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I have a standalone project that contains some code I'd like to re-used. I created a library project in order to contain that code. There does not appear to be a way to move files from the one project to the other. (cut/paste in solution explorer did not work)
I then manually copied the files in Windows explorer (outside of VS) into the library's main "folder" but they didn't show up in solution explorer either.
Anyone know of a way to do this without having to manually create each file in the library and then copying/pasting the code into the files?
You need to copy the files and paste them into your solution/project folder(s). Once the files physically exist within your solution/project folder structure (Windows FileSystem / Explorer), then you right-click on your project within Visual Studio, select Add then Existing Item. Browse to the location of that file and open it. It will now exist within your project as a code file.
If you have two projects within the same solution, you can simply drag the file from one project to the other within Visual Studio Solution Explorer. That will create a copy of the class in the new project. You can then remove the old one and clean up any code references in the first project.
I'm trying to open existing files that were previously opened as a project in Visual Studio, but I moved them and renamed the folder. How can I open these files in Visual Studio as a project?
I'm not sure what you mean by website project. If its the solution files you want then way I found worked for me.
However, If its the project files that add DLL's to your site you will need to create a new project of the same type and copy your code in that project. But the Project file that opens these should still work if it was copied over with the other files.
To add an existing folder to a Solution: Open the the folder as a new website. Ensure that any old .sln files are deleted from the new folder.
When you attempt to close Visual Studios it should prompt you to save your site in a new solution(.sln) file
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 have a rather involved Visual Studio solution (2010, but it shouldn't matter) that I need to rename.
I want to rename the folders to match the new solution name, but I can't figure out a way to refactor the folder names automatically, and going through every single project file will be painful.
Is there an official way to do this?
Manually edit .sln file
This method is entirely aimed at renaming the directory for the project, as viewed in Windows Explorer.
This method does not suffer from the problems in the Remove/add project file method below (references disappearing), but it can result in problems if your project is under source control (see notes below). This is why step 2 (backup) is so important.
Close Visual Studio.
Create a backup of your .sln file (you can always roll back).
Imagine you want to rename directory Project1 to Project2.
If not using source control, rename the folder from Project1 to Project2 using Windows Explorer.
If using source control, rename the folder from Project1 to Project2 using the functions supplied by source control. This preserves the history of the file. For example, with TortoiseSVN, right click on the file, select TortoiseSVN .. Rename.
In the .sln file, edit all instances of Project1 to be Project2, using a text editor like NotePad.
Restart Visual Studio, and everything will work as before, but with the project in a different directory.
You can also see renaming solution manually or post which describes this manual process.
Advantages
You can make the directory within Windows Explorer match the project name within the solution.
This method does not remove any references from other projects to this file (an advantage over the Remove/add project file method, see my other answer below).
Warnings
It's important to back everything up into a .zip file before renaming anything, as this method can create issues with source control.
If your project is under source control, it may create issues if you rename files or
directories outside of source control (using Windows Explorer). Its preferable to rename the file using the source control framework itself, if you can, to preserve the history of that file (check out the context menu on a right click - it may have a function to rename the file).
Update 2014-11-02
ReSharper has added an automated method for achieving the same result as the manual method above. If the namespace is underlined with a squiggly blue line, click on the action pyramid icon to either:
Rename the namespace to match the directory name in Windows Explorer, or;
Rename the directory in Windows Explorer to match the namespace.
In the second case, the final word defines the new directory name in Windows Explorer, e.g. if we changed the namespace to ViewModel2, it would offer to move the file to folder ViewModel2.
However, this will not necessarily update files in source control, so you may still have to use the manual method.
Update 2018-01-31
Tested with Visual Studio 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017 Update 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Update 2020-05-02
Tested with Visual Studio 2019.
Update 2021-11-19
Retested. Still works.
Update 2022-11-30
Latest version of Git should auto-detect file renames, so no extra care is needed to preserve the history of diffs.
To rename a solution:
In Solution Explorer, right-click the project, select Rename, and
enter a new name.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the project and select Properties.
On the Application tab, change the "Assembly name" and "Default
namespace".
