IntelliSense for Expression Blend

Monday, August 04, 2008 by sdobrev | Comments 28

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[Update]: You can find the addin for Expression Blend 2.0 SP1 here.

The problem

Expression Blend has been out in the wild for quite some time. However one of the most annoying thing was the lack of autocompletion (aka IntelliSense). Most of devs/designers out there were constantly switching from Blend to VS and backwards to do their stuff. The great free tool Kaxaml is at great help as well.

The solution

Using the Blend 2.5 add-ins architecture I have created an add-in that adds IntelliSense in Blend. I have reused the code from Kaxaml and adapted it work within Blend. Take a look:

Download

You can download the add-in from here. What you need to do is:

Extract the contents of installation archive in your Blend 2.5 installation folder (typically %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Expression\Blend 2.5 June 2008 Preview)
Run Blend from the Blend.bat file that was extracted into Blend's installation folder. (The only way to run an add-in in Blend is to use a command line argument: -addin:path_to_the_addin - in our case -addin:Addins\Expression.Blend.IntelliSense.dll. You can also create a shortcut to Blend and pass this argument.)

Limitations

There are some limitation of the current implementation:

You should have Blend 2.5 June Preview (Version 2.1.1535) - available for free download here. For version compatible with Blend 2.0 check here.
No support for custom namespace types and custom attached properties.
Currently the Silverlight support is not accurate, because it is using the WPF XML schema for IntelliSense information.

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28 Comments

Hristo Kosev 04 Aug

Man, this is cool!
Ben 04 Aug

Nice work Stefan; I want to find out where telerik finds all these smart developers in Bulgaria? ;-)
Jeremy Cargilo 04 Aug

Brilliant Stefan, a nice touch!
Robby Ingebretsen 04 Aug

Amazing work! I'm really happy to see Kaxaml put to such good use!
Stefan Dobrev 04 Aug

It won't be possible without Kaxaml's IntelliSense implementation :)
Faisal 04 Aug

Great Stefan. I've waited for a long for things like this. Excellent stuff.
Karl Agius 05 Aug

This is great, thanks!
Mike Borozdin 06 Aug

Finally!!! I was simply annoyed when I found out that there were no IntelliSense in Expression Blend!
gaijun 07 Aug

good
gaijun 07 Aug

very good..
jack 07 Aug

Great list, but I think you better open addition post for each topic, coz the list is too long for reading now. Anyway thanks for sharing.
langmuir 10 Aug

I have a question. I can use IntelliSense in the sample from BlendSense_Source_Code.zip. but I can not use it with the new project. thanks.
Joy 13 Aug

Gr8 work !!!!
Mehfuz 13 Aug

This is awesome!!!
Dusan Kocurek 18 Aug

Finally someone did it!
Allan Muller 21 Aug

Great article - I have mentioned your post on my blog! http://www.silverlightblog.com/post/2008/08/IntelliSense-for-Expression-Blend!.aspx
Lee 28 Aug

You are the man. I just mentioned the need for this to a co-worker about 2 days ago.
Alefred 28 Aug

You are a master anything had not seen in blend
Kastertroy 02 Sep

BIG UP !!
Antoni 14 Oct

THX! Stefan, Now Blend 2.5 June preview is deprecated. Will you update your terrific tool to Blend 2 SP1?
Tormod 24 Oct

Yeah. An update for Blend 2 SP1 would be awesome! Thanks in advance..
Paul Jenkins 29 Oct

I can't seem to get it to work in the SPLIT view, just the XAML view in Blend, is this something that is fixable?? I love the intellisense, but live in SPLIT mode where i can see the design as I change the XAML - :)
Nikola Malovic 10 Nov

+1 for Blend SP1, please :)
Sky Sigal 30 Nov

Look at this post for getting it to work with SP1 rather than the beta:
http://antonidol.wordpress.com/2008/10/26/intellisense-for-expression-blend-2-sp1-working-again/#comment-32
Pritish 18 Feb

Can anyone please help me !!

I want to change the Theme of the datapicker that is available in Expression Blend. Particularly the Months and dates that are show, If you have any idea please give me a hint or a solution.

Waiting for your reply.

Regards,
Pritish
silverlighter 05 Aug

ThQ very much... a much needed stuff... hope Microsoft brings it in as default next time..
John 25 Oct

Hello,

I am using Blend 4. Is there any Intellisense available for this version. When I am writing code in C#, intellisense is not working.

Just like in Visual Studio is there any intellisense available for Blend 4.

Thank You.
Stefan Dobrev 25 Oct

Hi John,

Blend 4 comes with a built-in intellisense for both XAML and C# files. I'm not sure why it is not working correctly for you. Maybe you have to correctly compile your project for the first time?

Stefan