I'm trying to create a Project Template in Visual Studio. My basic Solution contains two Projects and a 'Solution Items' Solution Folder that contains (among other things) libraries (.dlls) that the two projects need as References.
My Project Template creates the two Projects, the 'Solution Items' Folder, and another Folder within 'Solution Items' (as desired). It does not, however, add the .dlls and other files that are supposed to populate 'Solution Items'.
In the .vstemplate file, I add references to the .dlls as 'ProjectItem' items directly beneath the 'TemplateContent' node, and they are ignored.
If I try adding a 'Project' node (as if my Solution Items folder were a Project), I get all kinds of errors.
Must I actually create a dummy project to hold these files?
It seems that I do need to include the Miscellaneous Files (Microsoft's term) in a Project in order to have the project generator find them. I put them into a folder and included them in one of my project Templates.
I then implemented an IWizard which I also included in the Solution Template which, after that Project had been built, would move the files where I wanted them, and modify the .csproj file so that it wouldn't miss them.
It all works fine, but it feels like the grossest of hacks...! Is anybody from MS out there?
I've never created a template before, so I can only guess at what you're doing. In our .sln files, our solution items look like this:
Project("{2150E333-8FDC-42A3-9474-1A3956D46DE8}") = "_Build", "_Build", "{45E29CA9-E213-4C73-AA54-AE9B87F79F2D}"
ProjectSection(SolutionItems) = preProject
_Build\Project.proj = _Build\Project.proj
EndProjectSection
EndProject
Where _Build is the SolutionFolder, which we map to a physical folder also called "_Build". In this case, it contains one file, the Project.proj file, which is of course mapped to the physical folder version.
Hope that's even remotely helpful..?
Related
I have multiple ASP.NET MVC5 projects that use several similar styles/scripts, and I think, for maintenance's sake, it'd be ideal to have a separate project in Visual Studio 2013 containing the LESS stylesheets and JavaScript files that can be shared between the two.
My setup is as follows:
Web.Project1
Web.Project2
Web.Assets //would contain LESS/JS files
Resources
Domain
Data
Any pointers?
I've been looking at adding as a link, but I'm not certain that would accomplish what I need.
I recently went through this process for a project of mine, and concluded that if your goal is simply to avoid duplication by keeping your code DRY then using linked files works great.
It's simple enough to do, but I'll write it up anyway as it might save someone some time.
Quick Summary
Create common Solution Folders containing the resources to be shared, or simply designate one of the projects to be the master.
Use "Add as Link" to add the shared resource files to each project as needed.
Add an AfterBuild task to each project file that will copy the linked files to project folders. This is only needed so that Visual Studio test/debug (F5) will work locally.
Detailed explanation follows:
Configuring Solution Folders for the Shared Resources
** Note that if you're simply going to share files directly from one project to one or more additional projects then you can skip this step.
Visual Studio solution folders do not have to reflect physical file system folders, but doing so will help preserve your sanity. So first create the folders on your local file system and copy the resource files into them. The new folders should be located under your solution folder. For example:
\MySolution
\Common
\Images
\Scripts
\Styles
Back in Visual Studio, right click on the Solution Items folder and use Add Solution Folder to replicate the new file system folders.
Next, add the files to the new solution folders by right-clicking each folder and using Add Existing Item to add the contents of the folders.
Add Shared Resources as Links
For each project that will use the shared resources, right-click the project folder and choose Add Existing Item. Browse to the common folder, select the desired files, click the drop-down arrow next to the "Add" button and choose "Add as Link".
You may get a source control warning about adding files that are outside of the project directory structure, but this can be ignored since the linked file will be under source control at its source.
Add an AfterBuild Task to Copy Files
When you publish the application to a server the linked files will copied to the project folders to which they are linked and everything works as expected. However, in the development environment the linked files do not physically reside in the project folders. So when you hit F5 to test your application in VS, the shared resources will be missing.
The simple solution is to add an MSBuild task to copy the linked files from their source after each build. This needs to be done to for each project that contains the shared resource links.
Right-click the project and choose Unload Project. Right-click the project again and choose Edit <ProjectFileName>. Scroll to the bottom and add the following (just above "</Project>"):
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<!-- Copy linked content files to local folders so that they are available in the debugger.
