CTRL+Clicking commented URLs and open in external browsers - visual-studio-2013

Right now when I CTRL+Click a URL, it opens up a tab within my VS 2013 (I assume it uses IE). Is there a way to change the behavior to open the URL with the browser of my choice?

You can find the answer here. It is a work-around but it might be what you are looking for.

Related

Force Firefox to reuse existing tab for modified HTML file

If Firefox is already displaying a local HTML file on my PC in a tab (address = "file:///...") and I modify the file using my favorite external editor, sending the file to FF to display the edits results in FF opening a new tab with a fresh instance of the original file, rather than searching to see if the file is already open it it and reusing that tab.
Sure, after editing the file I could reopen Firefox, navigate along the tab bar to the existing tab for that file and click Refresh. But IMO FF should be capable of doing this for me. In my work, by the time I need to refresh FF, the tab currently open is not likely to be that of the file I am editing, so I continually need to return to the original page to refresh it.
My efforts to work around this include:
1)In about:config, *setting browser.link.open_newwindow* from 3 to 1.
2)Running Firefox and passing it either the filename or the URL to the filename (as -url parameter).
3)Looking for a suitable add-on.
I am not fond of either Firebug or Aurora and prefer my own editor (EditPlus), which with I am far more comfortable, to edit web pages. However, its inbuilt browser does not display properly on my screen, so I need to view results of edits in Firefox.
Can anyone suggest a solution to this problem? I've searched here without success. The best solution would be another about:config setting. Thanks in advance.
(added) After all, in EditPlus, if I send it a file (in document-centric mode) which it has already opened, it simply changes focus to the existing tab. Why can't FF do this?
Thanks for suggesting the "Restore Open_External" add-on.
I tried it but it doesn't help me here. What it does is:
(quote)
"browser.link.open_external (Integer). This option specifies how Firefox opens links launched externally, e.g. e-mail or Microsoft Word. 3 options are available;
1. Selecting this option launches the link in a new tab in the most recently active Firefox window. This would be recommended if you don’t wish launching such links to affect your most recently active webpage and you aren’t concerned about the links content.
2. Selecting this option launches a new Firefox window to view the link. This would perhaps be the safest option to select (In that if you launch something questionable you may be able to end the process without affecting other windows).
3. Selecting this option (default) launches the link in the most recently active Firefox window/tab. This would be recommended if you aren’t concerned about launching links is the most recently active window/tab (You can always use the back button to view the previous page if you need)."
TechSpot - Firefox 2 Tweak Guide
I'm sure many find this useful. Option 1 would have been fine for my purposes if it didn't insist on opening a duplicate tab. This add-on does nothing to prevent duplicate tabs being opened. So I began hunting for some add-on that might PREVENT a new tab being created in response to an external app sending a file to Firefox. Tab Mix Plus is supposed to do this, but I got lost somewhere in the maze of options. Then there is Prevent Duplicate Tabs, which creates a whitelist of all pages where duplicates are not permitted. This is far from automatic and seems pretty lame to me, as is Duplicate Tab Closer which doesn't prevent a duplicate tab from being created; instead, you have to press Ctrl+Alt+D to remove existing duplicate tabs - equally lame. deduplicate-tabs is similar, but offers a button to remove duplicate tabs.
Maybe I'm missing the point, but I can't see why anyone would want duplicate tabs of the same page, one a later version than the other. In fact, FF ought to be able to automatically refresh a tab when one reselects this, without having to resort to the "refresh" button. But that's just my rant.
If anyone reading this can think of a better way to integrate FF with an external app that modifies a web page, I'll be most grateful.
Install that addon:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/restore-open_external/
Go to addon preferences and set:
'in the current tab of current window'
Next time you open a new url from an external program it opens in the same tab.
You can also install the
duplicate tabs closer firefox addon which, as the name suggests, allows you to automatically close duplicate tabs
You can configure it to:
Close the older tabs and keep the new tab
Select the new tab
Try this addon.
I'm using it for development mode in Gatsby and Create React App.

Chrome Auto Save Extension - Firefox alternative?

