BlendSense: XAML Intellisense for Expression Blend

December 10 2008

So, there’s an add-in for Blend that supports Intellisense in XAML. Pretty nifty! However, to get it working in Blend 2 SP1, requires recompilation of the .dll. I went ahead and made a package that supports Blend2 SP1. Of course, you’ll need Blend 2 - available for trial download here. Additionally, if you are doing Silverlight development, you’ll need to install Service Pack 1 for Blend 2. The installation directions are as follows:

Installation

Extract the contents of .zip in your Blend 2 installation folder (typically %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Expression\Blend 2)
Run Blend from the Blend.bat file that was extracted into Blend's installation folder. (The only way to run an add-in in Blend is to use a command line argument: -addin: pathtothe_addin - in our case -addin:Addins\Expression.Blend.IntelliSense.dll. You can also create a shortcut to Blend and pass this argument.)

Limitations

No support for custom namespace types and custom attached properties.
Currently the Silverlight support is not accurate, because it is using the WPF XML schema for IntelliSense information.

Comments (13) -

12/6/2008 10:27:00 AM #

Note: you have to have Blend 2 SP1 installed for the add-in to work, even for WPF.

Karsten Januszewski

12/7/2008 3:37:00 AM #

This will work with Silverlight, although my understanding is that it uses the WPF xaml schema so you have to be aware that the intellisense may lead you to believe that there's an element or attribute that you can't in fact use in Silverlight, since it is a subset of WPF.

Karsten Januszewski

12/7/2008 12:38:00 PM #

How tough would it be to get it to work w/ Silverlight?

Is it too tough to distinguish weather blend is working on silverlight/wpf? If that's tough, can we get a silverlight only version?

Jason

12/13/2008 7:30:00 PM #

I tried to run this with a new project and I get an error telling me blend is having trouble loading its UI?

http://screencast.com/t/ncqfU2LD" target="_blank" >http://screencast.com/t/ncqfU2LD

I have Blend 2 SP1 installed. Any thoughts? This would be awesome if I could get it to work

Chris Larson

12/15/2008 1:42:00 AM #

Chris: I have encountered the same issue as you. It looks like Karstens version that it was compiled against is older than the one we are using.

I have v2.1.1760.0 and the error message you are seeing is regarding a v2.1.1693.0 version.

I assume pulling down the source from codeplex and compiling against your specific version should fix the issue.

Thanks,

John Rennemeyer
MuvEnum

John Rennemeyer

12/15/2008 7:08:00 AM #

Chris: I've posted a version that was built against v2.1.1760.0 at www.systemsabuse.com/.../ that should address your issue." target="_blank" >www.systemsabuse.com/.../ that should address your issue.

John Rennemeyer

12/15/2008 12:08:00 PM #

The correct link is:

www.systemsabuse.com/.../" target="_blank" >www.systemsabuse.com/.../

John Rennemeyer

12/17/2008 1:00:00 AM #

I have v2.1.1760.0 of Blend. I downloaded the version that was built against that version and it worked.

Thank you very much for making BlendSense available!

Philip Quarles

1/6/2009 6:51:00 PM #

John, thanks for the version complied against v2.1.1760.0 !! This makes blend that much more usable. nice.

Sheldon

1/11/2009 5:17:00 AM #

Thank you for the recomplied version this was giving me a headache coding in both VS2008 and Blend2 sp1

James Fleming

1/11/2009 11:09:00 AM #

Thanks for the catch. I must of had some internal build of Blend. I've updated the .zip file on my site to the v2.1.1760.0 build.

Karsten Jansuzewski

1/25/2009 8:35:00 AM #

Seems it doesn't work with german version of blend although the version number is exactly the same...
Hoping that a solution therefore will be given as soon as possible.

daf555

2/2/2009 12:39:00 PM #

I have also build 2.1.1760.0 and I've downloaded and installed the respective .zip file, but it won't work. I'm using an english Blend Version, .NET 3.5 SP 1 is also installed.

Is there any trigger I have to press in order to get the intellisense help? In Visual Studio it just pops up as I type.

The whole thing is running in Parallels on a MacBook, but this should be no problem I guess?

Any help would really appreciated....thanks

Chris

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