I'm using Visual Studio C# Express and I'm wondering how I would go about adding some XML files and being able to reference them in my code. I added the XML files in a folder under the project, but I'm not sure how I can reference them, and then get them copied to the output folder. Originally, before I added them, I just copied the XML files to the Debug folder for Visual Studio, but then when I compiled/installed a new copy of the program I had coded, I had to manually copy the XML files over.
Is there a way to add XML files to a Visual Studio Project and be able to reference them in the code and then have them copied to the output folder?
Right click project, Add Existing Resource, browse and select the file you want to add. Then right click the file and click properties and change "Build Action" to content, and "Copy To Output Directory" to Copy if newer (or copy always if the need be). Then you can access it by using the relative path.
I use this for my XML and I can access my content using the following code:
XmlDocument document = new XmlDocument();
document.Load("Resources/DefaultConfig.xml");
Please note that my DefaultConfig.xml file is inside a "Resoruces" Directory which I created in Visual Studio(this is optional, but it helps me keep my project neat)
Related
How can I generate a file during "Build" in Visual Studio using C#?
I want to create a .txt File and add some text in it. The file should be created directly when I press Build and save it in a place where the Release or Debug Folder is.
You should have a look at build events.
Typically you can run any kind of script pre and post build - including the (re)generation of a text file.
To copy files into the output path, you can use the OutputPath variable. See the MACRO section and this list on how to use them.
As by #Oliver's comment: if it is a static file, you can just include it in the project using its properties and select: Copy if newer.
Taken from the documentation:
And a subset of the MACROs
I have Visual Studio 2017 project in which I need to open a folder named Devdog.General, which is also included in my Solution. However, it won't recognize it as an existing folder and gives me a missing directory / namespace error when I try to import it. See screenshot for more info.
Try this button:
I had a similar problem the other day and it had to do with files that Visual Studio didn't know were part of the project because they'd been created externally (and that included folders). Visual Studio could see them but it was hiding them from me.
After clicking that button, you will be able to right click on the folder and select "include in project" which will include the files for compilation and navigation.
First, try selecting any of your "*.cs" files inside this "General" folder and check in the "Properties" view if the Build Action is configured to Compile. Visual Studio will only compile your file if it has the correct build action.
Secondly, open that "*.cs" file and verify if the namespace defined inside it is correct. For C#, folder structures don't matter much: what really matters is the namespace you have defined your classes in. You can define your classes in namespaces completely different than the folder they are included in your project. That is completely arbitrary, and up to your organizational needs.
An image illustrating what you need to check (and where) follows.
Things to Check
1.) Check the namespaces inside .CS files - they collectively create usable namespaces you are referencing - not folder names. If you create a few files, then move them to a folder, and create newer files inside that folder they will have different namespaces. The newer files will have the default Namespace value followed by .FolderName. So be sure to check that out.
2.) CSPROJs can get hosed and lose reference to folders that display in the UI. Remove the folder from the project (through the VS2017 UI, right click and choose that option). DO NOT DELETE. Then recreate the folder in the UI (it shouldn't let you, navigate to the folder directory manually and rename the folder.OLD temporarily). Once the folder is rename, try recreating the folder. Upon success move all your CS files into the new folder from folder.OLD. After files and folders are back to where they were essentially, then in Visual Studio, "Add existing items" on your .cs files. This recreates the CSPROJ references one by one.
3.) Unload CSPROJ, right click and Edit CSPROJ to manually check all the .CS references in ItemGroups. Make sure its myfolder\myotherfolder\mycsfile.cs.
4.) Remove reference to other projects that contain namespace, and re-add them. Verifying, one by one, the namespaces begin reappearing in Intellisense as recognized.
5.) If you try the above step, close Solution, close Visual Studio, navigate to SLN folder container, and delete hidden folder .vs and then reopen everything.
What happens is sometime a folder rename or file transfer doesn't propagate to the .CSPROJ folder, a namespace then doesn't get intellisense cached, and errors galore show up.
Please check your folder name and namespace name. probably folder name and namespace did not match
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I added 3 html files to my project and the change is reflected in my csproj file.
But to deploy this on to a web server, is it enough if I drop these 3 files in the appropriate directory? Or is there any build/assembly deploy needed because of csproj change?
Html files do not require build, just copy the files
IF you have code behind for aspx files then you need to deploy the dll.
Add the file to your project.
Set the build action to "content".
Set "copy to output directory" to "copy always".
The file should be included in the same folder as the rest of your deployment. You should be able to see it by building it and looking in the \bin\release or the \bin\debug folder. If it's not there, click on the Application Files button and see if it shows up there.
Deploying the HTML files to your web server simply requires you copy the HTML files to the appropriate directory.
The resulting change in your .csproj was really only made to keep track of the files within your IDE but no, you wouldn't need to rebuild/redeploy the resulting DLL just for static files.
I am making a console program in VS2010. The structure of as layed out in the solution explorer is Project file, Properties folder, References, and Program.cs.
I want to make use of a text file for reading/writing. What is the correct way of adding this file to the project? If I just do StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter("maze.txt") then it'll create the file in the output folders (bin/debug or bin/release). But it won't show up in the solution explorer.
Now if I right-click on the solution explorer and Add New Item, I can create a text file in the root project folder (same level as Program.cs). This will show up in the solution explorer.
Is there a way for me to access this newly created file? Other than doing something like StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter("../../maze.txt") by specifying the path to be two parents up?
How am I supposed to manage external files in a Visual Studio console applicatoin? In a WinForms application, there's a resources folder where I can add these things and a Resources.resx file to manage it. I can access it with Properties.Resources.someres.
If you want to create a file at design time and have it included in your bin folder then add the text file, go to properties, and select "copy always" or "copy if newer" for the copy property.
Note that this will copy the file from the project to the bin folder, but changes in the bin folder when debugging won't be copied up into the project itself. I doubt you want the program to interact with the version of the file in the project itself. If you do something like that then anytime you run the program outside of VS (i.e. when you copy it to the machine of an actual user) it won't work.
As for your resources question, you can still use resources. Just right-click and "Add" -> "New Item" (aka keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+A) and choose "Resources File". You could also set the text file to be an Embedded Resource. MSDN has a lot of information on using resources on their Managing Application Resources page.
You can still embed resources to a console application. I've used this technique in quick apps so we don't need a installer or deploy dependencies such as these type of files. This question discusses a similar topic.
I have various files in my Visual Studio Solutions that have to be copied to the bin/Debug folder if I change it.
I tried to set Copy to Output Directory - Copy always but it doesnt work. So how can i make sure that when building these files are copied to bin/debug?
Here a screenshot from one example:
Make sure the build action for the files are marked as content, otherwise they will not be copied while building.
Content - The file is not compiled, but is included in the
Content output group. For example,
this setting is the default value for
an .htm or other kind of Web file.
Are you using the Debug profile? The build section of your properties has an output path which is set to bin/debug if you are using this profile.