Pablo Galiano

VSXDevCon 08 sceencasts uploaded

The screencasts for the VSX Developer Conference 08 are live and can be downloaded from:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vsx/cc676517.aspx

If you are interested in the session that I gave "How to extend Visual Studio and become a more productive developer" you can watch it @ http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/AnthonyC/How-to-extend-Visual-Studio-and-become-a-more-productive-developer/

Pablo

GAXP1409 released

A new patch for GAX targeting Visual Studio 2008 SP1 was released last week.

I will update the VSSDK Assist installer to target this release soon!

Pablo

How do I create a ModelElement via API

My eighteenth How do I is up.

Scenario

Let's say that we start from the Minimal Language DSL template and we have an ExampleElement domain class that has a Name domain property with the Is Element Name flag set to true.

Because it has the IsElementName flag, every time that we create a ExampleElement with the UI (toolbox or model explorer) the element is created with a default name. This default name is composed of the type name of the concept plus an index. Example : ElementName1, ElementName2, etc.

The focus of this How do I shows how to create the model element programmatically.

Interfaces and classes needed

Code snippet

Wrong way:

private void CreateElement(Store store)
{
    using(Transaction tx = store.TransactionManager.BeginTransaction("Add ExampleElement"))
    {
        ExampleModel root = store.ElementDirectory.FindElements<ExampleModel>().First() as ExampleModel;
 
        ExampleElement element =
            this.Store.ElementFactory.CreateElement(ExampleElement.DomainClassId) as ExampleElement;
 
        root.Elements.Add(element);
 
        tx.Commit();
    }
}
 
Right way: 
private void CreateElement(Store store)
{
    using(Transaction tx = store.TransactionManager.BeginTransaction("Add ExampleElement"))
    {
        ExampleModel root = store.ElementDirectory.FindElements<ExampleModel>().First() as ExampleModel;
 
        ExampleElement element =
            store.ElementFactory.CreateElement(ExampleElement.DomainClassId) as ExampleElement;
 
        ElementOperations elementOperations =
            new ElementOperations(store as IServiceProvider, store);
 
        ElementGroup elementGroup = new ElementGroup(store);
        elementGroup.Add(element);
        elementGroup.MarkAsRoot(element);
        elementOperations.MergeElementGroup(root, elementGroup);
 
        tx.Commit();
    }
}
 
 

Assemblies needed

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Modeling.Sdk.Shell
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Modeling.Sdk.Diagrams

Stay tuned,

Pablo

Finally some public information about VS 2010 and Net Fx 4.0

Here is the link with a high overview of the new features:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/cc948977.aspx

Also take a look at channel9 all week

Pablo

VSXDevCon08 pictures

Here are some pictures for the VSX Developer Conference with me in the front. :)

The videos are going to posted at MSDN soon...

Pablo

T4 Editor RTM is OUT!!!

As Victor announced it, after great efforts the T4 Editor v1.0 was finally out.

I don't need to tell you how much the user experience can drastically change when you use it, having syntax coloring, intellisense, code generation preview, support for multiple T4 hosts, etc etc.

Check it out here

Pablo

How to open files from the Output window

My seventeenth How do I is up.

Scenario

The Visual Studio output window supports file opening. When we write to the output window a string with a specific mask, we can use the navigation buttons or double click the line and Visual Studio will open the file and position the caret in the corresponding line an column.

Interfaces and classes needed

IVsOutputWindowPane

Code snippet

    IServiceProvider serviceProvider = this;
 
    IVsOutputWindow outputwindow = 
        serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(SVsOutputWindow)) asIVsOutputWindow;
    Guid generalGuidPane = VSConstants.GUID_OutWindowGeneralPane;
    IVsOutputWindowPane generalPane;
    ErrorHandler.ThrowOnFailure(outputwindow.GetPane(ref generalGuidPane, out generalPane));
 
    //MASK: 
    //FilePath(#Line,#Column) : MessageToDisplay
 
    //Ex: 
    //D:\Work\Temp\VSPackage4\VSPackage4\VSPackage4Package.cs(83,79) : Foo
 
    generalPane.OutputStringThreadSafe(
        string.Concat(
            @"D:\Work\Temp\VSPackage4\VSPackage4\VSPackage4Package.cs(83,79) : Foo", 
            Environment.NewLine));
 
    ErrorHandler.ThrowOnFailure(generalPane.FlushToTaskList());

Assemblies needed

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop, Version=7.1.40304.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a

Stay tuned,

Pablo

How do I obtain an IVsHierarchy itemid

My fifteenth How do I is up.