This is only an issue when running the application locally. The linked files should
be automatically published to the correct folder when publishing to a web server. -->
<Copy SourceFiles="%(Content.Identity)"
DestinationFiles="%(Content.Link)"
SkipUnchangedFiles='true'
OverwriteReadOnlyFiles='true'
Condition="'%(Content.Link)' != ''" />
</Target>
** Copy task adapted from this link.
Save the project file then right-click and choose Reload Project.
I have a console application that builds some default classes for me from a database. When the files are built, I want to be able to refresh my folders and see the new files in my class library.
However no matter what I do the files don't show up unless I go in and manually add existing files. Is there a way for VS2010 to look at the file folder and add in anything that is in that folder to the project? For example:
Folder > File1.cs, File2.cs, File3.cs, File4.cs
VS2010 sees
Folder > File1.cs
How can I make VS2010 show these new classes?
Your problem is that you will only see files that are included and referenced in your .csproj file. This is by and large a good thing because it gives you ultimate control over what is taken into account in the project or not. This is causing you a problem though, because the created files which are inserted into your project directory aren't being referenced. As you have mentioned you can include the files manually, but I understand that you wish this process to be automatic.
The best way to resovle this in my opinion is instead of having a project create the files, use design-time T4 templates. Design-time T4 templates are files which resemble pre-Razor ASP.NET views, which allow code generation within your project. You can access your database, format your classes and then output .cs files directly into your project without building it. This is extremely convenient becuase it lets you work on catching compile-time errors that may come up based on the output without having to do a complete build.
More information about using T4 can be found here.
And a good walkthrough can be found here.
Haven't tried this personally, but you should be able to do it using this..
First gain a reference to your project using your apps' solution, then with the Visual Studio automation framework (DTE):
ProjectItems p = Project.ProjectItems;
p.AddFromFile("File1.cs");
Taken from: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/envdte.projectitems.addfromfile.aspx
I would read further into it.
Select the project where you can find your file
On top of your solution explorer you can select "show all files"
Select your files and include
Adding them automatically can be done from another app or script by modifying your projects .csproj/vbproj file
<Compile Include="My Project\MyClass.vb" />
This must be done in the correct itemgroup.
I think this is not directly possible. You may write a template file (t4) in order to create you cs files and they will be added to project when the transformation file is run.
In order to run the transformation file after / before build, you may write a pre/post build event.
That will require you to create a VS add-in.. you can find an example here...
Okay so I have a console application that is building some default classes for me from a database.
Can't you let this application write all classes in one file, say Proxy.cs or Entities.cs. Then every time you regenerate the file and rebuild the project, you can access the new classes.
I'm writing a C# project which I want to compile both under VS2010 and VS2012. I want to have two different .csproj files for that, even though VS2010-project can be directly included in VS2012-solution. I want two different project files because of different target .NET-versions.
Additionally, I want both projects to be named the same within different solutions for VS2010 and VS2012. The both should share the same .cs-files and, possibly, some resources.
Easy task? Strange thing, but I don't know, how to do that properly.
First approach, doesn't work: name project files as MyProject10.csproj and MyProject12.csproj, leave both in the MyProject folder. But in this case they are displayed in solution as MyProject10 and MyProject12, not simply MyProject. If I rename one to MyProject in solution explorer, it automatically renames the corresponding project file.
Second approach, works, but has drawbacks. Move project files into different subdirectories, named VS10 and VS12, manually change include paths in .csproj-files, adding ..\ as a prefix. In this case I see strange shortcut-like arrows under the icons in solution explorer.
The only bad thing for the second approach is that when I add new files in the project using solution explorer, this file is placed in the VS10 subdirectory, not in the root project directory. But it seems like project directories for .csproj-files are the directories containing the file by design, and I use the dark side of the force which I really don't want to do.
Any better ideas?
Worth giving a try is changing the name of the output assembly in both projects to one and the same. The project files are still going to be different, but the output assembly will be with same name. Also be carefull where is the output directory. I think this way you can sovle your problem.
I have a problem with resource files.