In the main cs file (or any other code files), rename the namespace
declaration to use the new name. For this right-click the namespace
and select Refactor > Rename enter a new name. For example:
namespace WindowsFormsApplication1
Change the AssemblyTitle and AssemblyProduct in
Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs.
[assembly: AssemblyTitle("New Name Here")]
[assembly: AssemblyDescription("")]
[assembly: AssemblyConfiguration("")]
[assembly: AssemblyCompany("")]
[assembly: AssemblyProduct("New Name Here")]
[assembly: AssemblyCopyright("Copyright © 2013")]
[assembly: AssemblyTrademark("")]
[assembly: AssemblyCulture("")]
Delete bin and obj directories physically.
Rename the project physical folder directory.
Open the SLN file (within notepad or any editor) and change the path
to the project.
Clean and Rebuild the project.
The Rename operations in Visual Studio only change the filename, i.e. *.prj for a project, and *.sln for a solution. You will need to rename folders separately using the filesystem, and you will need to remove and re-add the projects since they will have new folder names. However, note that the solution and project files are respectively text and xml files. You could write your own program that parses them and renames both the folder names, filenames, and fixes the project/solution files internally.
You can also export template and then create a new project from the exported template changing the name as you prefer
Below is a step-by-step way of renaming your entire solution in Visual Studio 2013
Assuming we're changing a project named "HelloWorld.ui" to "Section1to5.ui"
Go to solution explorer (screenshot below), right click on the project that you wish to rename and select "Rename". Enter the new name that you desire.
Right click on the Project that you have just renamed, and click on "Properties". Under the Application tab, change the "Assembly name" and "Default namespace".
In the main Program.cs file (or any other code files that you may have created), rename the namespace declaration to use the new name. For this right-click the namespace and select Refactor > Rename enter a new name. For example:
namespace HelloWorld.ui ----> namespace Section1to5.ui
Next, expand the "Properties" and double click on AssemblyInfo.cs file. You will notice the below code fragment:
[assembly: AssemblyTitle("HelloWorld.ui")]
[assembly: AssemblyDescription("")]
[assembly: AssemblyConfiguration("")]
[assembly: AssemblyCompany("Microsoft")]
[assembly: AssemblyProduct("HelloWorld.ui")]
[assembly: AssemblyCopyright("Copyright © Microsoft 2015")]
[assembly: AssemblyTrademark("")]
[assembly: AssemblyCulture("")]
You need to change the AssemblyTitle and AssemblyProduct in Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs to the new name, in this example from "HelloWorld.ui" to "Section1to5.ui". Once you're done changing the name, save and close Visual Studio.
In the project directory, go inside the folder "HelloWorld.ui" and delete the "bin" and "obj" directories.
Once you're done, rename the folder "HelloWorld.ui" to the new project name.
Open the renamed solutions file with a text editor such as Notepad or Notepad++ and edit the following line:
Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "HelloWorld.ui", "HelloWorld.ui\HelloWorld.ui.csproj", "{39FC65A3-3AE7-4EC9-B8F7-74F971636C70}"
Replace all the instances of "HelloWorld.ui" the new name that you've selected for your project, in this case "Section1to5.ui". This changes the path of the project to the renamed directory in step 6.
Open the solutions file with visual studio, and clean and rebuild the project.
You may notice that the "Debug/Run" button has been replaced by the "Attach" button. If this happens, simply right click on the project and choose the "Set as StartUp project" option. Alternatively, click on Tools>Customize>Commands>Add command>Debug and add the button.
You're done renaming the project, if you have any doubts feel free to post and I'd be glad to help out!
2021 Update:
renameproject made this effortless. A simple CLI tool to use, it even creates a git commit on success.
https://github.com/ModernRonin/ProjectRenamer
Old answer:
I've used the Visual Studio extension "Full Rename Project" to successfully rename projects in an ASP.NET Core 2 solution.
I used ReSharper then to adjust the namespace (right click on project, refactor, adjust namespaces...)
https://github.com/kuanysh-nabiyev/RenameProjectVsExtension
Delete your bin and obj subfolders to remove a load of incorrect reference then use windows to search for old name.
