I'm trying to find a way of being able to use multiple versions of Visual Studio on the same set of projects. The majority of our team uses 2008, but I am trying out 2010. All projects are C#.
As I understand it Visual Studio 2010 insists on upgrading all projects, so it's not possible to leave all the solution/project files as 2008 versions. I really don't want to branch the entire source tree, so I'd like to find a way for multiple versions of the project files coexisting. Currently, I've duplicated all .sln and .csproj files so I have:
# 2008 versions
SolutionName.sln
ProjectA.csproj
ProjectB.csproj
# 2010 versions
SolutionName.vs2010.sln
ProjectA.vs2010.csproj
ProjectB.vs2010.csproj
The trouble is, despite the 2010 versioned files all having the same assembly names as their 2008 counterparts, Visual Studio (2010) believes the projects are all ProjectName.vs2010. Renaming the project in VS fails with a message saying a file of the same name already exists.
I don't think putting the 2010 version in a sub-folder would be a solution as it would screw up any relative paths in the files.
So:
Is there any way to convince VS that the project name should not be suffixed with .vs2010 (i.e. not the same name as the file)? Or
Am I approaching this the wrong way? Is there a better way of working with multiple versions of VS on the same projects?
UPDATE
My initial claim was wrong that Visual Studio was failing to find the project references because it was using the file name. The specific problem I was having was that in my build files the project references were of the form:
<ProjectReference Include="..\..\path\to\ProjectName.vs2010.csproj">
<Project>{48354450-2462-449D-8B32-EFECA39F6CD7}</Project>
<Name>ProjectName</Name>
</ProjectReference>
The project files that I copied apparently have a different ID (or whatever it is in the <Project> element. Simply removing the element from the build file has solved that particular issue:
<ProjectReference Include="..\..\path\to\ProjectName.vs2010.csproj">
<Name>ProjectName</Name>
</ProjectReference>
Having said that, the whole process of duplicating the project and solution files has actually been more effort than it's worth, so I'm not recommending this approach.
Do you often modify the projects?
You could simply work with your upgraded version of the csproj and sln files.
This way you would commit/check-in all changes to source code files except for the project files, which are not often modified anyway (except to add new files).
Then if you want to commit the changes in the project files, you'd work with an intermediate local VS2008 version of the file and line it up using your favorite diff/merge tools before eventually committing this VS2008 version. It would be some kind of local branch.
Unless you absolutely have to work with different versions of Visual Studio, those of the team still using 2008 could upgrade to Visual Studio 2010 Express. It's free for commercial use, and lacks only a few advanced features you might not need.
Have you tried opening the SolutionName.vs2010.sln in a simple text edior and changing the diplay name of the projects?
(form: Project("{$GUID}") = "$DISPLAYNAME", "PROJECTFILE", "{$OTHERGUID}"
Answering the second part of your question:
Why is it important to cover up that there are multiple versions of the project files? The reality is that there are two versions and you have to be careful to maintain both of them concerning the state of your project anyway (files are addded / renamed/ deleted; configuration options are changed).
Having two sets of projects and solution files will lead to differences between them which will break things.
Generally: Don't mix Visual Studio releases in the same project. Keeping the toolchain identical between developers will save you much trouble.
visual studio 2010 and 2008 project files (.csproj) are compatible side by side if you have both editors installed, meaning you can upgrade it, work on it in 2010, and have someone else work on it in 2008 without any issues. the only caveat is that you have to leave the target framework as .net 2.0 or 3.5 and that those who work in 2008 have to also have 2010 installed.
the only problem comes if they try to then open the project file in 2008 and they don't have 2010 installed (because I think 2010 adds some new build target that a standard 2008 won't know about). I didn't think this was a problem but I just ran into it this past week (on a web project), so it does exist in some form for some projects.
if you do go the rename route, the best way to go about that is to open the sln file in notepad, and rename the csproj references to the new names by hand (adding any new renamed folder paths), then renaming any folders outside visual studio, then renaming the file name in windows explorer, then rename the csproj in windows explorer, then open the solution in visual studio. your scm bindings may be hosed at that point though...
Related
I'm a beginner at asp.net. I've downloaded a few projects of asp.net but several of them don't contain the .sln file or the .csproj file to run them on MS Visual Studio 13.
Question is how can I open/load downloaded projects on Visual studio 2013 and modify to my own needs. I've tried but couldn't find anything relevant. Any youtube link/step by step guide will be appreciated. Thanks.
The .sln and .csproj files are necessary for VS to perform many actions because they specify important configuration info like compilation instructions, debug settings, etc.
If you need to build the projects using Visual Studio, then you're going to need those files. Since you don't have those presently, it stands to reason that you could create new ones. Create a new ASP.Net project in Visual Studio, select the options that best fit what you're trying to do, and then add the downloaded files to your new solution/projects.