I've just seen that extension and I pretty much fell in love with. As a guy with minimal css knowledge, I got bored of spamming CTRL + S, alt tab, check browser, alt tab back to IDE and continue development/design loop.
Is there any alternatives to Chrome's Auto Save extension on Firefox? I don't want to leave my years of beloved Firefox for it.
I'm also open for third party tool ideas, if no such extension exists on Firefox. Basically, I want to edit my CSS/Javascript files directly from Firefox Developer Tool to see the results on-the-fly, and most importantly, I want it to get them saved automatically. (or by pressing CTRL + S, since it is something we all used to do for years)
CSS Updater
http://www.cssupdater.com

Visual Studio: quick access to most used files

The solution I work on is quite big so it can require a lot of clicks to get to the desired file. I spend 90% of the time working with 8-10 files from this solution so it would be really convenient to have some kind of "Favorites" in my solution so I could jump to the most used files quickly. "Recent files" doesn't cut it, so maybe you know some extensions for VS2010 that do that? Google didn't provide any good options so I decided to give it a shot here and ask what do you use.
Thanks in advance
It's not quite what you asked for, but it'll help endlessly:
In vanilla VS2010, hit Ctrl-Comma (by default) for the "Navigate To" window. You can type a partial file, class or method name and it'll show you a list of where that appears in your solution, and you can open directly from there.
The DevExpress plugins also have a "Recently Used File" window (Ctrl-Shift-Period by default, I think) that does similar, but only shows files you've recently used (not classes or methods). I have to say, though, I've not used that since I've had VS2010.
Wow! A question since 2011 that is still valid to date.
From View Menu click Bookmark Window
open your favorite file
click any line - preferably the beginning of the file
from the Bookmarks Window, click the icon "Toggle a bookmark on the current line."
Very convenient!
Haven't tried this particular feature of the PowerTools myself, but it could do the trick:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2010/08/03/quick-access-extension.aspx

MSDN links in Visual Studio

I'm looking for a plugin or way to simply go from any namespace, type, method, property, etc in my .Net code to the MSDN page that covers it via a context menu item or hyperlink-like mechanism. Does anyone know of anything that will do that?
The "Go to Definition" option when you right click almost covers this, but it doesn't quite work well enough - no support for namespaces and you often end up at an ugly metadata page. I'm still on vs2005, so if vs2008 is better at this I'd like to know about it.
Have you tried F1. This will automatically open the help to the appropriate method or object. Not sure if this works for namespaces.
Besides using F1 (which doesn't always work) I haven't found an add-in for VS to do this, I have another quick way around it.
I use Launchy (from launchy.net) and setup the Weby plug-in so I can quickly do MSDN searches. So if I'm looking for String.Format, my keyboard only sequence (from VS, or anywhere else) would be this:
alt-space
MSDN
String.Format
that brings me right to an MSDN search, where usually the first listing is what I'm looking for. It's not a perfect solution, but having a fast internet connection and the keyboard only approach works well for me.

Debugging asp.net with firefox and visual studio.net - very slow compared to IE

Debugging asp.net websites/web projects in visual studio.net 2005 with Firefox is loads slower
than using IE.
I've read something somewhere that there is a way of fixing this but i can't for the life of me find it again.
Does anyone know what i'm on about and can point me in the right direction please?
Cheers
John
edit
sorry rob i haven't explained myself very well(again). I prefer Firefox for debugging (firebug etc)
hitting F5 when debugging with IE the browser launches really quickly and clicking around my web application is almost instant and when a breakpont is hit i get to my code straight away with no delays.
hitting F5 when debugging with FireFox the browser launches really slowly (ok i have plugins that slow FF loading) but clicking around my web application is really really slow and when a breakpoint is hit it takes ages to break into code.
i swear i've read something somewhere that there is a setting in Firefox (about:config maybe?) that when changed to some magic setting sorts all this out.
bingo. found the article i read before.
i just changed my network.dns.ipv4OnlyDomains property in about:config to localhost. restarted firefox and now firefox performs the same as IE when debugging asp.net with visual studio (2005).
hope this helps anyone else that has the same problem.
"Alternative solution". Do the following in Firefox
about:config in the address bar
set network.dns.disableIPv6 to true.
Are you serious? One of the main reasons I stick to Firefox is because its so much nicer to develop with..
The live source update is awesome (view source > change code > rebuild > F5 in source)...
What is actually "slow".. I mean, the some browsers tend to be slower at rendering, but I dont see how it affects your debug time? As soon as the request is made, and your breakpoint is hit in the code, it stops?
For quick debugging try this..
Add Debugger.Break() into your code at an appropriate place.
Browse to the page in firefox (via localhost) if on local dev machine? and the Visual Studio Just in Time debugger should pop up.. select the currently open instance of Visual Studio and you can step into the code where every you want without having to start from the beginning or jumping to cursor.
-- Lee

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