I want to access the file generated by Xtext to compile it automatically. So I need its absolute path. It's enough to get the absolute path of the current project at run-time. Any idea how I can get it?
I am working inside the "MyDslGenerator" Class. I tried to get it from the "resource" in
override void doGenerate(Resource resource, IFileSystemAccess fsa)
but couldn't find it.
Help is highly appreciated.
I ended up using this code:
var uri = (fsa as IFileSystemAccessExtension2).getURI(fileName)
maybe you can use the Interface org.eclipse.xtext.generator.IFileSystemAccessExtension2. the passed IFileSystemAccess may implement this interface too.
I need to get the absolute output path of the project's assembly via DTE. I tried doing this using this method, where I would access the OutputPath property, combining it with the assembly name, however this produces the relative path, such as:
..\..\Output\AnyCPU\Debug\MyAssembly.dll
Using Path.GetFullPath is not good for me, because my project might be executing from another location.
I noticed that the $(TargetPath) macro (in Build Events tab in project properties) contains the full path of the assembly. How can I access this value programmatically from the DTE?
Actual question is - how do I get the absolute output path of the project?
I don't know how to programmatically access the "$(TargetPath)", I agree that that could've been the best solution.
However, the approach you mentioned should still be workable,since the OutputPath property is relative to the folder in which the project file resides. (Please let me know if I'm missing some scenario where this is not the case?)
So you can do something similar to this:
private static string GetProjectExecutable(Project startupProject, Configuration config)
{
string projectFolder = Path.GetDirectoryName(startupProject.FileName);
string outputPath = (string)config.Properties.Item("OutputPath").Value;
string assemblyFileName = (string)startupProject.Properties.Item("AssemblyName").Value + ".exe";
return Path.Combine(new[] {
projectFolder,
outputPath,
assemblyFileName
});
}
(the overload of Path.Combine used here is only available in .NET 4.0 but you could always backport it)
I want to notify the user of the macro if something went wrong during the execution of the macro. I was wondering if it would be possible to add an item to the Visual Studio error list?
It is possible to do so from within an AddIn (like here), but I would like to do the same thing from a macro.
Edit
To further clarify what i want to achive, here is the sample from the Samples macro library (Alt+F8 -> Samples -> Utilities -> SaveView())
Sub SaveView()
Dim name As String
name = InputBox("Enter the name you want to save as:", "Save window layout")
If (name = "") Then
MsgBox("Empty string, enter a valid name.")
Else
DTE.WindowConfigurations.Add(name)
End If
End Sub
Instead of the MsgBox("...") alert I want to put the error into the VS error list.
You can add an item in the Task List easily from your macro. Just use the AddTaskToList method from that article and change m_objDTE to DTE. I've tried it and it worked.
However, adding the item in Error List, is probably impossible. You need to call VS services, see how adding an error is done in an add-in. I created a macro from this code and it didn't work. In general, VS services don't work in macros. I was able to create ErrorListProvider successfully. I could access it's methods and properties. But calling ErrorListProvider.Task.Add caused COM exception. If you want to play with it, several notes:
As described in the article, you need to get 4 assemblies out of the GAC e.g. to c:\dlls\ directory. Since Macros IDE doesn't allow you to browse when you Add Reference, you need to copy these dlls into ...\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\PublicAssemblies directory (change the 10.0 to your VS version). Then, when you Add Reference in Macros IDE, you should see the assemblies.
The GetService function always returned Nothing. Add the following field to the class:
Private serviceProvider As IServiceProvider = New Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.ServiceProvider(CType(DTE, Microsoft.VisualStudio.OLE.Interop.IServiceProvider))
and in GetService function change line:
objService = Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Package.GetGlobalService(serviceType)
to
objService = serviceProvider.GetService(serviceType)
As I wrote, everything seems OK then but ErrorListProvider.Task.Add fails.
I think that for your situation outputting something to your own output pane would be more suitable. The error list is generally used for errors within the project the user is working on, not for errors caused by running macros. Especially when someone says it can't be done. :)
Outputting to your own output pane is pretty easy:
DTE.Windows.Item(Constants.vsWindowKindOutput).Activate()
Dim panes As OutputWindowPanes = window.OutputWindowPanes
Dim my_pane As OutputWindowPane
Try
my_pane = panes.Item("SaveView")
Catch exception As System.ArgumentException
my_pane = panes.Add("SaveView")
End Try
my_pane.Activate()
my_pane.OutputString("Empty string, enter a valid name." + vbCrLf)
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Sebastiaan
Is this not what you want?
HOWTO: Add an error with navigation to the Error List from a Visual Studio add-in
http://www.mztools.com/articles/2008/MZ2008022.aspx
In Visual Studio debug mode it's possible to hover over variables to show their value and then right-click to "Copy", "Copy Expression" or "Copy Value".
