How to read in text from the visual studio debug output window - c#

I've read several articles that tell you how to add text to the output window in visual studio from within an Add-On (specifically, a visual studio 2008 integration package, via the visual studio 2008 SDK 1.1), but no examples of how to read text from the output window. My goal is to parse text from the debug output window while debugging a certain application (TRACE output and possibly stdin/stdout). The IVsOutputWindowPane interface has no methods for reading in text from the output window. The documentation seems to imply that it is possible, but it doesn't provide an example:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb166236(VS.80).aspx
Quote: In addition, the OutputWindow and OutputWindowPane objects add some higher-level functionality to make it easier to enumerate the Output window panes and to retrieve text from the panes.
Preferably I'd like to be able to subscribe to an event that fires when a new line of text arrives, similar to a StreamReader's asynchronous reads.

It is possible, it is just a long winding path to get to it:
ServiceProvider -> IVsOutputWindow -> GetPane( debugwindow ) -> IVsUserData -> GetData( wpftextviewhost ) -> IWpfTextViewHost -> IWpfTextView -> TextBuffer -> Changed event.
Presuming you have a VS IServiceProvider from somewhere else (vsix extension/whatever, global service provider), and without any error checking, it looks like this:
IVsOutputWindow outWindow = ServiceProvider.GetService(typeof(SVsOutputWindow)) as IVsOutputWindow;
Guid debugPaneGuid = VSConstants.GUID_OutWindowDebugPane;
IVsOutputWindowPane pane;
outWindow.GetPane(ref debugPaneGuid, out pane);
// from here up you'll find in lots of other stackoverflow answers,
// the stuff from here down is interesting to this question
IVsUserData userData = (IVsUserData)pane;
object o;
Guid guidViewHost = DefGuidList.guidIWpfTextViewHost;
userData.GetData(ref guidViewHost, out o);
IWpfTextViewHost viewHost = (IWpfTextViewHost)o;
IWpfTextView textView = viewHost.TextView;
textView.TextBuffer.Changed += YourTextChangedHandlerHere;
Your text changed handler will then get called every time the output window gets more data. you won't necessarily get it line by line, but you'll probably more likely than not get big chunks you'll need to deal with on your own.
It is highly likely that some of the above did not even exist in VS in 2010. But it exists now!

The default behavior (when you don’t set the listener explicitly) of VS is to display trace massages in the debugger output window, which you appreciate if you want a simple solution and do no other actions with the massages.
Unfortunately this is not your case. So you have to define a trace listener to send (and store) your trace massages where you then will be able to read them. The trace listener could be a file (for example XML) or you can create a custom listener by deriving a class from the base class TraceListener if you don't want to bother yourself with an additional file.

I don't know that what you ask is possible. But, you can register your add-in as a debugger for your application so that you get the output the trace messages. These are typically routed to OutputDebugString, and can be captured as described in this article: http://www.drdobbs.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=184410719. It does not give you the normal output, only debug, but it does not depend on the technology of the debugged application.

The solution on this page selects the text in order to read it. I'm hoping there's a better way.
Automatically stop Visual C++ 2008 build at first compile error?
Private Sub OutputWindowEvents_OnPaneUpdated(ByVal pPane As OutputWindowPane) Handles OutputWindowEvents.PaneUpdated
pPane.TextDocument.Selection.SelectAll()
Dim Context As String = pPane.TextDocument.Selection.Text
pPane.TextDocument.Selection.EndOfDocument()
End Sub

Related

Word Statusbar gets reset when I use range.Information

I have the following code (simplified to show the problem):
var wdApp = new Application();
var wdDoc = wdApp.Documents.Open("C:\foo.docx");
wdApp.StatusBar = "Updating...";
var rng = wdDoc.Range(10, 10);
if ((bool)rng.Information(WdInformation.wdWithInTable))
{
}
//StatusBar value is gone...
What could be the reason?
How can I prevent it?
Do you know of other situations where this can happen?
Here screenshots of the problem
1 F10 (step over) later
Edit:
The provided code uses NetOffice and not the interop library from Microsoft directly, therefor the syntax is correct. You may notice in the provided screenshots that they are taken from a running application. Breakpoint, highlighting of current line of code executing, aswell as the actual result of the code in the word application on the right. Where at first there is the desired statusbar "Tabelle 8 von 17 wird neu erstellt." (Table 8 out of 17 is recreating) and at the next step my statusbar is gone and its the default stuff "165 von 8227 Wörtern" (165 out of 8227 words)
What could be the reason?
I believe this is to do with the library you are using. I tested your code but with the Word Interop library, and the only way I could get the status bar to reset was to manually click/type within the Word window.
How can I prevent it?
I would say take a look into the code base of library you are using. It is likely that it is doing something that is causing the behaviour. Unless there is a specific reason you are using NetOffice I would suggest switching to the either the standard Interop or VSTO.
Do you know of other situations where this can happen?
As above, I could only get the status bar to reset if I manually carried out some sort of input into the window.

