I followed the steps on MSDN for creating a template. I created a new project in VS2010 and then used the File->Export Template... option to create my template. I went through the wizard and everything seemed to make sense. I left the default Output location alone (it was:
...Documents\Visual Studio 2010\My Exported Templates\MyProject.zip)
and I left the Automatically import the template into Visual Studio checked. I can see the exported zip file (and I tried moving a copy to the:
Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual C#
folder. But when I start up a new instance of VS2010 and use File->New Project I don't see my template. I was expecting that in addition to RecentTemplates/ Installed Templates/ Online Templates I might get a new category for User Templates. Failing that I thought it might be under Installed Templates but there is nothing new there. Where is my template supposed to appear? Did I miss a step?
Duh, It was working I just didn't know where to look. I would bring up the new project template and search through all the leaf nodes. Turns out I had to click on the Visual C# root in the tree view (it appears to not be in any of the leafs). This always trips me up in tree views, I never expect the root to have options, let alone be the only place that has an option.
I think you should restart( quit and run again) your visual studio!
Related
I've begun to really enjoy a quick contextual menu that appears when adding new Typescript files into my Visual Studio Web Project. You can see from this image that I can quickly select that I want to create a typescript file without much fuss. Right clicking all I have to do is go through a folder in Scripts > Add > Typescript File to make said file.
I've begun adding my scripts to another referenced .csproj class library, and unfortunately for me, the context menu doesn't work in the same way. Shown here:
I'm wondering if there is a way to reclaim this menu context without having to convert this project into anything different? Or, if changing the project will have minimal impact on everything else.
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!
I create a new custom project type using a VSPackage project inheriting of MPF library (http://mpfproj11.codeplex.com/). As a result I obtain a .vsix but I need add this project type using a .msi. I'm using the Visual Studio 2010 Setup projet for it. In my setup project I add the content of the VS Package in the same directory where the .vsix put then, but I think Ineed to put in the registre the new type of project because when I use the setup , the project template does not come out in Visual Studio and when I give double click the file with extension of the type of new project and does not recognize it. When I look the registry after install the vsix, this was one of the things that I found diferent. I add this entries in my setup project but It's not working yet.I'm missing something else?
In the projecttemplatedir is the directory where I put the .dll of the project type, the vsixmifest and pkgdef. The project template is in [User]\Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Templates\ProjectTemplates\[Name of new Project Type]\[projecttemplate.zip]
Best Regards
PS: The project type is for VS 2013 but I'm using the VS 2010 Setup project ;)
OK, so first the "don't"s of doing this:
In general, if you are installing via MSI you shouldn't be doing anything user-specific -- no writing in HKEY_CURRENT_USER, nor writing within their Documents folder, LocalAppData, or Visual Studio folders, etc. If you see yourself writing files or registry keys in either of those places, that should be your hint that there's a better way to do what you're trying to do. For what you've shown so far, this raises more than a few red flags for me.
Second, don't ever go writing keys into 12.0_Config. That part of the hive is nothing more than a cache that's built up from other parts of the registry and on-disk .pkgdef files from extensions. It's rebuilt in any number of senarios, including installing new extensions. Any writes there you should presume will get blown away at any time. If you need to write things there you should either (a) write in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\[version] and run devenv /setup or (2) [preferred] put your keys in a .pkgdef inside your extension which gets merged into 12.0_Config for you automatically.
Now the dos:
You said you already had a .vsix produced by the SDK: you can put project templates in there. You can then register those templates in the .vsixmanifest and those will pull in. That's far easier than mucking around with files in Documents -- that's the user's directory...don't go playing with that.
Once you have a .vsix that does most of what you need, you should simply take the files within that and install the files in a folder within C:\Program Files [(x86)]\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\Extensions. Even better, you might just want to WiX toolset to build your installer, since it has built-in support for installing extensions. It also has built-in support for invoking the "/setup" process if that's what you need to do as well. Visual Studio Setup projects are no longer supported in newer versions of Visual Studio, so you're better off starting with a technology that isn't already obsolete. WiX is even what we use at Microsoft to do the setup work for Visual Studio itself, so it's definitely up to the task.
Last point: almost everything when it comes to Visual Studio extensibility can be done with a VSIX directly, so presume there's a good way to do something that way before falling back to an MSI. Internally, we can register the entire C# and VB language services with just a VSIX -- they're quite powerful.
I found the answer in this link Registering Project and Item Templates. I set projecttemplatedir entry with
[User]\Documents\Visual Studio 2013\Templates\ProjectTemplates[Name of new Project Type][projecttemplate.zip] that is where i put the project template.
In Visual Studio, if I try to copy a file from one project to another (by using Copy and Paste or by dragging the file to the new project while holding the Ctrl key) it creates a reference to the source file in the original location. Is there a way to create a physical copy of the source file and place that in the target project source direction without having to resort to using Windows Explorer to copy the file manually?
It's not pretty, but when I want to do what you're suggesting, I double-click on the file in Visual Studio, which opens it. Then I do a File->Save As, choose the right directory and save it. All from within Visual Studio. This is usually followed by adding the new file to the other project.
Was just doing this and realized I should mention a side-effect. Depending on your source control (in my case, TFS 2010), doing this from within Visual Studio may modify the location of the file in the project. For me, this means making sure that neither the file nor its project have any pending changes, doing the save as, then doing an undo of the change this causes in TFS 2010 (project change, file add and delete).
From http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0fb6xxhb.aspx:
If you are working with solution items, Visual C++ projects, or other similar projects, you are always working with links in Solution Explorer. If you are working with Visual Basic projects, Visual C# projects, and other projects, you might be working with links or files.
Essentially, the answer to my question is 'No'. In most cases, I must use Windows Explorer.
I have created an Item Template using the "Export Template" wizard. I opened up the XML file and made a couple of minor changes, then rezipped the package. Then I checked the item template into source control so that everyone on the team can access it if they want.
But for the life of me I can't get the template to show up under My Templates when I go to Add->New Item.
I have tried copying the zip file into every conceivable directory:
The template directories listed under Tools->Projects and Solutions->General
All the subfolders of these directories (i.e. /Visual C#/, /Visual Web Developer/ etc)
But nothing shows up. Has anyone else managed to distribute Item Templates to their team mates before?
In order to have a VS item template appear, you need to make sure that you run "devenv.exe /installvstemplates" after you have copied the .zip file containing your .vstemplate and template code file into the %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\<Project Type> folder.
I've found that it's useful to wrap the whole thing up into an MSI that discovers the VS9 path, copies the Item/Project template to the necessary folder, and calls a custom action that shells out to devenv.exe passing the "/installvstemplates" switch. That way your colleagues just need to install the package and they are up and running!
Hope this helps.
Here are the two articles I found online:
First the one on how to create an item template:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms247113(VS.80).aspx
Second is how to get VS to locate the item template.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/y3kkate1(VS.80).aspx
As far as I can see you have to place your custom templates in:
My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Language\
Adam Berent