EDIT: or, if you're opening a website, do as SouXin recommended in his answer.
If they don't. It's most probably means that they are web-site. To open them: In VS File->Open->Web Site (OR Shift-Alt-O)
BTW when you open as Web Site solution file will be created automatically.
In short: I need to open an application originally built in Visual Studio 2008 (version 9) in Visual Studio 2013 without upgrading the project since the overall project architecture must remain the same for when I check it back into source control.
Details: I need to open a Visual Studio solution (.sln) inside Visual Studio 2013. The solution in question was originally developed in Visual Studio 2008, so when I try to open said solution in Visual Studio 2013, I am shown a prompt with the projects within the solution checkmarked, with the message:
These projects are either or supported or need project behavior impacting modifications to open in this version of Visual Studio. Projects no displayed either require no changes or will automatically be modified such that behavior is not impacted. Visual Studio will automatically make functional changes to the following projects in order to open them. You will not be able to open these projects in the version of Visual Studio in which they were originally created.*
My attempt at a fix was to just upgrade the solution and hope for the best. This is successful, but after building and attempting to run the main project, I see the following build error:
The type 'Microsoft.Web.Services3.WebServicesClientProtocol' is defined in an assembly that is not referenced. You must add a reference to assembly 'Microsoft.Web.Services3, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35'. *
I then tried both commenting out the references to this assembly and adding in the missing reference. Okay, so then I rebuilt the solution and attempted to run. Same error, but for a different assembly. Repeat fix, same error for different assembly. This pattern continues and continues, and at this point I realize this is unacceptable anyway, because when I make a change to this solution, I need to check it back into source control. When others open it, they may be opening it in VS2008, and therefore this “upgraded” version is inconsistent with the version the business uses. I need to open the solution originally build in VS2008 in VS 2013 (can't work around this, needs to be VS2013). If it helps, I'm using 64 bit Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate.
Any help or guidance will be greatly appreciated!
As several of the commenters have already helpfully pointed out, this is not possible. Round-tripping (i.e., opening and manipulating project files created by an older version of Visual Studio in a newer version of Visual Studio) was not supported until Visual Studio 11. The only way to open a Visual Studio 2008 project/solution in a later version of Visual Studio will be to convert it.
As far as interoperability with previous versions is concerned, you have two options:
Update the project locally (using the migration wizard provided), make any changes to the project file necessary to get it to build, and then edit the code files. Once you're satisfied with your edits, commit only the modified source files, not the project infrastructure files. Your fellow developers, stuck on VS 2008, won't notice any difference.
Update the project locally (using the migration wizard provided), make any changes to the project file necessary to get it to build, and then rename the project file (e.g., by appending a -vs2013 suffix to it). Commit this to your code repository. You will now have two project files in your root directory, one for each version of Visual Studio that your team works with. From here on, you just open the project file corresponding to the version of VS that you have installed.
I used approach #1 for a good part of last year, where I spent most of my time developing a C++ application in VS 2010 on a desktop machine, but also wanted to work on it on my notebook running VS 2013. Of course, in my case, it took a trivial amount of time for the automatic conversion to upgrade my project file after pulling from source control. I didn't have to do any tweaking thereafter to get the project to build. It sounds like your case is different, so option #2 might be a better choice.
Im writing an applcation with C# in visual studio 2012 but i want to open that project in another place in visualstudio 2008. How i can do this? in saving i have to do something? Or in oening in visualstudio 2008?
Since I am stuck with VS 2008 in my home computer, I regularly have to do this.
You can modify your solution file (*.sln) manually. Most of the time you just have to change the first two lines that define the VS version of the solution.
From this link:
You can edit the sln and csproj/vbproj files by hand and try that way, I've used this method with no side effects. In the sln file the first lines for VS2010 will say
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 11.00
# Visual Studio 2010
and for a VS2008 solution:
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 10.00
# Visual Studio 2008
Also, in a 2010 project file you may find a section like
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />
which will need to be modified as
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v9.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />
With only these 2 types of changes I was able to open the solution & projects with VS 2008.
It's not possible.
Visual Studio generally doesn't support forward compatibility -- that is, opening a newer project in an older version of Visual Studio. It generally supports backward compatibility -- opening an older solution in a newer Visual Studio.
Your only real option here is to retain it as a 2008 solution; even then, when you open it in 2012, it may ask you to convert it to a 2012 solution format, which will make it unusable in 2008.
I have found this while I was Googleing. It may be useful in your case:
Visual Studio Project Converter
Disclaimer: I have not personally tried this program.
I had the same need basically because I wanted to keep the compatibility with .net 3.5.
Although VS2010 and VS2012 support projects running on this FW version, many users are still forced by their companies to use VS2008 or 2010.
I could also develop in 2008 but as a geek that I am I dind't even consider it! :)
So, my solution was to create separate *.sln and *.csproj files for each VS version.
