The SharePoint Developer Tools are structured into separate extensions for major feature areas of SharePoint. Each extension can be installed separately. The Core extension contains commonly useful elements. Each extension provides content in three areas; Exploration, Content and Deployment.

The Core extension

The Core extension contains generally useful components and items related to SharePoint Foundation.

Environment

Component	Description	Guidance
SharePoint References	Adds a SharePoint tab to the Add Reference dialog.	Text
Copy Assembly Name	Copies the assembly name of a SharePoint project onto the clipboard.	Text
Sandbox Compile	Compiles the project against the SharePoint subset object model to ensure the code only uses subset OM features	Text

Exploration

Component	Description	Guidance
View Feature Dependencies	Adds subnodes to the Feature node to drill down into feature dependencies	Text
View Feature Elements	Adds subnodes to the Feature node to drill down into feature element definitions. Also allows to open the XML definition of each element	Text
Activate / Deactivate Feature	Adds a content menu item to each feature node to enable and disable the feature on the current site, site collection, web application or farm	Text
List Site Columns	Browse site columns and view their properties	Text
List Themes	Browse themes and view their properties	Text
List Master Pages	Browse master pages and view their properties	Text
List Web Parts	Browse Web Parts and view their properties	Text
Copy ID	Adds context menu items to various nodes to quick copy the unique ID value, for instance for features or content types	Text
Copy Web Part	Copies the .webpart definition to the clipboard to quickly paste a Web Part into a <AllUsersWebPart> node	Text

Content

Component	Description	Guidance
Sandboxed Visual Web Part	A visual Web Part that can be deployed as part of a sandboxed solution	Text Video
SP Metal Definition	Adds an SPMetal parameter XML file to the project and auto-generates the code based on that configuration using a Visual Studio Custom Tool (like resx files)	Text Video
Custom Action	Simple XML based custom action project item, serves as a sample SPI	Text
Console Application	A SharePoint Console Application template to easily create scratch applications.

Deployment

Component	Description	Guidance
Quick Deploy Commands	Adds a submenu to the context menu of SharePoint projects that allow you to quickly deploy using any deployment configuration	Text
Copy Assemblies	Copies all deployed assemblies to the relevant BIN folders and the Global Assembly Cache, for use as part of an X-Copy quick deploy	Text
Copy Files	Copies all deployed files into the SharePoint installation folder, for use as part of an X-Copy quick deploy	Text
Install Features	Installs the feature into the SharePoint feature storage, for use as part of an X-Copy quick deploy	Text
Upgrade Solution	Performs a solution upgrade instead of a retract / deploy combination	Text
Recreate Site	Deletes the site collection and recreates it with the same name, type and settings. Used to quickly create a new greenfield for testing	Text
Reset IIS	Resets the Internet Information Server which can be useful during testing of site definitions	Text
Reset Timer Service	Resets the SharePoint timer service	Text
Warm-up Site	Executes a HTTP request to the root of the current deployment site to warm it up after a IIS recycle	Text
Install Web Application Content	Copies Web Application specific content from the SharePoint installation folder into the IIS web application folders	Text