I have a solution with two projects. The first project contains ImageResource.resx file with the images that I use. Every Form in this project can access this file from the designer. But I can see in the designer ImageResource.resx file to use it from second project (Reference to second project is present).
I have added the ImageResource.resx file as a link to my second project. And I saw it in the designer! But when I use an image from this resource in the second project Visual Studio modified my original file (It sets the namespaces, and other..) and my solution breaks. Also Visual Studio tells me that ImageResource.resx is present in two dll's first_project.dll and second_project.dll
Can anybody help me with How to correctly use shared resources between projects?
The correct way to share resources is to create a global shared project. Create a new Project with the name Resources:
Next we must add some resources (such as icons) to the project. Do this as usual. Go to the projects setting, select tab Resources and Add Existing File… to the project. We can see that the icon is added to the project and was copied to the local folder:
Next step consists of adding this icon to the other project(s). Note the important difference, you need to add this icon as a link!
Adding as a link avoids the resource duplication. Create a new Project within the same solution and name it e.g. Main. Create some folder in this new project, naming it Resources (the logical name for our purpose). Then right click on this folder, select Add Existing Item… and choose the image file from the shared project folder. Make sure to use Add As Link here! If done correctly the icon of the newly added file will look slightly different (see below):
Added resource's icon must look like this
Now we must set the Build Action for this file to None. For this select the file and go to the Properties Window. There choose None for Build Action. We need to do this to avoid embedding this icon into the assembly:
Finally we need to add the linked files to the Resources of the corresponding project. Open the project Properties for the project where we just added the files. Choose the Resource tab and drag the linked file there:
These are the five simple steps you must perform to share icons between projects. You might ask "What are the benefits of this?" The benefits are:
We store resources in one place, and
It is easy to replace an icon with a new one.
This didn't work for me and I found another (VS2015+) approach.
See https://stackoverflow.com/a/45471284/4151626
In short, the shared project is directly included into the peripheral project. Thus, even though the IDE does not support <Resource> elements in the shared project. <Resource> elements can be added to the shared project, via a text editor. They are then incorporated into the peripheral project during the build.
(Apologies for the hyper-link. I would just repost the answer for clarity, but the stackoverflow editors crack down on this, deleting duplicate answers to save you from ???.)
Can you use a symbolic link to share the file into multiple folders?
windows:
mklink linked_location\ImageResource.resx original_location\ImageResource.resx
C:\Users\preet>mklink
Creates a symbolic link.
MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target
/D Creates a directory symbolic link. Default is a file
symbolic link.
/H Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
/J Creates a Directory Junction.
Link specifies the new symbolic link name.
Target specifies the path (relative or absolute) that the new link
refers to.
If a resource file is really shared between projects, you should put it in a shared project.
Solution 'Sample'
Project Sample.Data
Project Sample.Business
Project Sample.UI
Project Sample.Resource //shared resources are put in a shared project
You can't see the resource if it is not public, and it is default set to "Friend". You can set the "Access Modifier" in the Visual Designer (upper right-hand corner).
I have a C# project that has multiple folders: Folder1, Folder2.
I added a shortcut in 'Folder1' to an xml file that is already in 'Folder2'. In this case when I compile the project the xml file will I have two copies in the assembly?
You were not clear with your description - did you reference the file with a shortcut, or did you add it to Folder1 by using the VS Solution Explorer and adding an existing item as a link?
The two methods are quite different. If you simply went into the filesystem and added a shortcut, then that is not automatically part of the project unless you specifically add it. And if you did add it, then it obviously can't be compiled, the best you could do is just have it set to No Compile and copy to the output directory.
If you added the file to folder one via the VS solution explorer and added it as a link, then it will be part of the project, and will be included twice, but it will be placed in Folder1 under the bin/debug or bin/release folder upon building. There will be no clash because they are in different folders, and they are not compiled, simply copied to the folder structure under the output directory.
Edit: and it won't be part of the assembly unless you set it to be a Resource or Embedded Resource. If you do that then yes, it will be in the assembly, but under two different resource paths.
In the Properties(context menu) of the selected file in the Solution Explorer change Build Action property to No Compile.