This way you guarantee that everything will work out of the box for each VS version.
The easier and faster way I found to do this was to open eash VS version and create empty solution and projects, with the same structure as the original but with the vs version on the name like:
my.solution.sln
my.project.csproj
...
my.solution.vs2008.sln
my.project.vs2008.csproj
...
my.solution.vs2010.sln
my.project.vs2010.csproj
...
Keep in mind that you have to manually open all the versions and add the new files and so on... they won't be automatically synchronized but it pretty much works.
Hope this helps,
Cheers!
I remember seeing an open source project within the last year that I was able to open in both VS 2008 and VS 2010 without an upgrade wizard popping up. I think...
Is it possible to create a project/solution that will open up in any version of Visual Studio without prompting me to run the upgrade wizard? If so, how do I do this?
Information for both C++ and C# projects would be most helpful.
You can, use CMake and generate VSx solution.
I think the project that you have seen had 2 visual studio solutions for different visual studio versions.
Update:
Also, you can use http://sourceforge.net/projects/vspc/
or see http://www.emmet-gray.com/Articles/ProjectConverter.htm
The solution format hasn't changed significantly over the visual studio versions except the version number.
If the code itself is generic enough (not using linq, etc) then you can edit the first line of the solution file to "downgrade" the version.
VS2005 uses:
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 9.00
# Visual Studio 2005
You can give the Prebuild project a try to generate needed solution files on the fly.
Prebuild is a cross-platform XML-driven pre-build tool which allows
developers to easily generate project files for major IDE's and .NET
development tools including: Visual Studio .NET 2002, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2010
SharpDevelop, MonoDevelop, NAnt and Autotools.
May be it is not what you ask about, but you can convert you project into nmake target
The only way to do this is to create separate solutions (for 2010 and 2008), and include existing projects to different solutions. Create new projects in VS2008, and then add them to VS2010 solution.
You may need something like round-tripping
Round-tripping is the ability to use a current or previous version of Visual Studio to target a platform that is supported by both versions of VS. For example, with round-tripping, you can open projects from a previous version of VS in a newer IDE without the need for conversion, thus allowing you to work side-by-side on old and upgraded projects.
Read more
Assume that a solution only contains classes and that those classes are all written to .NET 2.0 specifications. If that solution were to be opened, converted and saved in Visual Studio 2008, would it be possible to reopen the solution later in Visual Studio 2005 with some minimal modifications to the .SLN file?
How would one go about doing that?
Is there a tool that will "down convert" .SLN files from 2008 to 2005 if all of the classes contained within the solution are already written to .NET 2.0 specifications?
Uusally, the only thing you need to do with .SLN files is to change the version number at the top of the file.
Your CS project files will also be almost OK, and if they're not, it's possible to tweak them so that they are OK with both 2005 and 2008.
We ran for a while with two solution files (05 and 08) sharing the same set of CS project files.
Be aware though, that you can't share VC project files between the two versions like this.
The 'tweak' for the project files is as follows:
CS Projects created on VS2008 will contain the line:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
VS2005 will choke on this, and you need to change it to the following:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
The latter will work with both 2005 and 2008.
If you're not using any "fancy" features in 2008, in my experience the only thing which changes is the version number in a couple of places. That can be manually edited (it's at the top of the file IIRC). It's at least worth a try. If you're used VS2008-specific features (designers etc) it may well not work but for simple class libraries I've had success doing this.
You may be interested in a blog post about VS2005 and VS2008 co-existing that I wrote a while ago.
Here there is a converter http://www.emmet-gray.com/Articles/ProjectConverter.htm (works with VS 2010 also).
There is also http://www.dsmyth.net/wiki/Downloads_VS2008ToVS2005Patcher.ashx
(link currently broken?).
I also found this http://www.codeplex.com/Vs2008BackMigration but I didn't test it.
Yes, it is possible, if you "downgrade" the solution files.
No, there is no such tool that I know of, and I've looked.
You have three options:
Not open the solution file in 2008, and thus never upgrade it
Not mix client versions against the same files (ie. stick to 2005, or everyone upgrade)
Keep separate solution files for 2005 and 2008, make sure all the same projects are present in both
Thanks to #Will Dean for reminding me that project files can indeed be shared. Note that they are touched by the 2008 editor, but they can be opened in 2005 afterwards.
You could try this. YMMV
http://www.emmet-gray.com/Articles/ProjectConverter.htm
I remember it was posted on Jon Skeets blog a few months back and seemed to get a thumbs up from people
There's no direct way, and it's a tall order if you try. The simplest way would be to create a new 2005 project and add your classes.
For starters: these are the differences that you'd see:
.csproj files: (these are based on MSBuild schema)
(edit)
ToolsVersion
ProductVersion
ProjectVersion
(remove)
OldToolsVersion
TargetFramework
.sln files: (no schema)
Format Version 10.0
etc.