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VS SDK Browser - Getting your feedback early

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We said we want to be open and transparent about what we are working on and we mean it. One of the work items we have for VS SDK 4.0 is to build a VS SDK Browser in the SDK. We are sharing our thinking with you at this point and we want your feedback.

The goals of the SDK Browser are the following:

  1. 1. Provide a great user experience for VS SDK users

  2. As more and more contents get integrated into the SDK, we need to provide our users with a great user experience in navigating through the documentation, samples and tools that we provide. This is particularly more important as our VS SDK moves more mainstream into the community.

  3. 2. Enable delivery of online help contents

  4. As we improve upon the set of QuickStart tutorials we have online, we need to connect our users to them and present a great user experience using them.

  5. 3. Connect developers to the community

  6. As we ramp up on our set of community initiatives, we will have more and more shared source projects, templates, blogs, chats, etc. The SDK Browser should connect the users with these resources so they can be an active part of the overall community.

I wanted to post some early mockups of the UI to get some general feedback. These are just Photoshop files for now, but they are still great in giving a sense of what the SDK Browser would look like.

Important Note: The UI shown is purely mockups. We make no guarantees whatsoever that the finished product will look anything like them!

There are 4 "modes" in the SDK Browser:

1. Getting Started

This mode is targeted at developers who have no prior experience with VS Extensibility. This mode presents a set of QuickStart Tutorials that we can dynamically update online. Out of the box, we will ship a locally cached version of these tutorials. However, when the SDK Browser runs, it will check for updates online at idle time.

 

2. Samples

The Samples mode of the SDK Browser will replace the existing Samples Browser. It will offer a more scalable browsing UI to accommodate more samples in the SDK.

We will use a cascading list pattern for the new browser UI. At the top, there is a dropdown filter that allows the user to select the desired programming language. The first list shows all the extensibility areas. The second list shows the actual samples that fit the selected extensibility area and language. Each list does not support multi-select.

When a sample is selected, the bottom window will show information that describes the sample. The information shown would be similar to contents that we already have for each sample’s overview.xml file. Note that we will not have a separate area to display a screenshot of the sample. If a screenshot is applicable, it should be shown as part of the content pane.  

3. Community

The Community mode will connect users to the latest VS Extensibility news, team blogs and other resources. You will also be able to perform some simple RSS feed management to add your own RSS feeds. The mockup shows some additional features that we will *not* be implementing.

The Other Resources tab will show a list of Community resources for VS Extensibility, such as:

4. Tools

The Tools mode is used to expose some useful tools that we include as part of the SDK. It acts as the single location where users can go to discover these tools, what they are used for and how to use them. Some examples of these tools are:

  • Innovasys Help Studio Lite
  • Sandcastle
  • Start Visual Studio Experimental Hive
  • Reset Visual Studio Experimental Hive
  • SDM Command Prompt
  • PLK Diagnostic

 

So the above is a concise version of what the VS SDK will look like and what it will do. I'd love to hear your feedback on this. Please leave me a comment!