Edit any code or xml files found and rebuild, should be ok now.
Remove/add project file method
This method is entirely aimed at renaming the directory for the project, as viewed in Windows Explorer.
Backup your entire project using something like GIT, SVN, or WinZip (important!).
Within the solution in Visual Studio, remove the project.
Rename the directory in Windows Explorer.
Add the project back in again within Visual Studio.
Advantages
You can make the directory within Windows Explorer match the project name within the solution.
Disadvantages
If you remove a library, it removes any references to the said library from other projects. The solution may not compile after this until you add the references to said library back in (this is quite easy). This is the reason why step 1 (backup) is so important.
If you have source control, you will lose the history of the file.
Right-clicking on a project and selecting "Open Folder in Windows Explorer" is useful to keep track of where the project is stored while you are performing this process.
I tried the Visual Studio Project Renamer, but, it threw exceptions in the few cases where I tried it.
I have had good success with CopyWiz.
I am in no way affiliated with them, and I have not yet paid for it, but I may have to soon, as it is the only tool that seems to work for both my C# and C++ projects. I do hope they make a little money, and continue to improve it, though.
Using the "Find in Files" function of Notepad++ worked fine for me (ctrl + H, Find in Files).
http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v6.2.2.html
You can:
click file-> new ->create project from existing project
select your original file, eg. solution 1 and input the new file name solution 2
change the project name in the new solution 2
If you are Creating a Website in Visual Studio 2010. You can change the project name as follows.
Step 1: In Visual Studio 2010 the SLN file will be stored under project folder within Visual studio 2010 and Source files are stored under Website folder within Visual Studio 2010.
Step 2: Rename the folder by right click on that folder forward by Rename which contains your SLN project.
Step 3: Rename the SLN file name by right click on that SLN file forward by Rename.
Step 4: Rename the folder that contains Source of that SLN file under Website in Visual Studio 2010.
Step 5: Then finally Double click Your SLN file and change the root of your SLN source folder.
I'm new to VS. I just had that same problem: Needed to rename an started project after a couple weeks work. This what I did and it worked.
Just in case, make a backup of your folder Project, although you won't
be touching it, but just in case!
Create a new project and save it using the name you wish for your 'new'
project, meaning the name you want to change your 'old' project to.
Build it. After that you'll have a Project with the name you wanted but
that it does not anything at all but open a window (a Windows Form App in
my case).
With the new proyect opened, click on Project->Add Existing Ítem and using
Windows Explorer locate your 'old' folder Project and select all the files
under ...Visual Studio xxx\Projects\oldApp\oldApp
Select all files in there (.vb, .resx) and add them to your 'new' Project
(the one that should be already opened).
Almost last step would be to open your Project file using the Solution
Explorer and in the 1st tab change the default startup form to the form
it should be.
Rebuild everything.
Maybe more steps but less or no typing at all, just some mouse clicks. Hope
it helps :)
If you have problems with loading Shared projects, like Xamarin, remember to change reference to shared libs in csproj files. I developed a CocosSharp game and Droid/iOS/WP81 projects didn't want to load. I had to change the line below in every csproj file (Driod/iOS/WP81) which referenced Shared lib. That was caused because of folder names change, so replace YOUR_PREVIOUS_NAMESPACE with your new names of folders.
<Import Project="..\YOUR_PREVIOUS_NAMESPACE.Shared\EmptyProject.Shared.projitems" Label="Shared" />
Also, I noticed that for .Driod projects, assembly name in project properties cannot be changed using Visual Studio (I use 2015). I had to change assembly name manually in the .Droid.csproj file.
<AssemblyName>YourNameSpace</AssemblyName>
Then I loaded solution and in project properties view new name appeared. After rebuilding dll with that name was generated.
The only solution which works for me on Visual Studio 2013 in a WEB project:
Lets say I want to rename "project1" to be "project2".
