Portable Library Tools is a Visual Studio add-in from Microsoft that enables you to create C# and Visual Basic libraries that run on a variety of .NET-based platforms without recompilation.
Note: Portable Class Libraries are now built into Visual Studio 11, and this add-in is only needed for Visual Studio 2010.
Simplify code sharing
No more complicated build scripts or #defines, and stop copying and pasting code; portable libraries enable you to easily share code between apps that target different platforms.
Share between platforms
Create a Portable Library project and reference it from any .NET Framework, Silverlight, Windows Phone or XNA project.
This release updates the Visual Studio 2010 tools with the APIs available in Visual Studio 2012 RTM.
No functional changes.
10.0.50607:
This release updates the Visual Studio 2010 tools with the APIs available in Visual Studio 2012 RC.
Added: Support for System.Numerics
Added: Support for System.Diagnostics.Contracts
Added: Support for Dynamic
Added: Support for various APIs, including ReadWriterLockSlim, IServiceProvider, Environment.TickCount, GC.MaxGeneratrion, GC.GetTotalMemory on platforms where supported.
10.0.50504:
This release updates the Visual Studio 2010 tools with the APIs available in Visual Studio 2012 Beta.
Added: Support for Silverlight 5, Windows Phone 7.5, .NET Framework 4.0.3
Added: Support for .NET Framework 4.5 and Metro style apps scoped at features supported by Visual Studio 2010.
Added: Support for System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations, IQueryable, XLINQ and the JSON Data Contract Serializer.
Added: Support for sharing Model View ViewModel (MVVM) between Silverlight, Phone, .NET Framework 4.5 & Metro style apps.
10.0.40607:
Added: New bootstrapper pre-requisite for Setup and ClickOnce projects. This enables these projects to pre-install .NET 4.0 + KB2468871 on end user machines.
10.0.40328:
Added: ObservableCollection<T> can now be shared between Silverlight and Windows Phone projects, enabling simple ViewModel sharing between those platforms.
Added: Numerous APIs across the Base Class Libraries have been added and are now supported.
Added: Visual Basic now supports Adding Service References when targeting .NET, Silverlight & Windows Phone.
Added: Only templates actually supported show up in the Add Item dialog.
Added: Install now supports /buildmachine switch, to avoid installing Visual Studio dependencies on a build machine.
Fixed: Visual Basic projects can now reference Portable Library projects.
Fixed: System.Net types can now be shared between Portable Library and .NET projects.
Fixed: Certain C# expressions that capture fields fail to compile.
Fixed: .NET, Silverlight & Xbox projects will now block references to Portable Library projects when they are not supported.
