c# Visual Studio ...adding references programmatically

Question

Is there anyway that a reference can be added to a solution programmatically?

I have an add-in button, when the user presses it, I want a reference to be added.

The reason is, I have created a piece of software that I want to be integrated into any given VS program (if the developer wants it), they would simply click the add-in button and the reference would be loaded in the current solution.

Is this possible?

Answer 1

Something like this I haven't tested it

get the environment

EnvDTE80.DTE2 pEnv = null;
Type myType = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("VisualStudio.DTE.8.0");          
pEnv = (EnvDTE80.DTE2)Activator.CreateInstance(myType, true);

get the solution.

Solution2 pSolution = (Solution2)pEnv.VS.Solution;

get the project that you want

Project pProject = pSolution.Projects[0];

add the reference

pProject.References.Add(string referenceFilePath);

Answer 2

There is an example on CodeProject.

The functionality is contained within a single class elRefManager and the method to call is CheckReferences. The code can be looked at here by selecting the elRefManager.cs file on the left hand side.

As seen in the article you could do...

private void button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    int ec;
    ec=elRefManager.CheckReferences(null, new string[] {textBox1.Text});

    if (ec<0)
        MessageBox.Show("An error occurred adding this reference");
    if (ec>0)
        MessageBox.Show("Could not add " + textBox1.Text + 
                    "\nCheck its spelling and try again");
}