PrintESRI provides the ability to extend and customize the Pro application through the ArcGIS Pro SDK for .Net. The SDK provides access to much of the Pro application framework to include creating custom ribbon menu’s and buttons, branded configurations, custom geoprocessing ‘add-ins’.
Since each ArcGIS Pro project’s folders, toolboxes, databases, etc.,. is compartmentalized to the project, the user needs to add the custom toolbox with the script tools from the favorites or set the toolbox to be added to new projects. This can get confusing for some users. One benefit of using the SDK and creating Add-ins for the custom geoprocessing tools is the way they are deployed to the user. The add-in is deployed through the addinx through the addin manager. It can be hosted on a network shared folder, installed locally, or hosted for download on the Organizations Portal and is loaded for every project. Instead of running script tool from a toolbox, the tool is loaded from clicking the button on the Ribbon Menu.
Another difference between the add-in and script tool that may be useful for some geoprocessing workflows is the ability to create dynamic interactivity into the add-in and work with features in the mapview. Script tools are linear and require the user input and settings before it is started. You can do some limited interactivity such as extent, selection, and loaded layers but Add-ins can provide the ability to work through the process dynamically. An example might be creating a tool that assists non-gis users the ability to edit attributes through a UI (User Interface) and code tailored to that dataset. You can perform CRUD operations on a table of data while providing the user with informational prompt messages that take user input.
To create the add-in, knowledge of the C# language and WPF (Windows Presentation Format) architecture is needed and is unfortunately beyond the scope of this course. Esri provides instructor led training courses as well as a lot of complete SDK samples (as visual studio projects), code snippets, and tutorials in their SDK documentation and Github repository.