I am new to C# and Sharepoint Web Services. I wrote a program awhile back, and I want to use that program as my starting point for the next project. It has all the references and resources already in place. Essentially, I want to copy the solution, and rename it, then change it to meet my current needs.
What's the best way to do that?
Try this:
open Windows Explorer, copy your solution and its folders, paste into a new location.
rename your copied .sln to something else (hit key F2 from Windows Explorer)
open that copied solution, and rename the solution (and perhaps your projects within)
You can open the old project in visual studio and then go to File --> Export Template and follow the wizard.
This will allow you to create a project template that will then be available with all your other project templates in File --> New project.
You can do this per project (or per item which will not help in your case). It then automatically renames your namespaces etc. if the template is configured correctly.
The most straight-forward approach would probably be to just create a new solution, then manually copy all the projects under that solution and add to the new solution (right click on the solution name in Solution Explorer -> Add -> Existing Project.
From there, rename the projects if required, being careful to keep things like the Default namespace and Assembly name consistent with your new project name (you can find these under each project's properties page). Also keep an eye out for any paths that might need changed in the pre / post build steps. You will probably also want to rename the existing namespaces (right-click the namespace in code, Refactor -> Rename...)
Also, this might be a good opportunity to spot which projects will be common to both the old application and your new one, and possibly moving these to a third location from which both solutions can reference them.
Related
I wrote an application in Visual Studio C# 2010, that I would like to import into another existing Visual Studio C# 2010 Application. How would I go about doing this?
For instance, I'd like to import the project into another, and basically copy/paste the interface from the application into a tabpage on a tab control I have.
Any assistance or advice on how to do this is greatly appreciated!
You should be able to copy the physical files using windows from the existing solution location to the new solution location.
Then once the copy is complete open Visual studio and tell it you want to add an existing project. Navigate to the folder where the files are on the filesystem and open the project file.
Once you save the solution it should from that point forward have the new projects in the new solution.
There are several ways to achieve this - Copy & Paste being one of them (but the least beautiful of course). A more promising one is the following:
Wrap the user interface you want to share in a User Control in the existing project. Also include the code behind logic in this user control. Include the user control in the project and make sure that everything works before continuing.
Add the existing project to the new solution. It is advised that you create a hierarchical structure in the file system for the solution so that all projects in the solution are located under a directory.
Reference the project from the project that wants to access the user interface. As the projects are in the same solution, you can add a project reference. This asserts that the projects are built together.
Place the user control on the tab page.
As an alternative, you can also pass on adding the project to the solution but only create a user control and add a binary reference from the other project.
I've got a winforms that looks like the following:
It has an associated code file behind the controls.
It is located in solution X.
There are various other files in X.
I have created a new solution Y with a new blank winforms project in it.
When this is created a load of boilerplate code is created that relates to the blank form.
From X I'd like to import just the above design (with corresponding code) into this project to replace the existing blank form.
Is it easy to do this without confusing the existing project due to all the boilerplate code?
I've tried right-clicking the project in the Solution Expl and using Add > Existing Item but this just confuses the issue. Maybe this is a pointless exercise and I should just right-click the solution in the Solution Expl and using Add > Existing Project and then just delete the blank winforms project in the solution?
While you could just copy the relevant file(s) into the new project, it's better not to repeat yourself. So either "Add Exiting Item", but link the files from their original location...
...with the following result in solution explorer (note the "shortcut arrows")...
...or, better yet, extract the relevant subset of functionality into its own project, then just reference that whole project within the new project.
OTOH, if you want to use the existing form just as a starting point for further customization, consider...
encapsulating the original form into a custom control, then placing that control on the new form,
or visual form inheritance on a form (or even on a control from the above).
I think I would just copy the entire solution X in explorer, then open it and delete all the things that you don't want or need.
I'm modifying demo application from this article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd419663.aspx
I need to update all files to use my namespace, for example now file located here:
MySolution\MyApp\DemoApp\ViewModel\MainWindowViewModel.cs
is using such namespace:
namespace DemoApp.ViewModel
{
/// <summary>
/// The ViewModel for the application's main window.
/// </summary>
public class MainWindowViewModel : WorkspaceViewModel
I need to move file here (remove DemoApp folder):
MySolution\MyApp\ViewModel\MainWindowViewModel.cs
and also to use right namespace:
namespace MyApp.ViewModel
{
....
how to do that in visual studio 2010?
Update ok here is possible duplicate Change Project Namespace in Visual Studio Now I know how to change the namespace of the project, but how to move files on the file system? (get rid of "DemoApp" folder)
Go to someplace the namespace is declared in one of your files. Put the cursor on the part of the namespace you want to change, and press F2. This should rename the namespace in every file. At least, it worked in my little demo project I created to test this answer!
