Getting Started
Wisej.NET lives inside Visual Studio: the framework is a NuGet package, and the designer and the project templates are a Visual Studio extension. This page takes you from an empty Visual Studio to a first project open in the designer — what to install, how to install the extension, how to create the project with the wizard, and what the wizard generates. The New Project page then goes through the project templates one by one.
What you need
Visual Studio 2026 on Windows — Community, Professional or Enterprise. Visual Studio 2022 is supported as well. Visual Studio 2019 is not supported by the Wisej.NET 4 designer, whichever framework the project targets; the last release with a Visual Studio 2019 designer was Wisej.NET 3.5.
Install both of these Visual Studio workloads. Open the Visual Studio Installer, click Modify on your Visual Studio, tick them under Workloads and click Modify again:
- ASP.NET and web development
- .NET desktop development — the designer needs it
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Wisej.NET 4.1 applications target .NET Framework 4.8 or .NET 8 and later, and a project can target both at once. The two targets share one project file; see .NET Core Designer for how the TargetFrameworks are written.
The Wisej.NET library itself works with any version of Visual Studio and with Visual Studio Code, but the designer runs only in Visual Studio. See Visual Studio Code for building, running and debugging without the designer.
Install the Wisej.NET extension
The designer and the project templates come as a Visual Studio extension, a standard VSIX file.
Wisej.NET for Visual Studio is no longer published on the Visual Studio Marketplace, and does not appear in the Extension Manager's Online search. Technical limitations of the Marketplace made it impossible to keep publishing there. The extension is available from one place only: wisej.com/builds. Installation is unchanged — it is the same VSIX, run from a download instead of from the Marketplace.
- Open wisej.com/builds and download the latest Wisej.NET for Visual Studio
.vsixfile. - Close Visual Studio and run the downloaded file. The VSIX Installer opens; click Install. It waits for Visual Studio to close before it modifies it, so let the installation finish.
- Start Visual Studio. The Wisej.NET project templates and item templates are now available.
- To update, download the newer build from the same page and install it over the existing one; the Extension Manager will not offer the update.
The extension is the designer and the templates, not the framework: the Wisej.NET framework is the Wisej-4 NuGet package, which every project template references, and which you update like any other package. All Wisej.NET packages — the framework, every extension and every icon pack — are published on nuget.org.
If Visual Studio does not show the project templates after the installation, follow the missing templates instructions.
Create your first project
- In the Visual Studio start window, click Create a new project.
- Select C# or Visual Basic as the language, then select Wisej as the project type to list the Wisej.NET templates.
- Choose a template. Web Page Application — a main page that fills the browser — is the recommended one; the project types are described on the New Project page.
- Name the project and click Create.
- The Wisej.NET wizard asks which targets the project should build for: .NET Framework 4.8, .NET Core (.NET 8 and later), or both. Confirm, and Visual Studio creates the solution and shows the Wisej.NET welcome page.
Wisej.NET works with any .NET language, but designer support depends on the language. If the designer does not support your language, write the UI code directly.
What is in the project
| File | Role |
|---|---|
Program.cs | The application's entry point, with the Main method that Wisej.NET calls for every new session. |
Startup.cs | The ASP.NET Core host, for the .NET Core target. |
Default.json | The application's configuration: the startup method or main window, the theme, the session timeout and the rest. See Configuration. |
Default.html | The application's startup page. See Startup. |
Themes/ | Custom themes and theme mixins for the project. See Theming. |
Page1.cs (or Window1.cs) | The main page or window the template creates, with its .Designer.cs and .resx files. |
Build the project, then open Page1 in the designer and drag controls from the toolbox onto it.
The first time you open the designer, the license activation dialog appears. Enter your Developer or Trial license key to activate it.
You must have an internet connection to activate the developer license.
If you are using the Wisej.NET Developer Community edition, please make sure to comply with the terms & conditions. Commercial use is only permitted for small organizations.
Run it
Press F5. Visual Studio starts the application and opens it in the browser. Every control you drop on the page renders as its HTML equivalent; every event handler runs on the server, in C# or VB.NET.
If the designer fails to open a page, or opens with an empty surface, see Designer Error.