Get a list of Solution/Project Files for VS Add-in or DXCore Plugin

Question

I am trying to write a add-in for Visual Studio that, among other things, needs to keep track of every file in a Visual Studio solution. I know what events I need to subscribe to (when a Solution is opened, when a file is added/removed/edited in it, the same for projects, etc), but I don't understand how to actually get a list of files from any of it.

I recently installed CodeRush and have been playing with the DXCore framework. I'm very happy with it's approach at plugins, but I still don't see an obvious way to get a list of files in the solution.

So to sum it up: How, via the Visual Studio SDK or DXCore, do I get a reliable list of files in the solution and it's projects?

Answer 1

Thanks, Reed; the article you linked got me far enough to get a proof of concept churned out in a couple minutes.

Since I feel it's related, here is the iteration and recursive means by which I collected the ProjectItems. I did this in DXCore, but the same idea applies to the raw Visual Studio SDK (DXCore is merely a nicer looking wrapper over the SDK). The 'Solution', 'Projects', 'Project', and 'ProjectItem' objects are right there in EnvDTE.

Setting Projects

EnvDTE.Solution solution = CodeRush.ApplicationObject.Solution;
EnvDTE.Projects projects = solution.Projects;

Iterating over the Projects to pull ProjectItems

var projects = myProjects.GetEnumerator();
while (projects.MoveNext())
{
    var items = ((Project)projects.Current).ProjectItems.GetEnumerator();
    while (items.MoveNext())
    {
        var item = (ProjectItem)items.Current;
        //Recursion to get all ProjectItems
        projectItems.Add(GetFiles(item));
    }
}

Finally, The recursion I do for getting all ProjectItems in the active Solution

ProjectItem GetFiles(ProjectItem item)
{
    //base case
    if (item.ProjectItems == null)
        return item;

    var items = item.ProjectItems.GetEnumerator();
    while (items.MoveNext())
    {
        var currentItem = (ProjectItem)items.Current;
        projectItems.Add(GetFiles(currentItem));
    }

    return item;
}

Answer 2

This is all available easily using DTE in the Visual Studio SDK.

You can get a list of projects in a solution using the Projects interface.

You can get a list of items in a project using the ProjectItem interface.

For more information, I'd recommend reading up on Controlling Projects and Solutions.