How can i take an existing website (files and folders) that exist on my hard drive into a VS2012 project?
I am trying to highlight the files/ folders in explorer and drag/ drop into the project but that doesn't work in 2012.
I am trying to get the existing site imported into a blank website project and don't want all the extra files VS adds as part of lets say a win forms project.
In VS2012 Solution Explorer:
Right Click on your Solution Name > Add > Existing Website
You can select your existing website files here.
Hope it solves your query.
Related
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.
Visual Studio seems to consist of a single solution file (*.sln) along with one or more project files (a C# project would have the *.csproj extension).
I have been playing around with a console application that parses existing directory entries to create solution files with the associated project files.
It works, but every time I run into a new project here at work I find myself spending a week or more debugging my console project so that it can churn out a solution for that particular work project.
Is there something out there already that can create a VS solution out of an existing file structure?
As you can tell from my screen capture below, these projects are nested very deep, so it would take a very long time to do this with the apps folder below with the "by mouse" technique in the Visual Studio IDE.
I created the custom console application that is posted in this post:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/22153536/153923
I invite others to contribute how they approached this solution, though.
So, I found out today that this feature already exists in Visual Studio.
Link 1: How to: Create a Project from Existing Code Files
Link 2: How to: Create a Project from Existing Code Files
Basically, though, it says this (just in case the MSDN links get changed or deleted):
You can create a Visual Studio project from an existing app—for example, an app that you obtained from an online source. Project and solution files are created on your computer and the other relevant files are added. A project can be created from Visual C++, Visual Basic, or Visual C# code files.
Security note Security Note
We recommend that you determine the trustworthiness of existing code files before you import them into Visual Studio, because Visual Studio will execute some of the code in a fully trusted process when you open the newly created project.
To create a project from existing code files
On the menu bar, choose File, New, Project From Existing Code.
The Create New Project from Existing Code Files wizard opens.
Use the wizard to specify the details of the existing code files that will be added to the project and the application that will be created when you build the project.
Another good answer was given by cbp in Visual Studio: Create a web application from existing code:
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OK I figured it out. It's weird, but the following steps will work:
Open fresh copy of Visual Studio
File->New Project, select Web Application
Use the following settings:
Name: Website (this is the name of the existing folder with the website files in it)
Location: C:\Temp\ (anywhere will do for now)
Solution Name: TheProject (name of the existing project's root folder)
Check "Create directory for solution"
Delete the auto-created Default, Global and Web.config files
Save All and close Visual Studio
In Windows Explorer, copy the new folder on top of the existing folder so that the files are merged.
Double click on the sln file to open Visual Studio again.
Select "Show all files" (at the top of Solution Explorer)
Right click on any files or folders you want to add and select Include in Project.
Great idea!
My Visual Studio 2013 solution has a project "Test". I can rename it in solution explorer, but I also want to rename the project folder in disk and also reflect the change in Source Control(TFS). How can I easily do this?
Thank you
#CodeCaster, Thank you. Based on your advice, I have done some quick experiment, and worked it out. First step is rename the folder name in TFS; the new folder will appear in local workspace and all contents of the folder moved to this new folder. The old folder stays there with rest content which not belong to source control. You can delete it manually.
Or
Using TFS Power Tools to rename from Explorer.
I followed those steps to preserve the version history of the files inside of TFS:
Rename/move project file (.csproj) in source control explorer in VS (alternatively, this also works from within VS Solution explorer, simply select "rename")
Rename/move project folder in source control explorer in VS
now the project should be unavailable in VS, solution also gets closed
remove project from VS
add project (new path) to VS
fix project references in other projects
adjust namespaces if desired
adjust assembly name and default namespace in project settings
Don't know of an easier way. Was searching for this myself, and this should be the way to go.
I think you can rename it from the TFS Database.
Try going into tbl_Project of the Tfs_DefaultCollection Database, which you can find on the SQL Server Instance used by tfs. You can know which one is that by going into the TFS Console, click on Application Tier, then find the details of the Server under the Data Tier Summary. Run an update query against the project you want to rename.. I haven't tested this but just assuming it should work (some educated guess)..
I am using TFS 2015 Express and rename project is grayed out.
You can still rename the project using the TFS Site for the project.
Here is a link that shows how to do it.
https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/docs/setup-admin/rename-team-project
I was facing a similar issue while trying to rename a folder in Visual Studio 2015.This is what I tried.
Right click on the project file
Open with Notepad
This will generate your current solution file
Change the occurences of your prev file name. (Find and Replace with the desired name)
Save it and close
Change solution explorer name and rename the folder to your desired name.
This should work.
I've downloaded MyWSAT to review but there is no solution or project files for Visual Studio 2012. So I've created a new solution and have attempted to Add_Existing Items to the new project, however, this won't auto add new folders so I have to manually set up all folders then add the files manually.
I just wanted to know if there is a quicker way of doing this?
Create a solution.
Create a project for the website.
Paste the files in the same folder as the project.
Go back to VS and click the "Show All Files" icon above the solution explorer and include all the files.
Assuming there isn't more configuration necessary, that should work out fine. This is exempt of connection strings, security permissions, etc. but the files are all there and should render fine.
However, this really only works well for a classic ASP website. MVC takes a lot more than that (including wiring up controllers and views) unless those files are included in these "existing files" already.
I have an existing directory structure that is all nicely checked into SVN, so I don't really want to mess with it.
The website code lives in a folder called C:\Projects\TheProject\Website. I want to bring the website files into a new Web Application Project without changing the directory structure.
Ideally the resulting file structure would look like this:
C:\Projects\TheProject\TheProject.sln
C:\Projects\TheProjects\Website\Website.csproj
No matter what I try I dont get what I want. There is no option to create a web application from existing code. This is very frustrating. Does anyone know if it is possible?
OK I figured it out. It's weird, but the following steps will work:
Open fresh copy of Visual Studio
File->New Project, select Web Application
Use the following settings:
Name: Website (this is the name of the existing folder with the website files in it)
Location: C:\Temp\ (anywhere will do for now)
Solution Name: TheProject (name of the existing project's root folder)
Check "Create directory for solution"
Delete the auto-created Default, Global and Web.config files
Save All and close Visual Studio
In Windows Explorer, copy the new folder on top of the existing folder so that the files are merged.
Double click on the sln file to open Visual Studio again.
Select "Show all files" (at the top of Solution Explorer)
Right click on any files or folders you want to add and select Include in Project.
Have you tried something like this?
Create a new Visual Studio Blank Solution from File-->New Project-->Other Project Types-->Blank Solution, making sure to specify c:\Projects\TheProject as your solution directory.
Copy the folder with all of the existing website stuff into c:\Projects\TheProject\WebSite.
Back in Visual Studio, right-click your solution in Solution Explorer and select "Add Existing Website." Then, pick your c:\Projects\TheProject\WebSite folder.
Good luck, HTH.
Create a new web project with a .csproj file. Delete all the files it comes with. Drag everything into the project.
In the File menu, click Open, and then click Web Site. Choose the root folder where your Web Site is located
On top of #cbp answer I would like to add that if you would like to keep the Version control history of those files - in step 6 - instead of copy do:
git mv original-website/* new-web-application-directory/.
What have you tried? I normally create a blank solution and add existing folders (drag and drop on solution explorer works best), and have not had a problem.
in VS 2008 File->New->Project From Existing Code