In case the variable is an object and not just a basic type, there's a + sign to expand and explore the object. It there a way to copy all that into the clipboard?
In the immediate window, type
?name_of_variable
This will print out everything, and you can manually copy that anywhere you want, or use the immediate window's logging features to automatically write it to a file.
UPDATE: I assume you were asking how to copy/paste the nested structure of the values so that you could either search it textually, or so that you can save it on the side and then later compare the object's state to it. If I'm right, you might want to check out the commercial extension to Visual Studio that I created, called OzCode, which lets you do these thing much more easily through the "Search" and "Compare" features.
UPDATE 2 To answer #ppumkin's question, our new EAP has a new Export feature allows users to Export the variable values to Json, XML, Excel, or C# code.
Full disclosure: I'm the co-creator of the tool I described here.
You can run below code in immediate window and it will export to an xml file the serialized XML representation of an object:
(new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(obj.GetType())).Serialize(new System.IO.StreamWriter(#"c:\temp\text.xml"), obj)
Source: Visual Studio how to serialize object from debugger
Most popular answer from https://stackoverflow.com/a/23362097/2680660:
With any luck you have Json.Net in you appdomain already. In which
case pop this into your Immediate window:
Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.SerializeObject(someVariable)
Edit: With .NET Core 3.0, the following works too:
System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer.Serialize(someVariable)
There is a extension called Object Exporter that does this conveniently.
http://www.omarelabd.net/exporting-objects-from-the-visual-studio-debugger/
Extension: https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/c6a21c68-f815-4895-999f-cd0885d8774f
You can add a watch for that object, and in the watch window, expand and select everything you want to copy and then copy it.
By using attributes to decorate your classes and methods you can have a specific value from your object display during debugging with the DebuggerDisplay attribute e.g.
[DebuggerDisplay("Person - {Name} is {Age} years old")]
public class Person
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Age { get; set; }
}
I always use:
string myJsonString = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(<some object>);
Then I copy the string value which unfortunately also copies the back slashes.
To remove the backlashes go here:
https://www.w3schools.com/jsref/tryit.asp?filename=tryjsref_replace
Then within the <p id="demo">Visit Microsoft!</p> element replace the text with the text you copied.
then replace the var res = str.replace("Microsoft", "W3Schools"); line with
var res = str.replace(/\\/g, '')
Run these new changes but don't forget to click the "try it" button on the right.
Now you should have all the text of the object in json format that you can drop in a json formatter like http://jsonformatter.org or to create a POCO you can now use http://json2csharp.com/
ObjectDumper.NET
This is an awesome way!
You probably need this data for a unit test, so create a Sandbox.cs temporary test or you can create a Console App.
Make sure to get NuGet package, ObjectDumper.NET, not ObjectDumper.
Run this test (or console app)
View test output or text file to get the C# initializer code!
Code:
[TestClass]
public class Sandbox
{
[TestMethod]
public void GetInitializerCode()
{
var db = TestServices.GetDbContext();
var list = db.MyObjects.ToList();
var literal = ObjectDumper.Dump(list, new DumpOptions
{
DumpStyle = DumpStyle.CSharp,
IndentSize = 4
});
Console.WriteLine(literal); // Some test runners will truncate this, so use the file in that case.
File.WriteAllText(#"C:\temp\dump.txt", literal);
}
}
I used to use Object Exporter, but it is 5 years old and no longer supported in Visual Studio. It seems like Visual Studio Extensions come and go, but let's hope this NuGet package is here to stay! (Also it is actively maintained as of this writing.)
Google led me to this 8-year-old question and I ended up using ObjectDumper to achieve something very similar to copy-pasting debugger data. It was a breeze.
I know the question asked specifically about information from the debugger, but ObjectDumper gives information that is basically the same. I'm assuming those who google this question are like me and just need the data for debugging purposes and don't care whether it technically comes from the debugger or not.
I know I'm a bit late to the party, but I wrote a JSON implementation for serializing an object, if you prefer to have JSON output. Uses Newtonsoft.Json reference.
private static void WriteDebugJSON (dynamic obj, string filePath)
{
using (StreamWriter d = new StreamWriter(filePath))
{
d.Write(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj));
}
}
I've just right clicked on the variable and selected AddWatch, that's bring up watch window that consists of all the values. I selected all and paste it in a text a text editor, that's all.
Object Dumper is a free and open source extension for Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code.
"Dump as" commands are available via context menu in the Code and Immediate windows.
It's exporting objects to:
C# object initialization code,
JSON,
Visual Basic object initialization code,
XML,
YAML.
I believe that combined with the Diff tool it can be helpful.
