Add-in for Visual Studio for project file editing (csproj)

Question

Do you know an add-in for visual studio which adds properties for C# projects? csproj file format is very powerful but only small amount of options can be changed through the standard properties page. For instance, I want to have several configurations and each of them should include it's own references. Or I just want to change the type of project from winforms to wpf or other one. In order to do stuff like that developer has to edit csproj by hands in text editor instead of using properties. If you know that such add-in doesn't exist, do you think that it could be popular on codeplex? or only small amount of developers realy need it? what is your opinion?

Answer 1

How is it going?

To edit project files inside of Visual Studio I use PowerCommands , but those things you can change "using properties" are those in Project Menu -> [Project Name] Properties. What PowerCommands does (among other things...) is allow you to easily edit the XML of a project opened inside Visual Studio so you get all the benefits of using Visual Studio to edit XML. Makes sense?

XML is hierarchical, so hardly you can fit it comfortably on a property list better than on a text editor.

About "I want to have several configurations and each of them should include it's own references", try creating templates for your projects, take a look there: Visual Studio Templates .

So... you are looking for addins at codeplex? why not take a look at http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com there are free and paid addins, an some form codeplex too. While you are on it, look for "Productivity Power Tools", "VSCommands 2010", "AllMargins" and "VS10x Code Map". I use them all, and they are certainly worth a look. [Hmmm... I also use CodeRush, you can get CodeRush Xpress for free from http://www.devexpress.com ;)]

Hope of being of help.

Answer 2

A little late to the table but I wanted to remove VSCommands 2010 because all I use it for really is the edit project file and I don't like to just have extensions hanging around if I am not using them. I discovered from this blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/habibh/archive/2009/07/01/the-quickest-way-to-edit-a-visual-studio-project-file.aspx

"There is a quick and easy way of editing your Visual Studio project file. When a project is "unloaded", either because you explicitly chose to unload the project using the "Unload Project" command or Visual Studio failed to load the project for some reason (eg project upgrade failed), you can right click on the project in Solution Explorer and select the "Edit " command, as shown below."

It works like a charm!