Depending on your VS version, the shortcut might also be Ctrl-R,Ctrl-R.
I imagine a simple Replace in Files (Ctrl+Shift+H) will just about do the trick; simply replace namespace DemoApp with namespace MyApp. After that, build the solution and look for compile errors for unknown identifiers. Anything that fully qualified DemoApp will need to be changed to MyApp.
Just right click the solution, go to properties, change "default namespace" under 'Application' section.
Ctrl+Shift+H not the real solution.
You can use Resharper to change your all namespace definitions in your solution. This is the best way I tried before.
https://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/features/code_refactoring.html
You can use CTRL+R, CTRL+R or for complex namespace changes use this tool https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=vs-publisher-599079.FixNamespace
You can use ReSharper for namespace refactoring. It will give 30 days free trial. It will change namespace as per folder structure.
Steps:
Right click on the project/folder/files you want to refactor.
If you have installed ReSharper then you will get an option Refactor->Adjust Namespaces.... So click on this.
It will automatically change the name spaces of all the selected files.
I have gone through the folder structure with a tool called BareGrep to ensure I have got all of the namespace changes. Its a free tool that will allow you to search over the files in a specified file structure.
I tried everything but I found a solution which really works. It creates independed solution with a new namespace name an so on.
In main form find namespace name -> right click -> Refactor -> Rename and select a new name. Check all boxes and click OK.
In the solution explorer rename solution name to a new name.
In the solution explorer rename project name to a new name.
Close VS and rename folder (in total commander for example) in the solution folder to a new name.
In .sln file rename old name to a new name.
Delete old .suo files (hidden)
Start VS and load project
Project -> properties -> change Assembly name and default namespace to a new name.
I know its quite late but for anyone looking to do it from now on, I hope this answer proves of some help. If you have CodeRush Express (free version, and a 'must have') installed, it offers a simple way to change a project wide namespace. You just place your cursor on the namespace that you want to change and it shall display a smart tag (a little blue box) underneath namespace string. You can either click that box or press Ctrl + keys to see the Rename option. Select it and then type in the new name for the project wide namespace, click Apply and select what places in your project you'd want it to change, in the new dialog and OK it. Done! :-)
When I wanted to change namespace and the solution name I did as follows:
1) changed the namespace by selecting it and renaming it and I did the same with solution name
2) clicked on the light bulb and renamed all the instances of old namespace
3) removed all the projects from the solution
4) closed the visual studio
5) renamed all the projects in windows explorer
6) opened visual studio and added all the projects again
7) rename namespaces in all projects in their properties
8) removed bin folder (from all projects)
9) build the project again
That worked for me without any problems and my project had as well source control. All was fine after pushing those changes to the remote.
In asp.net is more to do, to get completely running under another namespace.
Copy your source folder and rename it to your new project name.
Open it and Replace all by Ctrl + H and be sure to include all Replace everything
Press F2 on your Projectname and rename it to your new project name
go to your project properties and adjust it, coz everything has gone and you need to make a new Debug Profile Profile to Create
All dependencies have now an exclamation mark - restart visual studio
Clean your solution and Run it and it should work :)
When renaming a project, it's a simple process
Rename your project
Edit project properties to have new Default Namespace value
Find/Replace all "namespace OLD" and "using OLD" statements in your solution
Manually edit .sln file in text editor and replace your old project name in the directory structure with your new project name.
Reload solution when VS prompts
In VS 2019 you can rename your namespace using the following steps
Place your cursor in the namespace name.
Press Ctrl+. to trigger the Quick Actions and Refactorings menu.
Select Change namespace to .
For more refer to Microsoft documentation
Anyone trying it out on VS Code, Use the typical Rename option, which will update all the namespace usages across, and if the project name is changed, you will have to go inside each .csproj and replace the new project name.
Don't forget to run dotnet restore, then only it will stop showing build issues.
Visual studio 2022 has a new feature Sync Namespace.
You need to right click the project or solution in solution explorer.
If you have C# files which have been moved between folders and the namespaces are out of sync, this feature should come in handy to set the right namespace for each file based on the . format.
This will especially come in handy when you are performing a migration of a legacy code base.
Reference: https://nitinmanju.medium.com/de-clutter-namespaces-using-c-10-60822af79336
I've read about this technique: Shared assembly info in VS projects - JJameson's blog
Basically it means to create a SharedAssemblyInfo.cs with versioning information about the assembly, and adding this file as Link to all projects of the solution, so the actual file resides only in 1 location on disk.
