While Acumatica has the ability to write C# code directly into Customization Projects, the serious programmer will want to write all customization code into an Extension Library via Visual Studio. Not only does this provide a rich IDE to help with programming, one of the most powerful coding tools available to Acumatica, from Acumatica, by Acumatica’s software engineers can guide you to better coding practices. This tool is valuable for Acumatica customers, and passing the coding standards required by the tool is a requirement for VAR’s selling add-on solutions that extend Acumatica. What is this tool? ACUMINATOR
Acuminator provides color coding and can format some of your code for easier reading, but the real value is in catching common coding patterns that can bog down or break the functionality you are trying to achieve. Expect another post later about some of the ways that Acuminator can help you, but for now, this post will focus on getting the extension added to your Visual Studio environment.
Let’s get Acuminator from the Marketplace (for free) and get your code up to Acumatica standards! Open up your Visual Studio and navigate to Extensions… Manage Extensions.
Select Online from the left panel and then enter Acuminator in the search box at the top right. When Acuminator appears, click on Download.
Once downloaded, notice the message that the installation will be installed when you close Visual Studio. Go ahead and close Visual Studio to proceed.
The Visual Studio installer will begin installing the extension.
Once loaded into the installer, you will be prompted to confirm that you want to install the extension. Click on Modify to proceed.
When the installer finishes, you should see the green checkbox icon as shown below. Just click on Close to exit the installer.
That’s all there is to it. Relaunch Visual Studio, and Acuminator will guide you to correct common coding errors and more.