I'm the author of this tool.
if you have a list and you want to find a specific variable:
In the immediate window, type
myList.Any(s => s.ID == 5062);
if this returns true
var myDebugVar = myList.FirstOrDefault(s => s.ID == 5062);
?myDebugVar
useful tips here, I'll add my preference for when i next end up here asking this question again in the future.
if you don't mind adding an extension that doesn't require output files or such there's the Hex Visualizer extension for visual studio, by mladen mihajlovic, he's done versions since 2015.
provides a nice display of the array via the usual magnifine glass view object from the local variables window.
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Mika76.HexVisualizer2019 is the 2019 version.
If you're in debug mode, you can copy any variable by writing copy() in the debug terminal.
This works with nested objects and also removes truncation and copies the complete value.
Tip: you can right click a variable, and click Copy as Expression and then paste that in the copy-function.
System.IO.File.WriteAllText("b.json", page.DebugInfo().ToJson())
Works great to avoid to deal with string debug format " for quote.
As #OmerRaviv says, you can go to Debug → Windows → Immediate where you can type:
myVariable
(as #bombek pointed out in the comments you don't need the question mark) although as some have found this limits to 100 lines.
I found a better way was to right click the variable → Add Watch, then press the + for anything I wanted to expand, then used #GeneWhitaker's solution, which is Ctrl+A, then copy Ctrl+C and paste into a text editor Ctrl+V.
I am working on an application where I have an images folder relative to my application root. I want to be able to specify this relative path in the Properties -> Settings designer eg. "\Images\". The issue I am running into is in cases where the Environment.CurrentDirectory gets changed via an OpenFileDialog the relative path doesn't resolve to the right location. Is there a way to specifiy in the Settings file a path that will imply to always start from the application directory as opposed to the current directory? I know I can always dynamically concatenate the application path to the front of the relative path, but I would like my Settings property to be able to resolve itself.
As far as I know, there is no built-in functionality that will allow this type of path resolution. Your best option is to dynamically determine the applications executing directory and concatenate to it your images path. You don't want to use Environment.CurrentDirectory specifically for the reasons you mention - the current directory may not always be correct for this situation.
The safest code I've found to find the executing assembly location is this:
public string ExecutingAssemblyPath()
{
Assembly actualAssembly = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly();
if (this.actualAssembly == null)
{
actualAssembly = Assembly.GetCallingAssembly();
}
return actualAssembly.Location;
}
Are you looking for Application.ExecutablePath ? That should tell you where the application's executable is, remove the executable name, and then append your path to it.
2 options:
The code that uses the setting can resolve the setting against the directory of the current executing assembly.
You can create your own type that serializes as a string relative to the executing assembly, and has an accessor for the full path that will resolve against the directory of the current executing assembly.
Code sample:
string absolutePath = Settings.Default.ImagePath;
if(!Path.IsPathRooted(absolutePath))
{
string root = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location;
root = Path.GetDirectoryName(root);
absolutePath = Path.Combine(root, absolutePath);
}
The nice thing about this code is that it allows a fully qualified path, or a relative path, in your settings. If you need the path to be relative to a different assembly, you can change which assembly's location you use - GetExecutingAssembly() will give you the location of the assembly with the code you're running, and GetCallingAssembly() would be good if you go with option 2.
This seem to work in both WinForms and ASP.NET (gives the path to the config file):
new System.IO.FileInfo(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ConfigurationFile).Directory;
For Windows and Console applications, the obvious way is by using:
Application.StartupPath
I suggest you to use Assembly.CodeBase, as shown below:
public static string RealAssemblyFilePath()
{
string dllPath=Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase.Substring(8);
return dllPath;
}
You can try Application.ExecutablePath. But you need to make reference to System.Windows.Forms. This may not be a good idea if you want your class library to steer clear of forms and UI stuff.
You can try the Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location. But if, somehow, you do a "Shadow Copy" before you run your application (like the default NUnit behavior), then this property will return you the shadow copy location, not the real, physical location.
The best way is to implement a function that calls the CodeBase property of Assembly object and chop off the irrelevant portion of the string.
I use the following two methods to help with that:
public static IEnumerable<DirectoryInfo> ParentDirs(this DirectoryInfo dir) {
while (dir != null) {
yield return dir;
dir = dir.Parent;
}
}
public static DirectoryInfo FindDataDir(string relpath, Assembly assembly) {
return new FileInfo((assembly).Location)
.Directory.ParentDirs()
.Select(dir => Path.Combine(dir.FullName + #"\", relpath))
.Where(Directory.Exists)
.Select(path => new DirectoryInfo(path))
.FirstOrDefault();
}
The reason to look at parent dirs to to be easier in use during development when various build scripts end up sticking things in directories like bin\x64\Release\NonsensePath\.