Lets say the physical path to my .sln file is:
c:\my\path\project1\project1.sln
so the path to my .csproj file as well as the bin and the obj folders should be:
c:\my\path\project1\project1\
Open the solution in VS by double clicking the project1.sln file.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the project (NOT the solution!!!), select Rename, and enter a new name.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the project and select Properties. On the Application tab, change the "Assembly name" and "Default namespace".
In the main CS file (or any other code files like Global.asax for example), rename the namespace declaration to use the new name. For this right-click the namespace and select Refactor > Rename enter a new name. For example:
namespace project1
4.1 In Solution Explorer, right-click the project (NOT the solution!!!), select Rename, and enter a new name.
Make sure: the AssemblyTitle and AssemblyProduct in Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs are set to the new name ("project2").
1
[assembly: AssemblyTitle("New Name Here")]
2
[assembly: AssemblyDescription("")]
3
[assembly: AssemblyConfiguration("")]
4
[assembly: AssemblyCompany("")]
5
[assembly: AssemblyProduct("New Name Here")]
6
[assembly: AssemblyCopyright("Copyright © 2013")]
7
[assembly: AssemblyTrademark("")]
8
[assembly: AssemblyCulture("")]
Close the Visual Studio.
Delete bin and obj directories physically.
Rename the parent folder and the source folder to the new name (project2):
In the example:
c:\my\path\project1\project1
will be:
c:\my\path\project2\project2
Rename the SLN file name by right click on that SLN file forward by Rename.
Then finally open the SLN file (within notepad or any editor) and copy and replace (Ctrl+h) any old name to the new name.
Open VS and click BUILD -> Clean Solution
click Build -> Build solution and then F5 to run...
Note1: If you get something like this: Compilation Error
CS0246: The type or namespace name 'project2' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)
Source File: c:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp\Temporary ASP.NET Files\root\78dd917f\d0836ce4\App_Web_index.cshtml.a8d08dba.b0mwjmih.0.cs
Then go to the "Temporary ASP.NET Files" folder and delete everything.
Note2: If you are trying to do "save as" to a new named project and to keep also the old one, consider duplicating your db by modifying the connectionStrings in web.config and also by re-starting migrations if you have one in the project.
I have followed https://gist.github.com/n3dst4/b932117f3453cc6c56be link and I was able to renamed my entire solution successfully.
along with answer of this link
https://stackoverflow.com/a/19844531/6767365
rename these files.
I renamed my project to MvcMovie and it works fine
If, after following the suggested solution, you have managed to have a new solution renamed (suppose from www.oldsite.com to www.newsite.com), but still have the old Web Site project name because you have an old "ASP.Net Web Site", then follow this additional steps (suppose from project1 to project2).
install and old Visual Studio 2017
open the project with it, right click on the project -> add -> new project.
Select "Installed -> Visual C# -> Web -> Previous Versions -> ASP.NET Empty Web Site" and name it "www.newsite.com"
Move all the files and folders from Visual Studio 2017, from oldsite to newsite until the oldsite remains empty.
Right click on "www.oldsite.com" and remove it.
You can now save everything now and open it back again with Visual Studio 2022. All this is needed only because VS2019/VS2020 do not support "old" ASP.Net Web Site creation, but only editing.
If you want to rename the solution, you can follow the steps below.
Backup.First things first, make sure to always create a backup file.Simply copy your project to a different directory.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the project, select Rename, and enter a new name.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the project and select Properties. On the Application tab, change the "Assembly name" and "Default namespace".
Open any .cs and rename all namespace
Change the AssemblyTitle and AssemblyProduct in Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs.
Delete bin and obj directories physically.
Rename the project physical folder directory.
Open the Sln file (within notepad or any editor) and change the path to the project.
Cleans and Rebuild the project
Details ...https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/1028483/rename-solution-and-related-projects-in-a-aspnet-w.html
To rename a website:
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/Blogs/46334/rename-website-project-in-visual-studio-2013.aspx
locate and edit IISExpress's applicationhost.config, found here:
C:\Users{username}\Documents\IISExpress\config
My current solution for renaming the project folder is:
Remove the project from the solution.
Rename the folder outside Visual Studio.
Re-add the project to the solution.
Is there a better way?
