How to programmatically drop a file on a Windows app? - windows

I'm looking to have a particular running instance of Visual Studio open a file. Is there a way I can fake a drag-drop operation via code from my app to Visual Studio? Same as if I were to drag a file from Explorer into VS.
I realize I could probably do this easier as an add-in or macro but I'm looking to make this work purely from a script.

You could try sending a WM_DROPFILES message to the Visual Studio window.

Related

Viewing binary files in MSVS under Windows 10

For ages I've been using MS visual studio 15 to view binary files, simply by doing file|open. My files have a custom extension, 'SQ3', but VS seemed to happily infer that they aren't text, and display them as binary. However, Win10 seems to have stopped that. Now if I do the same thing, a popup appears, asking me whether I want to find an application from the shop, or always use this application (presumably MSVS, the one I'm invoking from). There's a proceed button, but it doesn't respond. There seems to be no way that I can get VS to open and display the file.
Is there a way to stop the OS intervening so VS can do its thing?
Incidentally, having to rename files would be extremely inconvenient in this situation. TIA
Thanks, that's perfect.
In Visual Studio go to Tools/Options/Text Editor/File Extensions.
Add new entry to the list:
Extension: sq3
Editor: Binary Editor
Click Add and then OK to close the dialog. Files with .sq3 extension will now open with the hex editor when opening them or dragging them to Visual Studio.

How to enable open XML Package Editor power tool for Visual Studio

I want to create customized ribbon on my excel sheet. I saw some of the tutorial (e.g, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn3Qkp4Jw34) where they used Open XML package editor power tool for visual studio 2010 and worked on some xml configuration file to add ribbon. Hence I downloaded the tool and installed it. But when I drag and drop the excel file to the VS-2010, the file instead of opening in the VS editor it is opening in its new excel window. I tried to do same thing for a word file but still it is opening in new word window instead of opening in VS editor. Anybody could you please help me regarding this. I was using Visual Studio 2012 but then I came to know that Open XML package editor power tool for visual studio 2010 won't work for VS-2012 hence Installed VS-2010 but still getting same problem.
Thank you
Anup, Have you tried going to File->Open from Visual Studio?
If that opens it from an Office client application as well, then the Visual Studio Package Editor is not the default option for opening documents of that file extension.
If the document is a part of a solution (you can just create a new blank solution and add it in) you can right click on the file from Solution Explorer and choose "Open With", from there you can choose to open that file as a "Package File", and you can also select this as the default way to "open" files of that extension in Visual Studio.
I work for Microsoft and have just updated this plugin to work with VS2012 and 2013. Drag and drop should work in all the VS versions (I just tested it) but perhaps it's worth trying downloading the updated extension from the Gallery and seeing if it works for you in the newer VS version.

How to add action to Visual Studio Solution Explorer?

Please let me know how to add an action into the context-menu of "Solution Explorer" in Visual Studio?
I'd like to add my action into the context-menu of files listed in this explorer (see a screenshot for example), and then be able to launch my application (EXE file) that can get the filename (including its path) as an argument.
I currently use VS2008, however please let me know if that should be different with VS2010 and VS2012.
THANK YOU
Write your own visual studio Add-In take a look at that link this is good place to start. but its not easy...
You're going to have to write a Visual Studio Add-In.
Take a look at the code for the Xsd2Code addin on codeplex. Specifically the Connect class. This addin does something similar to what you want... it adds a context menu option that's available when you right-click on project items (in this case, only enabled for .xsd files).
Also, check out the Solution Explorer Context Menu sample within the Visual Studio 2005 Automation Samples download.

How can I programmatically refresh Visual Studio WPF designers?

Is it possible to programmatically refresh WPF designer windows in Visual Studio e.g. using DTE?
I have some design-time behaviour where I would like to refresh WPF designer windows after file system changes I have detected.
I have tried:
dte.ItemOperations.OpenFile(file) //where file is a xaml file
but this has no effect.
Update
I am looking for a solution where I do not close and then re-open the xaml file, as this is too heavy-handed. I'm looking for a way of getting WPF designers to reload\refresh as they do when the solution is rebuilt.
The best that i can think of is
dte.ActiveDocument.Close(vsSaveChanges.vsSaveChangesNo);
dte.ItemOperations.OpenFile(FileName);

Visual Studio output window- what goes there and why?

Can someone please explain to me what goes to the Output window in VS? Where do the messages there come from and do they have other use other than for debbuging?
Thanks.
The Output window is a set of text panes that you can write to and read from. Visual Studio defines these built-in panes: Build, through which projects communicate messages about builds, and General, through which Visual Studio communicates messages about the integrated development environment (IDE). Projects receive a reference to the Build pane automatically through the IVsBuildableProjectCfg interface methods, and Visual Studio offers direct access to the General pane through the SVsGeneralOutputWindowPane service. In addition to the built-in panes, you can create and manage your own custom panes.
Output Window (Visual Studio SDK)
This panel shows the actual info, that is spit from your application to the console (no matter debug or run mode). Also building, rebuilding and cleaning your project is described as operations there.
Check F1 for more info ;)
By default it either shows output from the build process, or debugger output. You can use OutputDebugString to display text in the output window while debugging.
There's not much else you can do with it without using an Add-In for Visual Studio.

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