I discovered, much to my surprise, that Blend 2 has the necessary infrastructure to support rudimentary custom extensions. The extensions take the form of a class which implements the public interface Microsoft.Expression.Framework.AddIn.IAddIn.
Inline is a very simple HelloWorld sample.
AddInDescription("HelloWorld", AddInCategory.Tool)] public class HelloWorld : IAddIn { public void Initialize(IApplicationService applicationService) {} public void StartupComplete() { // Show we were here System.Windows.MessageBox.Show("Hi"); } public void ShuttingDown() {} IDisposable Members }
AddIns are hooked on startup, specified as command line arguments:
path\to\blend.exe /addin:HelloWorld.dll
When initialized, an Application ServiceProvider object reference is passed, which contains accessors to all the major service provider objects of Blend. Through this, it’s possible to add custom menus and dialogs, possibly even panels, to Blend.
I expect there are alot of limitations. The most glaring is loading Addins only by specifying them as commandline arguments. Much of Blend is internal and/or sealed, including Nautilus (Blend’s code editor), Visual Studio abstractions for Projects, Solutions, and the Build system. Enough remains open to allow for some customization of existing features, and certainly for new features.
More discovery needs to be done.


Dear sir,
I am using Silverlight 2 Beta 2. The Silverlight SDK does not have Microsoft.Expression.Framework.AddIn dll. Can you please help as I am currently working in trying to customize Expression Blend.
Thanks in advance.
@ Srikanth
The interface IAddIn is part of the assembly Microsoft.Expression.Framework.dll which is installed with blend. I’m using the Blend 2.5 June 2008 Preview, so on my system it is located in %PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Expression\Blend 2.5 June 2008 Preview\.
Hope this helps
Excellent find!! I was wondering if an add-in infrastructure existed for Blend.
I have been waiting for an extensibility infrastructure for Blend for quite some time – very glad you dropped this little nugget, did Microsoft publish this API?
@Ben Hoffman, Microsoft hasn’t published any of the blend APIs as far as I’m aware. I’ve discovered the knowledge in this post, and a handful of other useful blend tidbits, by using Lutz Roeder’s .NET Reflector.
Did you know that belnd also supports some of the wpf designtime extensibility features of viusal studio (only roperty Editors, Metadata loading and Licensing) as described here:
msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb546938.aspx
and as discussed here:
social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vswpfdesigner/thread/899cbed8-3fac-49c5-b735-083e47c73327/
Howdy i am new here. Hopefully i will be able to contribute to this board, Just though id come to say hey!
thank you.
Long time lurker, thought I would say hello! I really dont post much but thanks for the good times I have here. Love this place..
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