Will visual studio 2015 projects and solutions be backward compatible with 2013? - visual-studio-2013

Now that Visual Studio 2015 RC is out, has anyone installed it and opened Visual Studio 2013 projects/solutions?
Does it ask the files to be changed?
If yes, are the changes it makes backward compatible?

Take a look at the Porting, Migrating, and Upgrading Visual Studio Projects article for Visual Studio 2015. All of the various caveats are described there.

Not all types of project are supported. I tried the following 4 project types:
Vb.net Class project, OK.
Vb.net Web Services project, OK.
Cordova JS project, not OK, need to migrate manually, by moving the sources from root directory to the www directory and install all API again.
C#.net winform project, OK.

Yes, though you sometimes will have to change the version (single number) in .sln file, no other differences found yet.
We resolved this by typically excluding this file from check in and only check it in when there really was a change (added project, ...) - and then to fix the version before checking in. (Different developer machines with different versions of VS.)
See question Visual Studio 2015 solutions backwards compatibility with Visual Studio 2013 and answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/31540590/586754.
(Assuming you are having basic projects that are supported by both versions, like C# and .net framework that is supported by lower version VS.)

Related

How to work in VS2015 with 2008 sln project without conversion

Is there any way that I can use the latest IDE (VS2015) to work with my old solution project but i don't wish to upgrade my project?
Unfortunately, you cannot do this. The format of project and solution files was changed in VS 2010, so the furthest back you could possibly go with VS 2015 would be to VS 2010.* And that wouldn't help you any for cross-compatibility, since VS 2008 can't open VS 2010 project files.
You have no real choice but to allow the IDE to convert your solution and project files to the latest version. However, this will not delete your old VS 2008 project/solution files. They will still be in the solution directory, and will still work for opening the solution in VS 2008. The new project/solution files will open the solution in VS 2015.
This was a very common strategy employed by open-source projects before recent versions of Visual Studio implemented cross-compatibility. They would just have multiple versions of project and solution files for each supported version of Visual Studio.
The only disadvantage with this is that changes you make to one version of a project or solution file don't propagate to the others automatically. But this isn't really that big of a deal, since once a project is reasonably mature, the project and solution files don't change very often.
* In fact, VS 2015 interoperates smoothly with project/solution files from VS 2013, VS 2012, and VS 2010 SP1. It can create and modify project files for any of these versions. See MSDN: Porting, Migrating, and Upgrading Visual Studio Projects (for Visual Studio 2015)

How To Convert Visual Studio 2010 project to Visual Studio 2015

I have a project from VS Studio 2010 that I want to work with in VS 2015. When I start this Project with VS 2015 I receive an error saying something like "compatibility-Error (Version)".
How can I successfully convert a Visual Studio 2010 project to use with Visual Studio 2015?
Without you going into any more detail about the actual error. (error numbers / screenshot) it will be very hard for any of us to give a real answer. Therefore I am going to suggest you take a look at Troubleshooting Unsuccessful Project Upgrades.
Something else to check out might be the Porting, Migrating, and Upgrading Visual Studio Projects guide
One of the key things mentioned in the 2nd link I provided is:
The following list describes support in Visual Studio 2015 and Visual Studio 2013 for projects that were created in Visual Studio 2012 or Visual Studio 2010 SP
Therefore I'd recommend upgrading the 2010 version to SP1 first. (if this is still installed that is)
One further thing to note is that if you keep the old version of Visual studio installed you can import a project which is made with an older version and skip the update. Visual studio 2015 will then use parts of the older version itself to open the project.
For details you can read How to: Upgrade Visual C++ Projects to Visual Studio 2015 page and the equally useful Installing Visual Studio Versions Side-by-Side page.
It appears that there are issues when moving from VS 2010.Net to VS 2015.Net and may require that you build the project from scratch and copy the code over. VS 2015 requires a Namespace. There are a number of designer issues on control that require the style page be used since various attributes have been removed. Something still, however, do work but you need to review the HTML, specifically things like Font and alignment. While it's a pain it isn't a big deal since it requires mostly cut and paste.
If you are having issues converting web projects the projects may have originally been created as a "web site" rather than a "web Project" . Try opening the application as a web site and see what happens. At least that may help get you to the point you can actually get to the code to convert it in VS 2015. Hope this helps.
Try to Right-click the solution, then select "Re-target solution".

