Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise at a glance
Visual Studio 2017 is Microsoft's integrated development environment for building Windows desktop software, web applications, Azure cloud services and mobile apps, with support for C#, Visual Basic, C++, F#, JavaScript, TypeScript and Python. The product line comes in three editions: Community, Professional and Enterprise. Enterprise is the top tier, sharing the editor and debugger of the other editions but adding tools for automated testing, deep diagnostics and architectural control.
This generation introduced a workload-based installer, so a team installs only the components a project needs, such as .NET desktop development, ASP.NET and web development, or mobile development with Xamarin. It also brought faster solution loading and the ability to open a plain folder of code without a project file. The Enterprise edition is designed for organisations that maintain large, long-lived codebases, where finding regressions early and understanding dependencies saves considerable time.
How it is used in everyday work
A developer typically pulls the latest changes from a Git or Team Foundation Server repository inside the IDE, opens the solution and picks up a work item. While a C# class is being edited, Live Unit Testing reruns the affected tests in the background and marks every line as covered and passing, covered and failing, or not covered. When testers report a fault, the developer can open an IntelliTrace log recorded on the test system and step back through the captured events instead of reproducing the problem by hand.
Architects and lead developers benefit from the modelling tools. They draw a dependency diagram that defines which layers of the application may call each other, and the editor flags code that breaks these rules while it is written. Testers work with the included test case management and manual and exploratory testing, which connect to Team Foundation Server or Azure DevOps, so developers, testers and architects share a single toolset.
The functions that make a practical difference
Live Unit Testing works with MSTest, xUnit and NUnit and reruns only the tests touched by a change, which keeps feedback fast in large solutions. IntelliTrace records method calls and events during debugging or from a deployed application, so faults that appear only outside the developer machine can still be analysed later. Code Maps display the relationships between classes and assemblies and can be used during a debugging session to follow the actual call path.
IntelliTest examines .NET code and generates unit tests with input values that exercise its branches, which helps when a team inherits legacy code without tests. Microsoft Fakes isolates the code under test from databases, file systems or static framework methods by replacing them with stubs and shims. Code coverage analysis, reserved for Enterprise in this generation, shows how much of the code the test suite reaches, and clone detection finds duplicated logic worth refactoring.
Choosing the right edition
Community is free for individual developers, open-source work, education and small teams under Microsoft's usage conditions. Professional delivers the full IDE with CodeLens and team collaboration features for professional developers in companies of any size. Enterprise adds Live Unit Testing, IntelliTrace, IntelliTest, Microsoft Fakes, code coverage, architecture validation and test management, none of which are part of Professional. A developer who mainly writes and debugs code alone is usually well served by Professional, while teams that rely on these quality tools daily should choose this edition.
Practical limits worth knowing before you buy
This is an older generation of the IDE, and newer platforms require a later release. Projects targeting .NET Core 3.0 or newer, including current .NET versions, cannot be built here and need Visual Studio 2019 or later. Several Enterprise tools are tied to managed code: Live Unit Testing covers C# and Visual Basic projects, and IntelliTest works only with .NET. The test management features also expect a Team Foundation Server or Azure DevOps environment. The edition suits teams maintaining existing solutions built with this toolchain rather than new projects on modern .NET.
Common questions before ordering
Can projects from Visual Studio 2015 be opened?
Most project types created in the 2015 version open without conversion. A few older project types require migration, which the IDE reports when the solution is loaded.
Is Xamarin mobile development included?
Yes, mobile development with .NET is available as a workload during installation. Enterprise additionally provides the Xamarin Inspector and Xamarin Profiler for examining running apps.
Is this edition useful for C++ teams?
The C++ desktop development workload is fully supported, and IntelliTrace also covers C++. Live Unit Testing and IntelliTest target .NET code, so C++-focused teams should check which Enterprise tools they would actually use.
Ordering Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise at Keys.discount
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