Community source generators for Visual Studio extensions

Part of the VSIX Community

Summary

This package contains C# source generators that generate code from .vsixmanifest files and .vsct files.

These source generators are a replacement for the single-file generators from the VsixSynchronizer extension.

VSIX Manifest Files

The source generator will create a class called Vsix with the following constants:

Constant	Source
Author	<Identity Publisher=""/>
Description	<Description/>
Id	<Identity Id=""/>
Language	<Identity Language=""/>
Name	<DisplayName/>
Version	<Identity Version=""/>

Use a custom namespace

The Vsix class will be generated in the root namespace of the project. If you would like to generate the code into a different namespace, you can specify the namespace by defining the Namespace metadata for the source.extension.vsixmanifest file like this:

<ItemGroup>
    <None Include="source.extension.vsixmanifest">
        <Namespace>MyCustomNamespace</Namespace>
    </None>
</ItemGroup>

Command Table Files

The source generator will create a container class that is named after the .vsct file. Within that container class, a class will be created for each <GUIDSymbol>.

The class for a <GUIDSymbol> contains a Guid and GuidString field that defines the GUID value, and each <IDSymbol> is defined as a constant.

For example, a VSCommandTable.vsct file that looks like this:

<CommandTable xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005-10-18/CommandTable' xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'>
    <Symbols>
        <GuidSymbol name='MyPackage' value='{e5d94a98-30f6-47da-88bb-1bdf3b4157ff}'>
            <IDSymbol name='MyFirstCommand' value='0x0001' />
            <IDSymbol name='MySecondCommand' value='0x0002' />
        </GuidSymbol>
    </Symbols>
</CommandTable>

Will result in this:

internal sealed partial class VSCommandTable
{
    internal sealed partial class MyPackage
    {
        public const string GuidString = "e5d94a98-30f6-47da-88bb-1bdf3b4157ff";
        public static readonly Guid Guid = new Guid(GuidString);
    
        public const int MyFirstCommand = 1;
        public const int MySecondCommand = 2;
    }
}

You can then access the Guid and IDs like this:

[GuidAttribute(VSCommandTable.MyPackage.GuidString)]

Use a custom namespace

The classes will be generated in the root namespace of the project. If you would like to generate the code into a different namespace, you can specify the namespace by defining the Namespace metadata for the VSCTCompile item like this:

<ItemGroup>
    <VSCTCompile Include="MyCommandTable.vsct">
        <ResourceName>Menus.ctmenu</ResourceName>
        <Namespace>MyCustomNamespace</Namespace>
    </VSCTCompile>
</ItemGroup>

Migrating from the Vsix Synchronizer extension

If you are migrating from the Vsix Synchronizer extension and would like to continue to use the PackageGuids and PackageIds classes that it generates, you can change the output format by defining the Format metadata for the VSCTCompile item like this:

<ItemGroup>
    <VSCTCompile Include="MyCommandTable.vsct">
        <ResourceName>Menus.ctmenu</ResourceName>
        <Format>VsixSynchronizer</Format>
    </VSCTCompile>
</ItemGroup>

This will result in classes like this:

internal sealed partial class PackageGuids
{
    public const string MyPackageString = "e5d94a98-30f6-47da-88bb-1bdf3b4157ff";
    public static readonly Guid MyPackage = new Guid(MyPackageString);
}

internal sealed partial class PackageIds
{
    public const int MyFirstCommand = 1;
    public const int MySecondCommand = 2;
}