Check if the current document in Visual Studio 2012 is a Code Window

I am looking for a way to have my extension check if the currently opened window in visual studio 2012 is one, where the user can write code (or any kind of text, really).
To check if the currently opened window has changed, I use
_DTE.Events.WindowEvents.WindowActivated.
This gives me the EnvDTE.Window that received the focus.
When I look at the properties of that window while debugging, and I look at EnvDTE.Window.Document.Type and it's value is "Text".
However, if I stop debugging and try to access the Document.Type property, it does not exist.
If I look for this property in the documentation of EnvDTE.Window.Document, its description says
Infrastructure. Microsoft Internal Use Only.
So now I am looking for any advice on how I could check if the currently active window is one, where I can write code (or anything else), or some other kind of document (like the solution properties for example).
Edit:
I also tried checking Window.Type and Window.Kind of the active window, but they just tell me that it's a document, not making any differentiation between a resource file, an image file or an actual source file, which is what I'm trying to find out.
Edit²:
The reason why I want to check if the current document is one where I can write code in, is because I want my extension to store information about some of those documents and I want to modify the right-click context menu based on the information I have stored, if any.
It is not a "real" answer, but you can follow status of VS GoTo command - it is available only for text editors:
bool isCodeWindow = IsCommandAvailable("Edit.GoTo");
private bool IsCommandAvailable(string commandName)
{
EnvDTE80.Commands2 commands = dte.Commands as EnvDTE80.Commands2;
if (commands == null)
return false;
EnvDTE.Command command = commands.Item(commandName, 0);
if (command == null)
return false;
return command.IsAvailable;
}
You can check to see if the document is a 'TextDocument'
bool isCodeWindow = dte.CurrentDocument.Object() is EnvDTE.TextDocument;

How to get the (.lnk) shortcut filepath in a program which started by the shortcut?

I have a c# program which open *.postfix file.
If a user runs a (.lnk)shortcut which points to my type of file, my program will open the target.
So, how could my program know it is started by a (.lnk)shortcut (and get it's file path)?
In some circumstances,i need to replace the .lnk file.
Thanks!
Edited
First, thanks to guys who answered my question.
By following #Anders answer, i find out my problem lays here.
I made some changes to windows registry, so browser knows to throw customized protocol string to certain program.
some thing like this..
[InternetShortcut]
URL=myProtocol://abcdefg.....
That's maybe why i lost lpTitle. :(
I'm going to try this way:
Whenever my program invoked, of course fed with %1, program checks current opened explorer(Window), and try to get it's current path with IWebBrowserApp. With that path and desktop of course, scan and analyze *.lnk to determine which one to replace.
I think this will probably work, but not be sure. I will try.
continued
In native code you can call GetStartupInfo, if the STARTF_TITLEISLINKNAME bit is set in STARTUPINFO.dwFlags then the path to the .lnk is in STARTUPINFO.lpTitle. I don't know if there is a .NET way to get this info, you probably have to P/Invoke...
You don't. There's no way to do it. End of story.
So this has been brought to my attention due to a recent downvote. There's an accepted answer showing an idea that gets the path to the launching shortcut most of the time. However my answer is to the whole. OP wants the link to the shortcut so he can change it. That is what can't be done most of the time.
Most likely case is the shortcut file exists in the start menu but is unwritable. However other cases involve the shortcut coming from another launching application that didn't even read it from a disk but from a database (I've seen a lot of corporate level restricted application launch tools). I also have a program that launches programs from shortcuts not via IShellLink but by parsing the .lnk file (because it must not start COM for reasons) and launching the program contained. It doesn't pass STARTF_TITLEISLINKNAME because it's passing an actual title.
If you're using Visual Studio Setup Project to build an installer and do the file type association, you should follow these instructions http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/topic/58005-file-associations-in-visual-studio/
Open up your solution in Visual studio.
Add a Setup Project to your solution by file , add project,New project, Setup & Deployment projects,Setup project
Right-click on your setup project in the "Solution Explorer" window,Select view,then select file types.
you'll see the "file types" window displayed in Visual studio.At the top of the window will be "File types on target machine"
Right-click on "File types on target machine".the menu will pop up with Add "file type" Click on this.
you'll see "New document Type#1" added,and "&open"underneath it.
The "new document type#1" can be anything you want - change it to something descriptive.although the user never sees this,never use something common- be as unique as possible,Because you can overlay current file associations without even realizing it.For example,you might think"pngfile" might be a useful name- but using that will now send all"*.png" files to your application,instead of to an image viewer.A good practice maybe "YourCompantName.Filetype",where your company name is your name of your company's name, and "Filetype" is a descriptive text of your file.
In the "properties" window for your new type,you will need to change a few properties.:
Command:Change to the application that you want to run.If you click on the "..." and you will proberly want to locate and use the "primary Output..." File
Description: This is the description of the file type(if it doesn't describe it's self"
Extensions:This your list of extensions for you chosen Program.Separate each one with a ","
Icon:This will associate the icon with your file type,This shows up in the window explorer.
Now we move to that "&open ".This is an action that is available if your right-click on the file.The default action("&Open" is currently set as the default) is what happens when you double click on the file.Right click on your "New document type#1" to add actions,but for the moment,lets define our "&open" action
Click on "&Open".You will see in the properties window "Name","Arguments","Verbs". Verb is hidden from the user,but is the key that is stored in the registry.Leave it same as the name,But without the "&".The default for"Arguments" is "%1",Which means to pass the full path and filename to your application.You can add other stuff here as well,if you need to pass flags to your application to do special stuff.All this infomaton is getting passed to your application on the command line,so you'll need to be familiar with the "Environment.CommandLine" object.
If you need to set a different action as your default,just right click on the action and "set as default"
Basically, you'll pass the file path as an argument to your program. Then if it's a console application or Windows Forms , you should check the arguments in Program.Main
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//if file association done with Arguments %1 as per forum post above
//you file path should be in args[0]
string filePath = null;
if(args != null && args.Length > 0)
filePath = args[0];
}
For a WPF application you'll need to handle that in the StartUp event for your Application
void App_Startup(object sender, StartupEventArgs e)
{
string filePath = null;
if ((e.Args != null) && (e.Args.Length > 0))
{
filePath = e.Args[0];
}
}

