New CoolCommands for Visual Studio 2005

After I released coolcommands I received a lot of  suggestions about adding others commands. I received bug reports too :(. So I developed some new commands and fixed some bugs.

My favorite new cool command is the Resolve Project References.

But Andres Aguiar insists that the coolest is the Copy and Paste of references ;)

So here a brief explanation about the new commands:

  • Resolve Project Reference

A lot of times I load only one project without the original solution of it. So all project references are unresolved. So that we should load each project in the solution in order to build the project. Well, this command solve this problem, right click in the project and Resolve Project References load all the project references recursively

  • Copy / Paste of References

Do you need adding the same references that you already add to other project? Well just select the references in the solution explorer, Copy references, select the second project and Paste references !!  It works with project references too and over different VS instances.

 

  • Open File

 In C++ files if you have  #include "test.h"  you have an "Open Document" command. It search in some path for this file and open it.

Well the idea is the same but it works with the path that you have over the cursor or over your selection. Suppose you write something like:

if (File.Exists("mysetup.config"))

if you select the path , right click and Open File, the command will prompt you the first time for the file and store the directory path so that the next time you try to open a file it will search in this path for your files.

Another use case is if you are using a template engine in order to generate files you can write in the generated file a reference to the name of the template used so that you can use the open file command to go from the generated file to the template file.

  • Locate in Solution Explorer

If you have the Track Active Item in Solution Explorer disabled but sometimes do you want to find the item in the solution explorer this command is for you.

  • Bug Fix: Collapse all projects  is enabled in the solution root now.

There is a new version here


 

7 Comments

  • Thank you, its very nice additions to the VS.

    I've discovered minor bug with the "Collapse all projects" command. Now if solution contains solution folders this command collapse them but not the projects within.

  • Andres is wrong - it's Resolve References, which I needed two years ago ;)

  • I was about to ask"Does copy and paste of references work with vb.Net 2005? The references do not appear in the solution explorer in such projectsu select show all files" but then found that they do appear if yo

  • No, copy and paste of references is not working for vb.net because references do not appear in the solution explorer. I could implement the same functionality in the reference manager.



    Regards,

    Gaston

  • The "Collapse All Projects" doesn't collapse all projects if they are organized into solution folders. I'm not sure if you are planning another release, but please correct this if possible. Thanks.

  • A minor issue: "Collapse All Projects" doesn't collapse Deployment projects.

    I've just started using this, and it's great - thanks!

    Steve


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