Adding Existing folder(s) to a C++ Project in Visual Studio without creating a copy - visual-studio

I have a Visual Studio Solution containing multiple projects. (One Main Project and rest are used for testing the Main project)
Here, i have a shared folder within the solution which is used by all the projects within the solution.
I need to include the entire shared folder in my Main project instead of adding existed items.
I am using Visual Studio Professional 2015 and i could not find "Add Existing folder" option in Visual Studio.
Adding Existing items to a project will eliminate the folder structure in solution explorer which makes the usage more complex when included file count is huge.
I need to maintain a folder structure within the project.
Moving the shared folder within the project directory and using "Show All Files" option will avoid the issue(tried based on the answers in some links) but it is not accurate in my case as the folder is being used by different projects.
Do i have any way to add existing folder (Outside the Project within the solution) to a project and maintain a folder structure so that the solution explorer looks more readable?

I just found the solution to this issue.
We are suppose to create a Filter (Virtual Solution Folder) within the Project. Option for creating Filter is available on following below steps,
Select Visual Studio Project.
In Solution Explorer, Disable "Show All Files" option.
Note: When "Show All Files" option is enabled, your project will have an option to create a Folder instead of Filter.
Create a Filter/Virtual Solution folder. (Name could be same as the existing folder name outside the VS project in order to maintain readability)
Now, add required existing files to the Virtual Folder Solution from any location.
(Inside/Outside project location)
By following the above steps, one can add set of existing files to a virtual folder structure in Visual Studio Solution. This is equivalent to adding an Existing folder to a Project Solution without copying it.

Related

Visual Studio: How to add linked item between folders within the same project?

I'd like to share a common .targets file between different folders within the same project (using Visual Studio 2015):
MyProject
MyNupkgContent1
build
MyNupkgContent1.props
Common.targets
MyNupkgContent2
build
MyNupkgContent2.props
Common.targets <-- should be added as link
When I try to "add as linked" Common.targets to MyNupkgContent2/build, the dialog closes but does not actually add the link. Adding files as links from a different project works fine. Is it possible to link files between folders in the same project?
I'm not certain as to how you should go about linking it but depending on contents and size of application, your best bet may be simply going into your packages and manually copying + pasting them into MyNupkgContent2

How can I use files in one project to create a library in another project in Visual Studio?

I have a standalone project that contains some code I'd like to re-used. I created a library project in order to contain that code. There does not appear to be a way to move files from the one project to the other. (cut/paste in solution explorer did not work)
I then manually copied the files in Windows explorer (outside of VS) into the library's main "folder" but they didn't show up in solution explorer either.
Anyone know of a way to do this without having to manually create each file in the library and then copying/pasting the code into the files?
You need to copy the files and paste them into your solution/project folder(s). Once the files physically exist within your solution/project folder structure (Windows FileSystem / Explorer), then you right-click on your project within Visual Studio, select Add then Existing Item. Browse to the location of that file and open it. It will now exist within your project as a code file.
If you have two projects within the same solution, you can simply drag the file from one project to the other within Visual Studio Solution Explorer. That will create a copy of the class in the new project. You can then remove the old one and clean up any code references in the first project.

Visual Studio "resource" project type?

In Eclipse, you can create a "resource" project type which is basically just a folder with some files in it but visible as a separate project in the "solution". How to do that in Visual Studio?
Solution folders seem close but I don't think it's possible to add a solution folder from an existing folder on a disk, is it?
For example, I have a folder named Build with some build files and nested folders in it. I want to be able to edit these files directly from Visual Studio, how do I make them visible in solution folder without manually recreating folder structure using solution folders etc.?
Unfortunately you can't just add/import an existing folder and all its sub-folders in one action, and Visual Studio does not have the concept of a "resource" project type, as you describe it. You can (as you suggest) use Solution folders for this purpose, however, you must first recreate the folder hierarchy in the Solution Explorer, like so:
R-click on the project folder (or any sub-folder) and choose "Add" -> "New Folder" (for C# projects), or "Add" -> "New Filter" (for C++ projects). Then type the name of the folder you want to add. (Build, in your example)
R-click on the newly created folder (still in Solution Explorer) and choose "Add" -> "Existing Item...". Then browse to the corresponding folder on disk, and multi-select all the files/items in that folder which you want to add.
Repeat this process for all sub-folders.
(Note that the folder structure in the Solution Explorer is not required to match the hierarchy on disk. This allows you, for example, to place all your header files and source files in separate folders in the Solution Explorer, but keep them in one folder on disk.)
A workaround is to add an empty website to a solution - though it defines some unnecessary things like web server configuration, it mirrors file system and that is the main thing.
Right-click solution -> Add -> Add New Website... -> Empty Website

adding multiple existing folders and multiple existing files to Visual Studio project in single step

Does anyone have a way to add multiple folders and (existing) files within those folders to a Visual Studio project in a single step (or via macro)? Let's assume all of the folders and files were copied/pasted into the project folder where they need to reside relative to the project folder, but are not actually stored in the .csproj or .vbproj file, which I believe is a requirement to compile those files into the solution/project.
This works great if you have a web application project in your solution, but not so well if you have a .csproj or .vbproj. In that case, you must manually add folders (and nested folders), and add existing files and browse to each one individually, which can take a long time.
In the solution explorer, select the project, click the "Show All Files" button - .
This will show all the files, even those not part of the project. You can now select all of these in the solution explorer (using Ctrl + Click) then right click and go to "Include In Project".
In Visual Studio 2013 (and possibly earlier) you drag the folder from windows explorer and drop it on the project in the solution explorer.
Other answer given in this thread wouldn't work for me as the files I want to add (DTSX files) are in a different folder, and copying/moving them causes other problems. Here is what worked for me:
Using Visual Studio 2015, use Windows Explorer to locate the files you want to add to your project. Copy those files to the clipboard. If DTSX files are what you are dealing with, in the Solution Explorer right-click on SSIS Packages, and then click on Paste.

VS 2010: Add as Link a complete directory of XML to a solution Folder? (no project exists at this level)

I need to add (as link) a complete directory structure that lives under my solution folder but not under any project folder.
Is this possible, i can't seem to find it.
I suppose 1 option is to add a new project type and then add these files under that project..
But it seems not a good way, what type of project type do i add, a c# class project? The files i wish to include are standard XML files and nothing to do with C#
Any ideas or i get around this?
This is possible in Visual Studio 2010 Professional and above. You can add a solution folder and then include files within that folder. Just right click the solution in the Solution Explorer and choose Add|New Solution Folder. Once the folder is added, right-click it and select Add|Existing Item... to add each of the files that you want to access from that folder.
Solution folders are symbolic (i.e. they don't have to map to a single physical location) so you can store shortcuts to files from many different file system locations under the same solution folder.

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