Goal:
Integrate project templates within Visual Studio 2013's "One ASP.NET" collection.
Background:
The "to be distributed" project began as a new ASP.NET Web Application project, using the Empty template and the MVC and Web API "folders and references" checked. From there I added my love and affection and used Export Template. The zip lands in My Documents > Visual Studio 2013 > My Exported Templates
. If you have Visual Studio install the template for you, a duplicate zip is placed within My Documents > Visual Studio 2013 > Templates > ProjectTemplates
. Here's where the problem begins...
Issue:
In Visual Studio the template is found within the Visual C# tree branch, not a custom template within the ASP.NET Web Application template. Bummer. Even more odd, the template installs only to C# and not to its Web sub-folder.
MSDN documentation online mentioned a <ProjectSubType>
within the .vstemplate
file, which was empty when I investigated, but even explicitly adding Web did not change the UI location. This nothing to do with my goal really, but it seems to suggest that VS2013 does not honor some of the XML within .vstemplate
?
More Info:
I started digging through the Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates\
and one of the oddball things I noticed was two separate "folder trees": {root}\Web\CSharp\1033
and {root}\CSharp\Web\1033
.
The first tree held WebTemplate45 and its project WebApplication45Dev12.vstemplate
illustrating the ProjectType
and ProjectSubtype
values mentioned above. Mimicing this did not change aything.
The second tree also held a WebTemplate45 with WebTemplate.vstemplate
included. This one was was significantly different because its Type=ProjectGroup
and it referenced a TemplateGroupID
and curious WizardExtension
tag that referenced the OneASPNetProjectTemplateWizard
. My guess is this is the daddy template that displays those showen in the image displayed.
Question(s)
What does it take to deliver a project package in the "One ASP.Net" popup? Registry alterations? VSIX?
If it is not possible, is there anyway to clone the daddy window for all custom projects? Ex. imagine the window displayed with only a company's child templates listed.
.vstemplate
s installed with 2013 and you'll see what I'm experiencing. Everything changed. :) – Franni