How do I get output to show up in the Messages pane of the Error List for Visual Studio 2005?

Question

I have a header file like this:

#ifndef __GEN_NOTE_MARKERS_TO_DEVELOPERS_HPP__
#define __GEN_NOTE_MARKERS_TO_DEVELOPERS_HPP__

  #ifdef _DEBUG

    // macros for turning a number into a string
    #define STRING2(x)  #x
    #define STRING(x)  STRING2(x)

    #ifdef TRIAGE_MESG_AS_WARNING
      #define TRIAGE_TODO_TAG(description)    __pragma(message(__FILE__"("STRING(__LINE__)") : warning : TRIAGE TO-DO: " STRING(description) ))
      #define TRIAGE_FIXTHIS_TAG(description) __pragma(message(__FILE__"("STRING(__LINE__)") : warning : TRIAGE FIXTHIS: " STRING(description) ))
    #else
      #define TRIAGE_TODO_TAG(description)    __pragma(message(__FILE__"("STRING(__LINE__)") : message : TRIAGE TO-DO: " STRING(description) ))
      #define TRIAGE_FIXTHIS_TAG(description) __pragma(message(__FILE__"("STRING(__LINE__)") : message : TRIAGE FIXTHIS: " STRING(description) ))
    #endif
  #else
    #define TRIAGE_TODO_TAG(description)
    #define TRIAGE_FIXTHIS_TAG(description)
  #endif

#endif // __GEN_NOTE_MARKERS_TO_DEVELOPERS_HPP__

Which outputs notes to the output pane in Visual Studio 2005. When 'TRIAGE_MESG_AS_WARNING' is defined, Visual Studio will harvest these messages and list them as warnings in the Error List. It does this because the text format matches a warning. However, I don't want them to show up as warnings all the time, I would rather they show up in the Messages pane of the Error List.

How do you format lines you put in the "Output Window" so that Visual Studio will auto-magically show them in the "Messages" tab of the "Error List" window?

The format I have setup for messages in the above code looks like a message from other output, but does not get harvested in the same way.

A co-worker suggested to me that I might need to write a 'custom automation object' to write to the Messages pane. That seems like a pain, especially since it is trivial to end-up with entries in the Error pane and Warning pane simply by proper formating. Is this a possible avenue?

We're using unmanaged C++, so we can't rely on managed (.NET) only tooling. We do not want to extend VS with hooks.

Answer 1

I believe they just forgot about adding additional category: info. At least it is not specified in output format for external tools.

Citation: "Category must be either 'error' or 'warning'. Case does not matter. Like origin, category must not be localized."

Link: http://blogs.msdn.com/msbuild/archive/2006/11/03/msbuild-visual-studio-aware-error-messages-and-message-formats.aspx