Importing custom list to visual studio from sharepoint

Question

I need to create a list for a sharepoint 2010 project. I went into vs and i added a new List Definition with an instance, when i publish everything is fine. I now need to add custom columns to it and also add some values inside the instance. I have no idea how to do this and my research has been unsuccessful.

Isn't there a way to create the list using either the sharepoint site or designer and then get everything from there and import it into visual studio so that went we deploy the solution everything is formatted and instantiated properly ?

Thanks !

Answer 1

You can save site as template. Then download this template from site templates gallary and import it to the VS2010. When the template is imported you can select which items do you want to include in project. You can select only your list and its dependencies.