How to acquire DTE object instance in a VS package project?

Question

How can I get DTE instance in a VS package project? It's straigtforward in addin project since application is being passed as an argument to onConnection method, but it is unclear how to get it in a package.

Answer 1

From your main Package class:

EnvDTE80.DTE2 dte = this.GetService(typeof(Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.SDTE)) as EnvDTE80.DTE2;

Answer 2

You can get a null instance getting the SDTE service if the shell is not fully initialized. See how to handle that in this code sample:

HOWTO: Get the EnvDTE.DTE instance from a package