TFS users: If you are using source control that requires you to warn it before your rename files/folders then look at this answer instead which covers the extra steps required.
To rename a project's folder, file (.*proj) and display name in Visual Studio:
Close the solution.
Rename the folder(s) outside Visual Studio. (Rename in TFS if using source control)
Open the solution, ignoring the warnings (answer "no" if asked to load a project from source control).
Go through all the unavailable projects and...
Open the properties window for the project (highlight the project and press Alt+Enter or F4, or right-click > properties).
Set the property 'File Path' to the new location.
If the property is not editable (as in Visual Studio 2012), then open the .sln file directly in another editor such as Notepad++ and update the paths there instead. (You may need to check-out the solution first in TFS, etc.)
Reload the project - right-click > reload project.
Change the display name of the project, by highlighting it and pressing F2, or right-click > rename.
Note: Other suggested solutions that involve removing and then re-adding the project to the solution will break project references.
If you perform these steps then you might also consider renaming the following to match:
Assembly
Default/Root Namespace
Namespace of existing files (use the refactor tools in Visual Studio or ReSharper's inconsistent namespaces tool)
Also consider modifying the values of the following assembly attributes:
AssemblyProductAttribute
AssemblyDescriptionAttribute
AssemblyTitleAttribute
This is straightforward in Visual Studio 2015 (possibly works in older versions)
In Solution Explorer, right click on Main solution → Rename
In Solution Explorer, right click on project (under solution) → Rename
In Solution Explorer, double click, or right click on Properties → goto Application Tab, rename Assembly name and Default namespace to match.
If you wish to also rename the namespace, open one of your class files. Right click the namespace → Rename.... This should search and replace all references to your namespace throughout the project.
Close the project → rename the project folder.
Edit the .sln file in Notepad, and change the path to the csproj, i.e., fu\bar.csproj → bar\bar.csproj.
There is another way doing this, using the *.sol, *csproj files.
Open your solution file.
Search for the *.csproj you would like to change.
It will be like this (relative to the *.sol file):
Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "Shani.Commands.Impl", "Shani.Commands.Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl.csproj", "{747CFA4B-FC83-419A-858E-5E2DE2B948EE}"
And just change the first part to the new diretory for example:
Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl.csproj
Of course, don't forget to move the whole project to that directory.
Man, have I struggled with this. Unfortunately there isn't a one click solution in Visual Studio, but if you're running Visual Studio 2012 and your project is under source control with Team Foundation Server, here is how I got it to work, while keeping the source history:
(Make sure you read #mjv's comment below, as he notes that you can skip step 5-10)
Make sure you have checked in all changes, so you have no pending changes.
Remove the project from the solution, by right clicking and selecting Remove.
Now, in Windows Explorer, rename the project folder.
Go back to Visual Studio, and in Solution Explorer, right click the solution and choose Add -> Existing project. Select the project file for the project you removed in step 2, which should be located in the renamed folder.
Now the project is back in the solution, but the project doesn't seem to be added to source control. To fix that, open Source Control Explorer.
Find the project folder in Source Control Explorer, that corresponds with the project folder on your disk, that you renamed in step 3.
Rename the folder in Source Control Explorer, so it has the same name as the project folder on disk.
Now take a look at your pending changes. You should have changes to the solution file and a rename operation on the project folder.
Do a rebuild and make sure everything compiles correctly. If you had inter-project references to the project you renamed, you need to add them again to the individual projects that referenced it.
You should be all set now. Go and check everything in.
The above guide worked for me. If it doesn't work for you, try and delete your local solution completely, and remove the folder mapping in your workspace. Restart Visual Studio just in case. Make sure you actually deleted the whole solution from your computer. Now readd the solution mapping to your workspace and get the latest version. Now try the above steps. The same applies if something goes wrong while following the above steps. Just delete your solution locally and get the latest source, and you'll have a clean slate to work with.
If you're still having problems, make sure that you haven't changed anything manually in the solution file, or trying other 'tricks' before trying the above steps. If you have changed something and checked it in, you might want to consider doing a rollback to the point just before you started messing with the renaming of the project.
