Visual Studio multi-project templates rename namespaces and project names

Question

I've successfully created a multi-project solution template. What I would like to do, however, is to rename the beginning of each project with the name of the solution.

So my projects:

• ProjectOne.A
• ProjectTwo.B

Would be renamed to

• SolutionName.A
• SolutionName.B

where SolutionName is the name by the user when they created the project.

I've read the following articles:

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms185308.aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms185311.aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms247063.aspx

but none seem to answer my specific situation.

Eradicate

@Adron - can you post the exact link. I don't want to hunt down the right article. – Eradicate

I have yet to test what you suggested, but I'll trust that it works based on Myles' comment. – Eradicate

Answer 1

If your main .vstemplate (the solution's one) is like the example below, you can use variables defined in wizard's dictionary to rename project folders and .csproj to whatever names you want.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<VSTemplate Version="2.0.0" Type="ProjectGroup"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/vstemplate/2005">
    <TemplateData>
        <Name>My Web Server Solution with DAL</Name>
        <Description>Creates Projects for Web Server DAL and adds them to a new or existing solution</Description>
        <Icon></Icon>
        <ProjectType>CSharp</ProjectType>
        <ProjectSubType>My</ProjectSubType>
        <DefaultName>WebServer</DefaultName>
        <NumberOfParentCategoriesToRollUp>2</NumberOfParentCategoriesToRollUp>
        <TemplateGroupID>My</TemplateGroupID>
        <TemplateID>My.Dal.Web.Template</TemplateID>
    </TemplateData>
    <TemplateContent>
        <ProjectCollection>
            <ProjectTemplateLink ProjectName="$ModelProjectName$">
                Children\Model\ProjectTemplate.vstemplate
            </ProjectTemplateLink>
            <ProjectTemplateLink ProjectName="$SharedModelContractsProjectName$">
                Children\SharedModelContracts\ProjectTemplate.vstemplate
            </ProjectTemplateLink>
            <ProjectTemplateLink ProjectName="$RepositoryInterfacesProjectName$">
                Children\RepositoryInterfaces\ProjectTemplate.vstemplate
            </ProjectTemplateLink>
            <ProjectTemplateLink ProjectName="$RepositoryImplementationProjectName$">
                Children\RepositoryImplementation\ProjectTemplate.vstemplate
            </ProjectTemplateLink>
            <ProjectTemplateLink ProjectName="$RepositoryExtensionsProjectName$">
                Children\RepositoryExtensions\ProjectTemplate.vstemplate
            </ProjectTemplateLink>
        </ProjectCollection>
    </TemplateContent>
    <WizardExtension>
        <Assembly>My.WebServerDalExtension.Wizard, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=5c93c79b0feae916</Assembly>
        <FullClassName>My.WebServerDalExtension.Wizard.Controller</FullClassName>
    </WizardExtension>
</VSTemplate>

Use similar changes to addition .vstemplates (the projects' .vstemplates) to rename the .csproj files.

Coven

Some of these projects reference each other, but the $safeitemname$ and $safeprojectname$ placeholders are not being replaced or are replacing with the wrong value. Any idea on how to reference projects together? – Eradicate

Yes, read all the project names from your wizard. Have each project reference's use variables defined in wizard. See this example: vsix.codeplex.com – Coven

Yep, looks like adding a custom variable into the .csproj reference section does absolutely nothing. – Thor

The .vstemplate file must enable variable replacement for that .csproj file. – Coven

how do we pass custom parameters down to the child template? – Masera

@AlexGordon I implemented this years ago, however, I recall that it just worked. Today I am using a much better approach though which doesn't use VS template mechanism. – Coven

@DannyVarod is the approach you are using classified or is it something you would be potentially willing to publicly share here? – Masera

@AlexGordon Not classified, I can explain how it works and ask about publishing the code. The downside of the template projects is that they are hard to keep updated. That is why I came up with a new solution which we implemented - use a working code repository which compiles with runable unit and integration tests, with generic names e.g. VAL_ROOT_VAL, VAL_DOMAIN_VAL, VAL_PROJECT_VAL. Then use a wizard for cloning this repository with replacements, thus ending in a new repository with the specific names required. This solution makes updates much easier as the template compiles and has tests. – Coven