Filter the Reference Assemblies - visual-studio-2010

We are the providing custom controls for all platforms in Visual Studio .Net. We are adding assemblies into ToolboxControlsInstaller and Register the assemblies in AssemblyFoldersEx under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft.NETFramework. When use the Add reference (to add assemblies C# projects) for Windows Phone Projects, it shows all platform assemblies from GAC like MVC, Windows and WPF. Is there any possible to filter assemblies and show only phone assemblies for Windows Phone Projects. Please help me to resolve the issue. Thanks in advance.

Try using the Productivity Power Tools for Visual Studio!
It replaces the default "Add Reference" dialog with a better one, and on top, shows that it is filtering the references by platform!

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs\Silverlight for WindowsPhone\v4.0\AssemblyFoldersEx
If we create a new Key under the above registry location then set the Assemblies location as default value. Then put what are the assemblies we want to add in Add Reference tab in that location. It will resolve this issue.

Related

How do I add ArcObjects Version to a Visual Basic project?

I am developing a Visual Basic project in Visual Studio 2010 that uses ArcObjects. (I have ArcGIS 10.3 for Desktop.) I am getting the error "'RuntimeManager' is not declared. It may be inaccessible due to its protection level." A previous answer, Esri ArcObjects--Esri.ArcGIS.Version assembly, recommended adding a reference to Esri.ArcGIS.Version by clicking on Project, Add Reference, selecting it under .NET and clicking OK. I have tried to do this, but it's not under .NET. What can I do to make it available?
You should be able to find it if you use the Browse option.
The ESRI.ArcGIS.Version.dll file should be under your DeveloperKit installation folder. For me it is:
C:\Program Files (x86)\ArcGIS\DeveloperKit10.2\DotNet

Can't find System.Windows in Add Reference

I created a new file-system based web site in Visual Studio 2010. On property pages I've set to use .NET 4.0, but I cannot find System.Windows in the Add Reference dialog. The only copy on my PC seems to be in this directory, but this is not a Silverlight project
C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\Silverlight\v4.0
I thought it might have something to do with the client profile vs full version, but I can't see where to specify that in a web site project.
What am I doing wrong?
Not all namespaces have corresponding DLL file names used in the Add Reference dialog. System.Windows is one of these.
For example, System.Windows.Clipboard is resident in the PresentationCore.dll, but System.Windows.SizeConverter is in WindowsBase.dll. It all depends on the actual types you need to access.
System.Windows is the WPF base classes - you cant add that assembly to an ASP.NET site. You will need to change your application type to use it.

Why does visual studio not recognize System.Web.SessionState?

I am trying to go through the example at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa719643(VS.71).aspx
Visual studio 2010 does not recognize System.Web.SessionState and various others.
I tried adding a .net reference to them but they do not exist on my system. I have .Net 4 installed.
Why would these examples use namespaces that are not recognized by visual studio?
alt text http://www.phantix-llc.com/system.web.sessionstate_missing.jpg
System.Web isn't shown because VS2010 defaults to using the .NET4 Client Profile which doesn't include it. (You can see the "Filtered for .NET Framework 4 Client Profile" text at the top of the Add Reference dialog.)
You need to change your project's properties so that it targets the full version of the framework, then you'll be able to select System.Web.
System.Web.SessionState (and the others shown unrecognized) are in System.Web.dll. Verify that reference exists.