Of course, you'd also want to rename the project itself, in Solution Explorer. You can do this before the steps above, but in that case, make sure you check in that change before applying the steps above. You can also do it afterwards, but make sure you follow all the steps above first, and check in your changes before trying to rename the project name in Solution Explorer. I don't recommend trying to mix the above steps with a rename of the project name in Solution Explorer. It might work though, but I would recommand doing it in 2 separate changesets.
Currently, no. Well, actually you can click the broken project node and in the properties pane look for the property 'Path', click the small browse icon, and select the new path.
Voilà :)
The simpler solution is the following:
Right-click the project and rename it.
(optional) Open the project’s property settings and modify the assembly name (and optionally the default namespace) to use the new project name.
(optional) Select the namespace name in a source file, right click and select Refactor/Rename to globally rename the namespace to the new project name.
(optional) Open the AssemblyInfo.cs file and change the assembly name to match.
Save and close the solution.
Using Windows Explorer, rename the project folder to the new name.
Open the SLN file in a text editor and find the one reference to the project path and change it to use the new folder name.
There are four needed steps, but seven recommended. At the end of the day though the project is renamed completely. Technically, the folder name for the project doesn’t have to match the project itself, so even that step is optional, but it can be confusing if they don’t match. The same for the assembly and namespace names.
In andersjanmyr's answer it's easier to rename the project first.
Rename the project.
Close the solution (save it).
Rename the folders outside Visual Studio.
Open the solution, ignoring the warnings.
Go through all unavailable projects and set the property 'File Path' to the new location of your project file, i.e. someproject.csproj.
Reload the project.
Also, after those steps are carried out, you might want to rename other references to your old project name.
In project properties, update the Assembly Name and Default Namespace.
This will update the following in the project file...
<RootNamespace>SomeProjectName</RootNamespace>
<AssemblyName>SomeProjectName</AssemblyName>
...and will get rid of the error "Namespace does not correspond to file location, should be: 'SomeProjectName'"
Rename your root namespace (if you have ReSharper right click the Namespace and go Refactor -> Rename).
Change all occurrences of your old project name in AssemblyInfo.cs.
For those using Visual Studio + Git and wanting to keep the file history (works renaming both projects and/or solutions):
Close Visual Studio
In the .gitignore file, duplicate all ignore paths of the project you want to rename with renamed versions of those paths.
Use the Git move command like this:
git mv <old_folder_name> <new_folder_name>
See documentation for additional options: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-mv
In your .sln file: Find the line defining your project and change the folder name in path. The line should look something like:
Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "<Project name>", "<path-to-project>\<project>.csproj"
Open Visual Studio, and right click on project → Rename
Afterwards, rename the namespaces.
I read that ReSharper has some options for this. But simple find/replace did the job for me.
Remove old .gitignore paths.
For Visual Studio 2017 you can use my Visual Studio extension:
Download
It will rename the project in:
The project location folder
The solution file
References in other projects
The assembly name, information
The default namespace
I just had to do this myself (using Visual Studio 2010). As some folks have answered, the simplest step seems to be:
Close the Visual Studio project.
Open the .sln file and rename the project directory prefix for each of the .csproj occurrences.
Save the .sln file
Rename the actual project folder directory on your hard drive to match your changes in the .sln file.
Open the .sln (in Visual Studio) and rebuild
Using Visual Studio 2019, I followed below steps to make the project name change successful:
Close the solution
Rename the project folder to match with new project name
Open solution file in notepad++ kind of editor and edit the FilePath with new project name folder
Open the solution and click No if it ask whether you want to open from source control
Right click the project which you want renaming and click Properties then change below:
Change Assembly Name,
Default Assembly namespace and
Assembly information with new name
Open any of the file and move the file to new namespace which will be done by all files
If you have app.config kind of files then make sure to move them also in new namespace
Rebuild it which will work successfully
A proven solution for Visual Studio extension for Data Tools for Business Intelligence (SSDT-BI 2013):
Move the Project folder to its new location (don't rename anything yet)
In Solution Explorer, rename the Project / Solution.
