Create Visual Studio (vs.net) 2008 Solution Templates?

Question

Is it possible to create vs.net 2008 solution templates. From my search results it is not possible to create a solution templates with all the respective project references.

I have a vs.net solution with multiple projects and references in each. I would like to wrap all of them up into a template where I can use as standard base start for our web projects.

Has anyone come up with good solution for this?

Answer 1

What you want is to build a "Solution Template". The best way to do that is to use the Solution Factory add-in found in CodePlex.

http://solutionfactory.codeplex.com/

Edit: An even easier way would be to create the solution with all the projects in the same file location, then zip up all the directories into one file. Then just unzip and rename the solution directory as needed.

Edit2: Here is another way, Build an Add-in that will construct the solution for you. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vbasic/bb968855.aspx

Answer 2

I'm not certain exactly how it works to get this fully functional, but in the vs template xml, you can define a ProjectCollection with many ProjectTemplateLink entries, so I believe using this you should be able to create the setup you're looking for. However, I haven't worked with templates enough to be able to give a working example.