Debug.WriteLine to different "channel"?

http://i.minus.com/ibsHfIOAy7lBCj.png
I want to write some stuff to VS's output window so I can see what's going on, but it just gets flooded with all this other stuff. Is there some way I can write to a different "channel"? It's got that dropdown there, which I see AnkhSVN has added itself too...can I add another one with only my stuff in there maybe?
Use Trace for this. You will either have an App.config file or a Web.config file in the project that is running. In this file add a trace listener.
When you call trace, which is very similar to Debug, you can specify the level (Info, Warning, Debug, Error). Based on this level you can decide where and how that information is saved.
How to Trace and Debug in Visual Studio
You can use the "Redirect all Output Window text to the Immediate Window" option:
Although it says all, it will only redirect Debug.WriteLine, etc.
Alternatively you can suppress the noisy messages from the output window itself:
If you create a visual studio addin (in default) you will have a connect.cs with a public void OnConnection(object application, ext_ConnectMode connectMode, object addInInst, ref Array custom)
You can use this application object to do what you want to do.
DTE2 app = (DTE2)application;
OutputWindowPane XXX = app.ToolWindows.OutputWindow.OutputWindowPanes.Add("XXX");
Now you can use :
XXX.OutputString("some text" + Environment.NewLine);
And this text will appear in the "channel" called "XXX"

WorkflowMarkupSerializer doesn't keep positions in a state machine workflow

I am using WorkflowMarkupSerializer to save a statemachine workflow - it saves the states OK, but does not keep their positions. The code to write the workflow is here:
using (XmlWriter xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(fileName))
{
WorkflowMarkupSerializer markupSerializer
= new WorkflowMarkupSerializer();
markupSerializer.Serialize(xmlWriter, workflow);
}
The code to read the workflow is:
DesignerSerializationManager dsm
= new DesignerSerializationManager();
using (dsm.CreateSession())
{
using (XmlReader xmlReader
= XmlReader.Create(fileName))
{
//deserialize the workflow from the XmlReader
WorkflowMarkupSerializer markupSerializer
= new WorkflowMarkupSerializer();
workflow = markupSerializer.Deserialize(
dsm, xmlReader) as Activity;
if (dsm.Errors.Count > 0)
{
WorkflowMarkupSerializationException error
= dsm.Errors[0]
as WorkflowMarkupSerializationException;
throw error;
}
}
}
Open Control Panel -> "Regional and language options" and set list separator to ',' (comma)
and workflow serializer will use ',' (comma) as separator for X,Y coordinates for struct SizeF
then select ';' and workflow serializer will use ';' (semicolon) as separator.
This really stupid that serializer use regional setting for serialize markup.
The position of all the states is kept in a separate file. You'll need to drag it around with the markup of the workflow itself. Luckily, it's just XML as well, so you might be able to reuse most of the code you have up there. If memory serves, I believe it's simply NameOfYourWorkflow.layout.
I agree with x0n - the designer is really bad in Visual Studio.
OK, this tutorial gives good information on how to do it - although so far I am only able to save the layout, I haven't been able to correctly use the layout. The information in question is about 2/3rds down (or just do a search for .layout)
(How does one close his own question?)
Note that there is a bug in either the serialize or deserialize of the XML created (named in the example with an extension of .layout.)
It produces the following xml as the first line of the file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><StateMachineWorkflowDesigner xmlns:ns0="clr-namespace:System.Drawing;Assembly=System.Drawing, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" Name="New" Location="30, 30" Size="519, 587" AutoSizeMargin="16, 24" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/workflow">
When reading this back in, the size attribute causes an exception. I removed Size="519, 587" from the file and the workflow is loaded back correctly. Right now, I write the file, open it and remove the size, then close it. I need to think about a more elegant solution, but at least I am now saving and restoring a state machine workflow.
Hah, even the workflow designer hosted in Visual Studio 2008 loses the positions of states randomly. This tells me it's probably not an easy task, and is information external to the Activities that comprise it. I'd dig more around the host for information; if I find something, I'll post back.

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