Removing all unused references from a project in Visual Studio projects

I just wondered if it possible within various Visual Studio versions to automatically remove all references from a project that were never been used?
In your answer, please specify which version of VS the solution applies to.
If you have Resharper (plugin) installed, you can access a feature that allows you to analyze used references via Solution Explorer > (right click) References > Optimize References...
http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/webhelp/Refactorings__Remove_Unused_References.html
This feature does not correctly handle:
Dependency injected assemblies
Dynamically loaded assemblies (Assembly.LoadFile)
Native code assemblies loaded through interop
ActiveX controls (COM interop)
Other creative ways of loading assemblies
All you need is stone and bare knuckle then you can do it like a caveman.
Remove unused namespaces (for each class)
Run Debug build
Copy your executable and remaining namespace references to new location
Run the executable
Missing Reference DLL error will occur
Copy required DLL from Debug folder
Repeat 4-6
Gu Gu Ga Ga?
Throw your stone
You can also rely on your build tools to let you know which reference is still required. It's the era of VS 2017, caveman still survived.
The Resharper extension will do this for you.
This extension supports Visual Studio 2005 through 2017.
While the compiler won't include unused assemblies, extraneous using statements and references slows down Visual Studio and Intellisense, since there's more code the tools have to consider.
You can try the free VS2010 extension: Reference Assistant by Lardite group. It works perfectly for me. This tool helps to find unused references and allows you to choose which references should be removed.
In a Visual Basic project there is support to remove "Unused References" (Project-->References-->Unused References). In C# there isn´t such a function.
The only way to do it in a C# project (without other tools) is to remove possible unused assemblies, compile the project and verify if any errors occur during compilation. If none errors occur you have removed a unused assembly. (See my post)
If you want to know which project (assembly) depends on other assemblies you can use NDepend.
With Visual Studio versions 2017 and 2015, you can do this with the Code Map feature, but this feature is only available in the Enterprise Edition, not the Community or Professional versions.
Right-click on the project node in the solution explorer and select 'Show on Code Map.' This will display your .dll as a single node in a blank graph. Right-click on that node in the Code Map and select "Show Assemblies This References." This will add an additional node called "Externals" which can be expanded to show only the assemblies that are actually referenced.
For Visual Studio 2013/2015/2017 there is an extension that does exactly what you want: ResolveUR. What this basically does is:
reference is removed in the project
project is compiled with msbuild
check for build errors
restore removed references if there were build errors.
For anybody coming here looking for Visual studio 2012:
Download and Install Reference Assistant for Visual Studio 11
Later you can do:
In Visual Studio 2013 this extension works:
ResolveUR
Some people suggested to use an awesome tool - Reference Assistant for Visual Studio. The problem is that VS2012 is the latest supported Visual Studio. But there is the way to make it work in VS2013 as well ;)
And here is how:
1) Download Lardite.RefAssistant.11.0.vsix
2) Change the extension to zip: Lardite.RefAssistant.11.0.vsix -> Lardite.RefAssistant.11.0.zip
3) Unzip and open the extension.vsixmanifest file in the text editor
4) Find all occurences of InstallationTarget Version="[11.0,12.0)" and replace them with InstallationTarget Version="[11.0,12.0]" (note the closing bracket)
5) Save the file and zip all files so they are on the root zip level
6) Change the extension of the new zip to vsix
7) Install and enjoy :)
I've tested it with VS2013, thanks source for the tutorial
EDIT
Add to support VS 2015 Community Edition
<InstallationTarget Version="[14.0,15.0]" Id="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Community" />
Meaning of the brackets
[ – minimum version inclusive.
] – maximum version inclusive.
( – minimum version exclusive.
) – maximum version exclusive.
[Update] This feature is only available for .Net core projects.
This feature will be coming to Visual Studio 2019 very soon and already available with Visual Studio 2019 v16.10 Preview 1.
This option is turned off by default, but you can enable it under menu Tools > Options > Text Editor > C# > Advanced. Select the Remove Unused References command in Solution Explorer (Experimental). Once the option is enabled, the Remove Unused References command will appear in the right-click menu of a project name or dependencies node.
You can use Reference Assistant extension from the Visual Studio extension gallery.
Used and works for Visual Studio 2010.
In the VS2022 (preview at the moment of writing) this comes out of the box for SDK Style Projects (read: .NET Core and newer).
If it is available you can find it in the project context menu:
You get to choose what to do with each finding.
Read more about it here.
Pro-tip: Check if your project compiles and runs correctly after applying this. In my experience it doesn't check whether a dependency is used at runtime, for instance.
Using DevExpress, I follow these instructions:
In VS, go to DevExpress - Editor - Code Cleanup. Under Rules, check 'Remove unused namespace references'. Click OK.
Right-click on the solution, and choose 'Code Cleanup'. The cleanup runs for a few minutes, and finishes.
Build your application
The following method does not depend on any 'add-on's and is not very painful.
Step through each of your source files and
Select all (Ctrl-A)
Toggle outline expansion (Ctrl-M, M). This will reduce the file to two lines.
Click on the namespace's '+'. This will show each of the file's classes as a single line. Scan each class's reference count, looking for unreferenced classes.
Click on each of the classes' '+'. This will show each of the class functions as a single line. Scan each function's reference count, looking for unreferenced functions.
Scanning each file looking for '0 reference' takes only a second.
Scanning an entire project takes only a couple of minutes.
In VB2008, it works this way:
Project>Add References
Then click on the Recent tab where you can see list of references used recently. Locate the one you do not want and delet it. Then you close without adding anything.

How does Visual Studio find Unity/P&P or Office assemblies in its Add References Dialog?

I have read other posts on SO regarding VS's Add References dialog and how it populates assemblies. However, even after looking in Reference Assemblies folder and using the AssemblyFolders registry key for 32-bit and 64-bit, I am still unable to locate some assemblies, such as Unity/P&P and Office assemblies, when searching for them programmatically. Am I missing something?
You can use the Assembly Binding Log Viewer (Fuslogvw.exe) to see where the assemblies that are actually used exists on disk.

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