Using C#, how do I create a new Visual Studio 2012 Solution programmatically?

Question

I followed this Stack Overflow post regarding how to create a project for VS2010, hoping that it would point me in the correct direction, but it doesn't cover creating a VS2012 project or solution.

I also explored using SLNTools, but I don't see how to create a new solution from scratch.

Ultimately, I would like to create 3-4 VS2012 projects programmatically and then add them to a solution which is also created programmatically.

---

I attempted a solution based on this Stack Overflow post, but I get an odd error. Here is the code:

    Type typeDTE = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("VisualStudio.DTE.11.0");
    var dte = (DTE)Activator.CreateInstance(typeDTE, true);
    var sln = (Solution2)dte.Solution;
    sln.Create(@"D:\Visual Studio\Projects","Test");

And here is the error:

Answer 1

This works for me (VS2012 Ultimate):

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    System.Type type = System.Type.GetTypeFromProgID("VisualStudio.DTE.11.0");
    Object obj = System.Activator.CreateInstance(type, true);
    EnvDTE.DTE dte = (EnvDTE.DTE)obj;
    dte.MainWindow.Visible = true; // optional if you want to See VS doing its thing

    // create a new solution
    dte.Solution.Create(@"C:\NewSolution\", "NewSolution");
    var solution = dte.Solution;

    // create a C# WinForms app
    solution.AddFromTemplate(@"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplatesCache\CSharp\Windows\1033\WindowsApplication\csWindowsApplication.vstemplate",
        @"C:\NewSolution\WinFormsApp", "WinFormsApp");

    // create a C# class library
    solution.AddFromTemplate(@"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplatesCache\CSharp\Windows\1033\ClassLibrary\csClassLibrary.vstemplate",
        @"C:\NewSolution\ClassLibrary", "ClassLibrary");

    // save and quit
    dte.ExecuteCommand("File.SaveAll");
    dte.Quit();
}

[Edit:] Looking under HKCR, it looks like there's a VisualStudio.DTE (without the .11.0) that will point to the latest version of VS. So on my machine with VS2012 and VS2013, it will use the latter.

Answer 2

Tested and working using .NET4 Winforms, and a reference to EnvDTE100.dll (which should also add references to EnvDTE90.dll, EnvDTE80.dll, and EnvDTE.dll)

Type type = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("VisualStudio.DTE.11.0");
Object obj = System.Activator.CreateInstance(type, true);
EnvDTE80.DTE2 dte = (EnvDTE80.DTE2)obj;
EnvDTE100.Solution4 _solution = (EnvDTE100.Solution4)dte.Solution;
_solution.Create(@"C:\Test\", "Test");
_solution.SaveAs(@"C:\Test\Test.sln");