My question deals with 2 scenarios:
Existing solution that doesn't use this mechanism: Is there a way to easily add the ShareAssemblyInfo to all projects? (lets say i have a solution with 50 projects).
When creating a new project, by default a new AssemblyInfo.cs is created. However i'd like to link automatically to the SharedAssemblyInfo as well.
Is there any solution for this? what is the common practice?
It is possible to link to a shared assembly info file in VS 2010. Ashish Jain has a good blog post about it: Sharing assembly version across projects in a solution.
After creating the shared assembly info file at the solution level, his instructions for linking to it from a project are:
Right click on the project, in which you wish to add the Shared
assembly file, and select Add -> Existing Item...
Select the file “SharedAssemblyInfo.cs” from the solution folder.
Instead of Add, click on the the arrow next to Add and click “Add as
Link”
Drag down the added linked file alongside AssemblyInfo.cs in the
same folder.
Repeat steps 1 – 4 for all projects for which you wish to add shared
assembly file.
I've tried this and it works.
First point could be solved with simple text editor that could handle several files at once and find/replace. Just open all of your csproj in it and replace string <Compile Include="Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs" /> with
<Compile Include="..\SharedAssemblyInfo.cs">
<Link>Properties\SharedAssemblyInfo.cs</Link>
</Compile>
Alternatively you could write a utility like that:
var files = Directory.GetFiles(yourSolutionDir, "*.csproj", SearchOption.AllDirectories);
foreach (var f in files) {
string contents = File.ReadAllText(f);
string result = contents.Replace("<Compile Include=\"Properties\\AssemblyInfo.cs\" />", putSecondStringHere_ItIsJustTooLong); // :)
File.WriteAllText(f, contents);
}
As for the second question... You could take a look at Visual Studio custom project templates , but I'm not sure it worth the efforts. You should IMO write test that will check this instead. It will be much simpler and outcome is actually almost the same.
UPD: About writing tests for checking solution/project files against some custom rules. Basically, sln/csproj format is simple enough to be parseable without much efforts. So if you want to have SharedAssemblyInfo.cs linked into every project - just parse csproj's and check that. Then put that checker in your build server and run it on each build. We have such system working currently and it costs something about two days to write but saved us many more (we have there more sophisticated rules and multi-solution project, so it was worth the efforts).
I won't write about this checking in detail here right now (it is not that short), but I'm going to write blog post about it soon - most probably till the end of this week. So, if you're interested - just check my blog soon :)
UPD: Here it is.
I have created an application to increment the file version automatically.
Download Applicaiton
add the following line to pre-build event command line
C:\temp\IncrementFileVersion.exe $(SolutionDir)\Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs
Build the project
To keep it simple the app only throws messages if there is an error, to confirm it worked fine you will need to check the file version in 'Assembly Information'
Note : You will have to reload the solution in Visual studio for 'Assembly Information' button to populate the fields, however your output file will have the updated version.
For suggestions and requests please email me at telson_alva#yahoo.com
This does not work for solution that has both C# and F# projects. c# project cannot reference shared f# file and vice versa.
The only option in this case is to make a separate project and refer to it from other projects
This may be a ridiculous question for you C# pros but here I go. I'm a Flash developer getting started in Silverlight and I'm trying to figure out how to create a "codebase" (a reusable set of classes) for animation. I'd like to store it in a single location and reuse it across a bunch of different projects. Normally in Flash I would add a "project path" reference and then start using the code. My question is, how do I add a folder to visual studio so that I can "use" those classes in my project. I tried "Add > Existing Item" but that copied the files into my project directory.
The easiest way would to create a new ClassLibrary project and build it. This will output a .dll file in a folder you can specify in the project settings menus, which you reference from every project that needs it.
Also, you can copy this .dll into the /bin/ folder of your project - this will do the same thing for this specific project, but when you start the next one you can change some details in the codebase library without breaking the first project.
The solution described by Tomas (adding a reference to a dll binary) is the correct solution to this problem; better than referencing the source code and compiling it into each project.
But just for extra information, if you ever do need to add a source code file to your Visual Studio project without having it make a copy of the file you can use the following steps:
Right click on your project in Solution Explorer and select Add -> Existing Item.
Navigate to the location of the source code file and select it.
On the "Add" button in the dialog window there is a drop down arrow. Click this and select "Add as Link".
This will allow you to use this source code file in your project without having VS make a copy of the file.
In Solution Explorer, right-click on the project node and click Add Reference.
In the Add Reference dialog box, select the tab indicating the type of component you want to reference. (for instance for a class library a dll)
Select the components you want to reference, then click OK.