Close (and save) the newly-renamed project.
Rename the project's folder and .sln file.
Use a text editor and open the newly-renamed project solution file (.sln) (I used Notepad++)
In line number 6 you'll see: "Project {fdjfksdjk4387!...} = "OLDPROJECT", "OLDFOLDER\OLDPROJECT.rptproj". Rename everything with the new names used in step 4. (i.e. ... = "NEWPROJECT", "NEWFOLDER\NEWPROJECT.rptproj"... )
That's it!
It was tested 100% and worked flawlessly in my case.
NOTE: I can't confirm if it works under different project templates and other Visual Studio versions. As always, do backup everything beforehand.
What worked for me in Visual Studio 2017:
Close solution in Visual Studio
Rename the directories of projects in the solution.
(push change in source control - Git in my case)
Edit the .sln file in a text editor (outside Visual Studio 2017) changing the name of the directory.
Reopen the solution in Visual Studio
It said something like "re-adding project". I rebuilt everything and everything was good to go.
See item 3 in the linked article.
Close the solution and the IDE.
In Windows Explorer: Change the directory name to the new name.
In Windows Explorer: Open the .sln file with a text editor.
Change the directory name to the new name and save.
Restart the IDE and open the solution from menu File → Recent Files menu if it doesn't start automatically.
Click on the project folder in Solution Explorer and check the path property in the properties at the bottom. It will now be referencing to the new project folder.
It worked for me.
I've had to do this lots of times. It's really useful to be able to repurpose an existing project, but be able to rename text in namespaces, files, and folders (including file / directory names).
Using a recursive find and replace starting at the root folder means the rename doesn't break links to projects in the solution files and project references.
To this end, I have created a project to do just this. The application also makes an effort to ignore version control folders such as .git, .svn and the .vs settings file. More information is in the README.
https://github.com/garethrbrown/vs-project-rename
I am recently working on .Net 6 project with VS2022. and I need to rename my templatemicroservice to my UserMicroservice.
.Net 6 changes most of the things for you. like AssemblyNames and NameSpaces. Also, it changes the ProjectName references in .sln automatically. So, this answer will really help you to rename your service with no hurdles.
So, Steps I followed:
Open the solution in Visual Studio and did these steps:
I renamed my solution by right clicking on it. like, TemplateServiceSolution to UserServiceSolution.
Renamed all the Projects in solution by right clicking on them. like, TemplateService to UserService.
In a specific project, I searched the namespaces like: namespace TemplateService and replaced all by namespace UserService. Do this step in each project. Also relplace using TemplateService to using UserService.
Open your launchsettings.json, and rename anything related to old service, as I had few things in profiles of launchsettings.json.
Just to be sure, please check your startup and program.cs files as well, I didn't have any changes in them.
Closed the solution from Visual Studio and did these steps:
Closed the solution, and opened the File Explorer. Renamed all my project folders from TemplateService to UserService.
Open the .sln in notepad/notepad++, and must change the Folder Structure name. like for a particular project, I should give the correct .csproj paths. as shown in image, I need to rename TemplateService to UserService.
Open the solution in Visual Studio. Most of your Dependencies will be loaded as soon as you Load your solution in Visual Studio Code. and you are ready.
I just solved this problem for myself writing a global dotnet tool (that also takes into account git+history).
Install via
dotnet tool install -g ModernRonin.ProjectRenamer, use with renameproject <oldName> <newName>.
Documentation/Tinkering/PRs at
https://github.com/ModernRonin/ProjectRenamer
This worked well for me in Visual Studio 2019.
Rename the solution, projects in Visual Studio by simply single
clicking on the file names as normal.
Rename the namespaces in Visual Studio.
Rename the desired elements on the main project page (publish location, application, default namespace, whatever). As noted correctly, this does nothing for the folders, but it does rename the project files and keeps everything tied together in Visual Studio.
Close Visual Studio.
Rename the folders.
Open Visual Studio and reply 'no' to getting projects from Source Control.
Delete the unloaded project references.
Add each project back in using Add existing project from Solution. This tied everything together and the project built for me.
