In the project which creates your VSIX file (i.e. the project which contains the source.extension.vsixmanifest file, add a NuGet reference to the Tvl.VisualStudio.Commenter package. After installing the NuGet package, you will need to configure your extension to inform Visual Studio of the dependency by including the following block in your source.extension.vsixmanifest file.

Important
At this time, two versions of the VSIX manifest file are available. Make sure to use the code snippet relevant to the version used by your project. A version 1 manifest starts with <Vsix Version="1.0.0", and a version 2 manifest starts with <PackageManifest Version="2.0.0".

<Reference Id="Tvl.VisualStudio.Commenter.F3FD3E6D-611C-4703-B160-0C425AAFBACF">
  <Name>Visual Studio Commenter Services</Name>
  <VsixPath>Tvl.VisualStudio.Commenter.vsix</VsixPath>
</Reference>

<Dependency d:Source="File"
  DisplayName="Visual Studio Commenter Services"
  Id="Tvl.VisualStudio.Commenter.F3FD3E6D-611C-4703-B160-0C425AAFBACF"
  Version="[1.0.0,)"
  d:InstallSource="Embed"
  Location="Tvl.VisualStudio.Commenter.vsix" />

Note
A future release of this extension may include a feature to configure the source.extension.vsixmanifest file automatically.

The Commenter Interfaces Library should be installed in any package which uses the Commenter Service. The library is available in the Tvl.VisualStudio.Commenter.Interfaces NuGet package, which supports extensions targeting any combination of Visual Studio versions starting with 2010.

The Commenter Utility Library includes a default implementation of ICommenter which is suitable for most languages that use line and/or block comments. The installation instructions for this utility library should be followed for any project which needs to export a standard commenter component for a new content type.

The easiest way to provide commenting features is to use the standard FormatCommenter implementation of the ICommenter interface. The following steps show how to create an instance of FormatCommenter and provide it to the Commenter Service by exporting an instance of ICommenterProvider.

1. Create a new class derived from ICommenterProvider. This class is exported using the MEF ExportAttribute for one or more specific content types using the ContentTypeAttribute. The commenter in the example supports C++-style line and block comments, for the SimpleC content type.

   C#

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   [Export(typeof(ICommenterProvider))]
   [ContentType("SimpleC")]
   public sealed class SimpleCCommenterProvider : ICommenterProvider
   {
       public ICommenter TryCreateCommenter(ITextBuffer textBuffer)
       {
           // TODO: provide a commenter
           throw new NotImplementedException();
       }
   }

2. Define the comment format(s) the commenter will support.

   C#

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   private static readonly LineCommentFormat LineCommentFormat =
       new LineCommentFormat("//");
   private static readonly BlockCommentFormat BlockCommentFormat =
       new BlockCommentFormat("/*", "*/");

3. Implement the TryCreateCommenter(ITextBuffer) method by returning an instance of FormatCommenter. The following code is the complete implementation of ICommenterProvider required to support the Comment and Uncomment commands for a simple language.

   C#

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   [Export(typeof(ICommenterProvider))]
   [ContentType("SimpleC")]
   public sealed class SimpleCCommenterProvider : ICommenterProvider
   {
       private static readonly LineCommentFormat LineCommentFormat =
           new LineCommentFormat("//");
       private static readonly BlockCommentFormat BlockCommentFormat =
           new BlockCommentFormat("/*", "*/");
   
       public ICommenter TryCreateCommenter(ITextBuffer textBuffer)
       {
           Func<FormatCommenter> factory =
               () => new FormatCommenter(textBuffer, LineCommentFormat, BlockCommentFormat);
           return textBuffer.Properties.GetOrCreateSingletonProperty(factory);
       }
   }

The standard commenter supports any combination of line and/or block comments. The following example shows a class which provides a commenter for Visual Basic files, which supports line comments but not block comments.

[Export(typeof(ICommenterProvider))]
[ContentType("SimpleVB")]
public sealed class SimpleBatCommenterProvider : ICommenterProvider
{
    private static readonly LineCommentFormat LineCommentFormat =
        new LineCommentFormat("'");

    public ICommenter TryCreateCommenter(ITextBuffer textBuffer)
    {
        Func<FormatCommenter> factory =
            () => new FormatCommenter(textBuffer, LineCommentFormat);
        return textBuffer.Properties.GetOrCreateSingletonProperty(factory);
    }
}