Just last week, Microsoft held a Visual Studio 2017 Launch Event in which Visual Studio 2017 was released to the public. This release touts a new lightweight and modular installation experience, which means it is much more customizable to your development needs. The IDE also has a shortened startup and load time so you can get to the code even quicker. Here, we will talk about just a few of the new features of VS 2017.

Visual Studio Extensions
This version of Visual Studio allows for greater extensibility. This is all available due to the new installer technology. For example, if you are installing extensions within Visual Studio, the VSIX installer will warn you if you are missing prerequisites for that particular extension, and even install these prerequisites alongside your extension. You are also able to keep track of all your favorite extensions across all of your development environments via the Roaming Extension Manager, which is new in Visual Studio 2017.

Cordova Simulate
In VS 2017, there are huge improvements in Visual Studio tools for Apache Cordova. Specifically, there is a new feature called Cordova Simulate. This tool is a browser-based simulator that allows you to write your code and see immediate results right in the browser. You no longer need to launch a physical device or start up an emulator or simulator. Cordova Simulate additionally offers live reload and controls for plugins through Visual Studio. For more information, visit Microsoft Docs.

Xamarin
Xamarin 4.3 is included in Visual Studio 2017. This release of Xamarin includes a generic Plist editor, which removes the need for you to switch to your Mac to make simple manifest change, as well as provides search capabilities. Also included in this release are new project templates and an improved Android XML editor. For more information, visit the release notes for Xamarin for Visual Studio 4.3.

Improved Code Navigation
The code navigation experience in Visual Studio 2017 has been greatly improved with this new update. The update that has many developers excited is the Go To All command (Ctrl +, or Ctrl + T) that allows you to quickly locate and navigate to files, types, methods, and other elements within your codebase. “Fuzzy” matching has also been added for those times that you misspell a type name; you’ll still get results. The Go To family of commands can be found at the top of the Edit menu in the IDE. For more info on improvements to code navigation, as well as other improvements to the IDE, visit the Release Notes page.

Contact our team at 1-888-PRAKTIK or sales@praktikconsulting.com to find out who you can take advantage of the new release of Visual Studio 2017. For a comprehensive list of the improvements made in Visual Studio 2017, or to download the IDE and get started, visit the Visual Studio 2017 page.