Visual Studio 2010 is unable to open project

I used Visual Studio 2010 to develop a web application. I formatted my machine and installed Visual Studio 2010 Professional. When I try to open old projects, I get an error saying:
The selected file is a solution file, but was created by a newer version of this application and cannot be opened.
I do not remember the version of visual studio 2010 I used the first time.
Can anyone tell me which version came after the professional edition?
Make sure VS2010 is updated to the latest service pack, otherwise check to see if the project was actually made in VS2012/13 in which case you will need to create a new VS2010 solution and rebuild it from your existing projects.
Open the .sln file in a text editor. In the beginning there is a marker which tells the VS version it is meant for. For VS 2010 it should look like that:
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 11.00
# Visual Studio 2010
You should be able to change these values without any problems. As far as I know the file format did not change.
EDIT
Considering the comment of Dumisani: of course you need to target .net 4.0 and make sure no features of .net 4.5 are used!
Chances are you had a service pack installed that you are missing with a clean installation.

The error "This project is incompatible with the current version of visual studio" displayed

I installed Vs 2010 Express in my PC, and created a poject named myproject with .net 4.0, it works well in Vs 2010 Express.
Now I installed Vs 2012 Express in my PC, and open the project myproject and upgrade it to .net 4.5, it wells well in Vs 2012 Express too.
I delete the project myproject all files, then restore it from my old backup file, when I try to open the project from Vs 2010 Express, I get the following information.
"This project is incompatible with the current version of visual studio", why?
How can I open the project in Vs 2010 Express? I guess the Vs 2012 Express maybe mark the project as .net 4.5 and stored the information in the somewhere of hard drive. Although I restore the project myproject from old backup file, Vs 2010 Express still think it is a project of .net 4.5.
Thanks!
If the message "This project is incompatible with the current version of Visual Studio" is due to an attempt to open a project targeting .Net 4.5 with Visual Studio 2010, then the "solution" or workaround is to edit the .csproj file and change the TargetFrameworkVersion from "v4.5" to "v4.0". That at least allows the project to be loaded, although it may result in compiler errors if the program is dependent on 4.5 features.
I know this is a little old, but just in case the above solutions don't work: don't be an idiot like me and try to open an MVC project using "VS for Desktop" instead of "VS for Web" (or vice-versa), since it will give you the incompatible message.
I use TFS at my job and I tried to open a MVC project via the TFS Solution Explorer. I wasn't paying attention to which Visual Studio version I had open and since both IDE's look alike, I was confused at what was going on - a common mistake, I'm sure =P
If you are getting the same error for a project which is actually an extension (.vsix), please install Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 SDK
Installing KB2781514 - Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 solved the problem for me.
Check the directory that contains the solution file for an UpgradeLog.htm file. It will probably show what's wrong. In my case I tried to open an ASP.NET project, but the Web Developer Tools were not installed.
The Web Developer Tools can be installed afterwards by going to the Control Panel and to modify your existing Visual Studio installation. After adding Web Developer Tools the project opened without issues.
In my case the problem was the Component Model Cache (Visual Studio for C++).
in VS2013 it is located in
%localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\ComponentModelCache
in VS2015 in
%localappdata%\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\ComponentModelCache
Rename this folder and restart visual studio.
I received this error because during the BizTalk install I did not check the Developer Tools and SDK checkbox. I went back and modified my installation and that error went away for me now.
Trying to load a BizTalk Project in VS2012 without BizTalk installed on your developer machine, will result in this error and the projects will load. This should be the first thing you check.
Make sure that all your extensions are same as in previous version. For me, when I upgraded from old PC to New PC, I didn't downloaded correct extensions hence resulting in above issue.
I faced out with this problem, the solution was:
Open VS2017
Go to Tools
Go to Extensions and updates
Search for Reporting Services Project and then "Enable"; close your VS.
Open again your project/solution.
--
MT

Which version of Visual Studio should I install?

I am going to install Visual Studio. I want to know if the latest version of Visual Studio 2010 is backward compatible with previous versions like VS 2005 and 2008. Or is the code functionality and deploy-ability more dependent on the .NET framework version.
I am trying to use a code which will be built into dll. I am not sure in which version of VS the code was written(most probably VS 2005).
Thanks...
I would suggest to go with the latest Version.
VS 2010 can target multiple frameworks.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb398197.aspx
So the dll should know with which framework it was compiled...
I have never found any issues with Visual Studio 2010 and previous versions' code. It also does feature significantly improved Intellisense and [IMHO] faster building.
they are all backward compatible
2005 and above allow you to target the framework you want when creating
the project
if the project is older
than the VS, it will prompt you with
a migration wizard upon opening
it(this is a one time only step.
Couple of things to note that i've found with 2010 which have caused us a couple of issues:
1) NHibernate (Castle Proxy) doesn't work with .net framework 4 (Currently)
2) Test Projects are always created aimed at .net framework 4, and you cannot target a lower version of the framework.
Otherwise not many problems, its also nice that the database addition of Visual Studio 2010 has intellisense on your tables/views, as well as many other changes
Always go with the latest, now 2010

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