Please comment on and correct anything above that does not work.
This is how I renamed my existing project in VS19.
Close the visual studio project
Rename and open the each project folder name on your drive
Rename each .csproj
Open .sln file and rename the project directory prefix for each of the .csproj occurrences.
Open the .sln file in visual studio and rebuild
Update prevoius nameSpace refrence with new one by going through each file or using ReplaceAll
Note: This fix is for Visual Studio 2008, but it should work here.
Using Windows Explorer, rename both the solution folders (the parent folder and the child folder) to the new solution name.
Delete the .sln file located in the parent folder.
In Visual Studio, select menu File ► Open Project.
Drill into the new folder you just renamed and open the .csproj file (located in the child folder).
Right-click the project name and rename it to what you want. (It should be the same name as the folder in step 1.)
Select menu File ► Close Solution. A dialog will ask if you want to save changes to the .sln file. Click Yes.
In the Save File As dialog, point to the newly renamed parent folder and click Save.
(Note: Make sure the .sln file has the same name as the folder. It is not required, but it maintains consistency.)
Done.
I have written a small tool that automates all these steps. It also supports Subversion for now.
Information about current releases can be found at Visual Studio Project Renamer Infos.
The latest releases can now be downloaded from the Visual Studio Project Renamer Download Page.
Feedback is much appreciated.
I often had the same problem of renaming a project in Visual Studio and editing the folder name, project name, and .sln file in order to accomplish that. I just wrote a VBScript script that accomplishes all that. You have to be careful with the strings you choose for replacing.
You just have to put the .vbs file in the same directory as the .sln file of the solution.
' Script parameters'
Solution = "Rename_Visual_Studio_Project" '.sln'
Project = "Rename_Visual_Studio_Project" '.csproj'
NewProject = "SUCCESS"
Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2
Set objFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
scriptDirr = objFso.GetParentFolderName(wscript.ScriptFullName)
' Rename the all project references in the .sln file'
Set objFile = objFso.OpenTextFile(scriptDirr + "\" + Solution + ".sln", ForReading)
fileText = objFile.ReadAll
newFileText = Replace(fileText, Project, NewProject)
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(scriptDirr + "\" + Solution + ".sln", ForWriting)
objFile.WriteLine(newFileText)
objFile.Close
' Rename the .csproj file'
objFso.MoveFile scriptDirr + "\" + Project + "\" + Project + ".csproj", scriptDirr + "\" + Project + "\" + NewProject + ".csproj"
' Rename the folder of the .csproj file'
objFso.MoveFolder scriptDirr + "\" + Project, scriptDirr + "\" + NewProject
Rename the project in the solution and the project folder
Delete the project from the solution
Add the existing project to the solution (your renamed project)
It works for me. TFS will also track the new project.
You cannot rename a folder if your project is currently running
Stop your application Shift+F5
Rename your folder from the Solution Explorer (right-click > rename or F2)
When using TFS, step 2 is actually to rename the folder in source control and then get the latest before reopening the solution.
There's a simpler approach which was tested in Visual Studio 2013 Update 1 and applicable for TFS-connected projects:
Open Visual Studio, but let the solution be closed.
Open Source Explorer and rename the desired folder (the solution will be closed for you if you didn't already close it first).
Right-click on the solution (from Source Explorer also) and select check-in.
Open the solution. You'll be told that there're new projects added. Accept to get the changes.
Remove the project from the solution and add it again, and then check-in.
Check that the internal references are OK.
We recently uploaded a beta of a free Visual Studio extension which does this stuff for you.
Have a look at Visual Studio Gallery: Gallery Download
Well, I did it my way
Close Visual Studio 2012
Rename your subdirectory to the preferred name under .sln
Delete the *.suo file
Open the solution again, and fix any properties of Project(s) loaded to meet the new subdirectory name
Rename the project outside Visual Studio.
Edit your_project_name.sln with a text editor, and rename the path to the new path.
Open .sln in a text editor, and in the following line change <FolderName> to your new folder name
Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "Ricky", "\.csproj", "{021CC6B0-8CFB-4194-A103-C19AF869D965}"