or a mail add-in.

For more information, see Office Add-ins platform overview.

Client web part (Host Web)

Adds a client web part to your SharePoint Add-in. By adding a client web part, you can display add-ins on the pages of a host site. This template contains a single Elements.xml file, whose properties define the following elements of the client web part.

Content Type

Adds a content type to your SharePoint Add-in, similar to content types that were used in previous versions of SharePoint. A content type is a set of metadata, workflows, and behavior for a category of items in a SharePoint list or library. For example, an item is one type of list content. Other types of list content include announcements, contacts, and tasks, and they inherit from the item content type. The contact content type contains columns such as First Name, Last Name, and Job Title.

When you add a content type to your SharePoint Add-in, you specify the base content type from which the new content type inherits. For example, it can inherit from an announcement, a contact, a document, or an item content type. You then use the Content Type designer to configure the columns for the content type and its other properties, such as its name and its description. The values that you choose are added to the ContentType and FieldRef elements in the Elements.xml file.

For more information, see Building Block: SharePoint 2010 Content Types.

Empty Element

Adds a project item for an empty element to your SharePoint Add-in. This project item contains a single file, Elements.xml, where you define the properties of the element. You typically use an empty element to define an item for which Visual Studio doesn't provide a template.

List

Adds two project items to your SharePoint Add-in: a list definition and an instance of the list. When you add a list to your add-in, you specify what to name the list and whether to create either a blank list or a list that's based on an existing list type. You also specify whether the list can be customized. You then use the List Designer to configure the columns and views for the list and other properties, such as the list's name and description.

For more information about list properties, see ListTemplate Element (List Template) and ListInstance Element (List Instance).

Menu Item Custom Action

Adds a project item that extends the UI of its host site by adding an action to a list menu. The menu custom action contains an Elements.xml file, which you use to define the properties of the action.

For more information, see Create custom actions to deploy with SharePoint Add-ins.

Module

Adds a module project item to your SharePoint Add-in. Modules are basically containers that you can use to include other files when you deploy your SharePoint Add-in. To add a file, you copy it into the project under the module in Solution Explorer. A reference to the file is automatically added to the Elements.xml file for the module, and the reference specifies the path and URL of the new file. You can delete the Sample.txt file that's included with the module because it's included only for example purposes.

Remote Event Receiver

Adds a project item for a remote event receiver to your SharePoint Add-in and a web application project to your solution, if such a project isn't already present. The web application contains a web service that's associated with the remote event receiver in your SharePoint Add-in. The web service contains a Visual Basic or Visual C# code file whose code executes when a list, a list item, or a web item event occurs in the SharePoint Add-in. If a web application is present, it's associated with the SharePoint Add-in, and the web service is added to that application.

For more information, see Handle events in SharePoint Add-ins.

Ribbon Custom Action

Adds a project item that extends the UI of its host site by adding an action to a ribbon. The ribbon custom action contains an Elements.xml file, which defines the properties of the action.

For more information, see Create custom actions to deploy with SharePoint Add-ins.

Search Configuration

Adds a project item that enables you to import custom search configuration settings that have been exported from a SharePoint site.

Site Column

Adds a project item for a site column to your SharePoint Add-in. The site column contains an Elements.xml file that defines the Field properties of the site column, including the following data.

For more information, see Building Block: Columns and Field Types.

Workflow

Adds a project item for a Microsoft Azure workflow to your SharePoint Add-in. For more information, see Workflows in SharePoint.

When you add this type of item, you specify a name for the workflow and whether it's a list or site workflow. As the names suggest, a list workflow works only with a list, and a site workflow works only with the SharePoint site. When you're creating the workflow, you also specify whether to automatically associate the workflow with lists and libraries, and if so, which ones. For every association that you add, a file for it is added to the workflow project. A workflow contains the following files.

Workflow Custom Activity

Adds a project item for a workflow custom activity to your SharePoint Add-in. By adding a workflow custom activity, you can create additional workflow actions that you can then import as custom actions in SharePoint Designer. The workflow custom activity contains an Elements.xml file, which defines the properties of the action, and a .xaml file for the workflow designer.

For more information, see Workflows in SharePoint.

See also

• Tools and environments for developing SharePoint Add-ins