Scenario

Several methods in the VS Interop world receive a IVsHierarchy item id parameter as an argument.

The problem is that there is no easy way to obtain the item id for a IVsHierarchy. Ideally we would like to do IVsHierarchy.GetProperty(VSConstants.VSITEMID_ROOT, (int)__VSHPROPID.VSHPROPID_ItemId, out itemId) but that property doesn't exist.

The focus of this How do I tackles this scenario.

Interfaces and classes needed

IVsBrowseObject

Code snippet

    public uint GetItemId(IVsHierarchy hierarchy)
    {
        object extObject;
        uint itemId = 0;
        IVsHierarchy tempHierarchy;
 
        hierarchy.GetProperty(VSConstants.VSITEMID_ROOT, (int)__VSHPROPID.VSHPROPID_BrowseObject, out extObject);
 
        IVsBrowseObject browseObject = extObject as IVsBrowseObject;
 
        if(browseObject != null)
        {
            browseObject.GetProjectItem(out tempHierarchy, out itemId);
        }
 
        return itemId;
    }
 

Assemblies needed

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.8.0, Version=8.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a

Stay tuned,

Pablo

How do I deal with the Visual Studio status bar

My sixteenth How do I is up.

Scenario

It is always a best practice to inform the user what is going on when we need to perform a long running operation. For that purpose Visual Studio has the status bar:

There are several options when dealing with the Visual Studio status bar, we can write messages, display progress and animations, etc. The focus of this How do I tackles these scenarios.

Interfaces and classes needed

IVsStatusBar

Code snippet

    int frozen;
    IVsStatusbar statusBar = serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(SVsStatusbar)) asIVsStatusbar;
 
    statusBar.IsFrozen(out frozen);
 
    //Write to the status bar
    if(!Convert.ToBoolean(frozen))
    {
        statusBar.SetText("The Message");
 
        //Do process
        Thread.Sleep(5000);
 
        statusBar.Clear();
    }
 
    //Write and display animatio in the status bar
    if(!Convert.ToBoolean(frozen))
    {
        //The built icons that can be used are defined in Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.Constants.SBAI_*

						
						 
        object icon = (short)Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.Constants.SBAI_General;
 
        statusBar.Animation(1, ref icon);
        statusBar.SetText("The Message");
 
        //Do process
        Thread.Sleep(5000);
 
        statusBar.Animation(0, ref icon);
        statusBar.Clear();
    }
 
    //Display progress in the status bar
    if(!Convert.ToBoolean(frozen))
    {
        uint userId = (uint)Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop.Constants.VSCOOKIE_NIL;
 
        for(int i = 1; i <= 10; i++)
        {
            statusBar.Progress(ref userId, 1, "The Message", (uint)i * 10, (uint)100);
 
            //Do process
            Thread.Sleep(1000);
        }
 
        statusBar.Progress(ref userId, 0, string.Empty, 0, 0);
    }

Assemblies needed

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop, Version=7.1.40304.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a

Stay tuned,

Pablo

How do I cancel a model element property value editing operation

My fourteenth How do I is up.

Scenario

Let's say that we want to cancel an editing operation in a model element property if the new value meets a certain condition. The focus of this How do I tackles this scenario.

In the next sample we have a MyLanguage dsl and a MyElement domain class and we want to cancel the editing operation over the "Foo" property if the new value is empty.

Interfaces and classes needed

ChangeRule

Code snippet

    public partial class MyLanguageDomainModel
    {
        protected override Type[] GetCustomDomainModelTypes()
        {
            var types = new List<Type>();
 
            types.AddRange(base.GetCustomDomainModelTypes());
            types.Add(typeof(MyElementChangeRule));
 
            return types.ToArray();
        }
    }
 
    [RuleOn(typeof(MyElement), FireTime = TimeToFire.TopLevelCommit)]
    public partial class MyElementChangeRule : ChangeRule
    {
        public override void ElementPropertyChanged(ElementPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            if(!e.ModelElement.Store.TransactionManager.CurrentTransaction.IsSerializing)
            {
                if(e.DomainProperty.Name.Equals("Foo"))
                {
                    if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(e.NewValue.ToString()))
                    {
                        //The name cannot be empty, therefore we cancel the change
                        PackageUtility.ShowError(e.ModelElement.Store, "Value cannot be empty");
                        e.ModelElement.Store.TransactionManager.CurrentTransaction.Rollback();
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

Assemblies needed

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Modeling.Sdk, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a

Stay tuned,

Pablo

How do I get a Project from a IVsHierarchy and viceversa

My thirteenth How do I is up.

