Brian On Software

I’m getting my hands dirty with Enterprise Library for the first time and we’re currently targeting EntLib v3.1 with Visual Studio 2008.  At first I was editing the configuration files by hand, but then after reading the documentation, I found out that there’s a Configuration Tool that’s shipped with the EntLib installer.  The only problem is that it doesn’t integrate with the IDE automatically upon the installation. 

Here are the steps necessary to have the EntLib’s Configuration Tool integrated with Visual Studio 2008:

1. Exit all instances of your Visual Studio 2008 before proceeding.
2. Download and import the registry file that you will find in CodePlex.
3. Open a Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt and type devenv /setup.  This operation should take less than a minute to complete.

Now, you can launch Visual Studio 2008 and when you right-click a config file from the Solution Explorer, you’ll be able to edit its configuration using the Enterprise Library Configuration tool. 

NOTE: In order to view/edit an element’s properties, you’ll need to activate the IDE’s Properties Window (from the View menu, select Properties Window or hit F4 on your keyboard).