All credit to [tocqueville][1]... You can use JetBrains.Annotations to [Provide Intellisense, Navigation and more for Custom Helpers in ASP.NET MVC][2]:


1. Include the `JetBrains.Annotations.dll` in your project and bin
2. Use the following parameter attributes in your methods:
* **`AspMvcView`** - indicates the parameter is a View
* **`AspMvcAction`** - indicates the parameter is an Action
* **`AspMvcController`** - indicates the parameter is a Controller

    

        public static string IsActiveClass(this HtmlHelper html,
            [AspMvcAction]string action,
            [AspMvcController]string controller)
        {
            return IsActiveBool(html, action, controller) ? "active" : "";
        }

Which resharper will consume in it's static code analysis:

[![Controller Action View Intellisense][3]][3]


  [1]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49754332/mark-string-parameters-as-mvc-controller-or-view-names-in-visual-studio#comment86523384_49754332
  [2]: https://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2011/12/07/providing-intellisense-navigation-and-more-for-custom-helpers-in-aspnet-mvc/
  [3]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/noLiE.png

Is there any way to add design time metadata to Visual Studio that would suggest a string parameter should correspond to the name of a controller or view? MVC already has this type of intellisense when authoring 

I have some custom Html Helper Extensions that take in Controllers and Views by name and would love the syntax highlighting / autocomplete support that is available to native methods like [`Controller.View`][2] or [`Url.Action`][3].  Here's a trivial example:


    

    public static string IsActiveClass(this HtmlHelper html, string action, string controller)
    {
        return IsActiveBool(html, action, controller) ? "active" : "";
    }

And here's a side by side of the native intellisense compared to custom methods which are just treated like a string:

[![AutoComplete Screenshot][1]][1]

Obviously, this could be checked at runtime via reflection, but I'd like to see if there's anyway to identify it at design time.  Another answerable question might be how is Visual Studio currently performing this (especially as a way to identify if it's possible to tap into that process)



[1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/8lL1d.png
[2]: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/System.Web.Mvc.Controller.View "System.Web.Mvc.Controller.View"
[3]: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/System.Web.Mvc.UrlHelper.Action "System.Web.Mvc.UrlHelper.Action"

Mark string parameters as MVC controller or view names in Visual Studio

Here are the complete steps, adapted from Stefan Timovski's article on [How to Create SQL Server Management Studio 18 (SSMS) Extension][1]

1. **Install [Visual Studio 2017][2] with *Extensions Toolkit***

 If you're not sure you have the extensions toolkit, you can open the Visual Studio Installer and modify your current install to make sure you have extensions installed

 [![Visual Studio Installer][3]][3]  
 [![Visual Studio Extension Development][4]][4]

2. **Create New Extension Project**

 Go to File New Project (<kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>Shift</kbd> + <kbd>N</kbd>)

 [![File > New > Project][5]][5]

  Choose Extensibility > VIX Project

 [![Extensibility > VSIX Project][6]][6]

 If you don't have these options, go make sure you did step 1

3. **Add a New Command Item**

 Add a new item (<kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>Shift</kbd> + <kbd>A</kbd>)

 [![Add New Item][7]][7]

 Select Extensibility and just for demo purposes grab a custom command

 [![Extensibility > Custom Command][8]][8]

4. **Debug in Visual Studio**

  The command file will add a menu item to Tools > Invoke *Command1*. If you hit debug, Visual Studio will launch a Debuggable instance, fully loaded with your current extension.  Hit play or hit <kbd>F5</kbd>

  The first time may take a minute to boot-up, but it should go faster thereafter

  [![Launch Debug][9]][9]

  The click event handled in located in *Command1*.cs > `Execute`, and you can add breakpoints.

  [![Debugger Breakpoint][10]][10]

  Here's the working message box

  [![Callback][11]][11]

5. **Get filepath for SSMS**

  The default installation path for SSMS 18 should be:

        C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 18\Common7\IDE\Ssms.exe

 If it's not there, to identify the startup location of any app, you can <kbd>Shift</kbd> + Right Clicking on the app icon and select "Open file location"

  [![SSMS Location][12]][12]

6. **Set Launch to SSMS**

 Open up the project properties in VS (<kbd>Alt</kbd> + <kbd>Enter</kbd>)

  [![Project Properties][13]][13]

  Go to **Debug** > **Start External Program** and paste in the path

  [![Debug > Start External Program][14]][14]

  Remove the command line args as they're no longer applicable to SSMS

7. **Set Deploy VSIX to SSMS**


  The "Extensions" subdirectory should be in the same directory as SSMS. Also, add an extra folder with your project name like this

        C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 18\Common7\IDE\Extensions\VSIXProject1

  Go to **VSIX** > and select "**Copy VSIX content to the following location**"

  [![VSIX Copy][15]][15]

8. **Set Permissions**

  Lastly, in order to programmatically invoke any apps on C Drive, you'll need admin privileges, so you need to open Visual Studio in Admin Mode.  You can do that by right clicking on the application like this

  [![Run As Admin][16]][16]

9. **Hit Run & Debug**

  Presto! Blamo! Your extension should now be running SSMS

  [![SSMS Debugger][17]][17]

### Further Reading

Historically, each extension needed to be whitelisted, but according to the [release notes for SSMS 18][18], one big change (for the better) is 

> Package IDs no longer needed to develop SSMS Extensions  
> In the past, SSMS was selectively loading only well-known packages, thus requiring developers to register their own package. This is no longer the case.


Since SSMS 18 uses the *Visual Studio 2017 Isolated Shell*, many of the extension developer documentation is available under the [Visual Studio Extension Docs][19]


  [1]: https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/1377559/How-to-Create-SQL-Server-Management-Studio-18-SSMS
  [2]: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/
  [3]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/KM1FS.png
  [4]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/YTTcX.png
  [5]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/GTM5p.png
  [6]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/Y9YmZ.png
  [7]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/Qg2Xy.png
  [8]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/RA12s.png
  [9]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/eUa1Q.png
  [10]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/R9x2b.png
  [11]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/2azx4.png
  [12]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/nCvLM.png
  [13]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/W2CuZ.png
  [14]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/uLXFx.png
  [15]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/GVXi9.png
  [16]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/t2OFU.png
  [17]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/tshEu.png
  [18]: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssms/release-notes-ssms?view=sql-server-2017#180-preview---cumulative-changelog-through-rc1
  [19]:https://learn.microsoft.com/en-in/visualstudio/extensibility/extensibility-hello-world?view=vs-2019

[SQL Server Management Studio 18 RC1][0] became available March 28, 2018

This question has already been asked [for SSMS 17][1], but there are slight variations when authoring extensions for different releases of SQL Server Management Studio.

**What are the steps to getting a Hello World application up an running in SSMS 2019?**



[0]: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssms/download-sql-server-management-studio-ssms?view=sql-server-2017
[1]: https://stackoverflow.com/q/47240020/1366033