Scenario

This is a common thing when working with the EnvDTE and Shell Interop worlds. Sometimes we want to access properties that doesn't exist in one of the worlds (like the guid property of my previous How do I) and viceversa. The focus of this How do I tackles this scenario.

Interfaces and classes needed

Code snippet

    public Project GetProject(IVsHierarchy hierarchy)
    {
        object project;
 
        ErrorHandler.ThrowOnFailure
            (hierarchy.GetProperty(
                VSConstants.VSITEMID_ROOT, 
                (int)__VSHPROPID.VSHPROPID_ExtObject, 
                out project));
 
        return (project as Project);
    }
 
    public IVsHierarchy GetHierarchy(IServiceProvider serviceProvider, Project project)
    {
        var solution = 
            serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(SVsSolution)) as IVsSolution;
 
        IVsHierarchy hierarchy;
 
        solution.GetProjectOfUniqueName(project.FullName, out hierarchy);
 
        return hierarchy;
    }

Assemblies needed

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop, Version=7.1.40304.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a
EnvDTE, Version=8.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a

Stay tuned,

Pablo

How do I obtain a project GUID

My twelfth How do I is up.

Scenario

Let's say that we have a DTE project instance and we want to get the project GUID. If we look carefully the EnvDTE.Project interface doesn't have a guid property. To obtain it we need to first obtain the corresponding IVsHierarchy for the project and then query the guid property. The focus of this How do I tackles this scenario.

Interfaces and classes needed

Code snippet

    public Guid GetProjectGuid(IServiceProvider serviceProvider, Project project)
    {
        var solution = serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(SVsSolution)) as IVsSolution;
 
        IVsHierarchy hierarchy;
 
        solution.GetProjectOfUniqueName(project.FullName, out hierarchy);
 
        if(hierarchy != null)
        {
            Guid projectGuid;
 
            ErrorHandler.ThrowOnFailure(
                hierarchy.GetGuidProperty(
                    VSConstants.VSITEMID_ROOT, 
                    (int)__VSHPROPID.VSHPROPID_ProjectIDGuid, 
                    out projectGuid));
 
            if(projectGuid != null)
            {
                return projectGuid;
            }
        }
 
        return Guid.Empty;
    }

Assemblies needed

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop, Version=7.1.40304.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a

Stay tuned,

Pablo

How do I get the Visual Studio command line switches

My eleventh How do I is up.

Scenario

Let's say that we want to obtain the command line switches for the running Visual Studio instance. In this specific sample we want to know if Visual Studio is running in RANU mode. The focus of this How do I tackles this scenario.

Interfaces and classes needed

IVsAppCommandLine

Code snippet

    public bool IsInRANUMode(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
    {
        IVsAppCommandLine cmdLineService = serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(SVsAppCommandLine)) as IVsAppCommandLine;
        int present;
        string value;
 
        ErrorHandler.ThrowOnFailure(cmdLineService.GetOption("ranu", out present, out value));
 
        return Convert.ToBoolean(present);
    }

Assemblies needed

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop, Version=7.1.40304.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a

Stay tuned,

Pablo

How do I know if the solution is still building

My tenth How do I is up.

Scenario

The scenario is really simple, we want to know if the solution is still building. The focus of this How do I shows how to do it.

Interfaces and classes needed

IVsSolutionBuildManager

Code snippet

    public static bool IsSolutionBuilding(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
    {
        IVsSolutionBuildManager buildManagerService = 
            serviceProvider.GetService(typeof(SVsSolutionBuildManager)) as IVsSolutionBuildManager;
 
        int isBuildManagerBusy = 0;
        ErrorHandler.ThrowOnFailure(buildManagerService.QueryBuildManagerBusy(out isBuildManagerBusy));
 
        return (isBuildManagerBusy == 1);
    }  
 

Assemblies needed

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop, Version=7.1.40304.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a

Stay tuned,

Pablo

How do I know when a model element is being added by a user demand

My ninth How do I is up.

Scenario

Let's say that we have some "Add rules" in our model to perform some custom operation every time a model element is added. One common problem is that we want to perform this operation only when the user creates a model element on demand, this can be translated to the user drags a shape from the toolbox, uses the model explorer, etc. But the add rule is also fired when the store is being deserialized and somehow we need to distinguish both cases. The focus of this How do I tackles this scenario.

Interfaces and classes needed

Transaction

Code snippet

    var transaction = e.ModelElement.Store.TransactionManager.CurrentTransaction;
 
    if(transaction != null && !transaction.IsSerializing)
    {

										//TODO: perform operation  
								
    }

Assemblies needed

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Modeling.Sdk

Stay tuned,

Pablo