I have a Visual Studio 2019 project. Was asked to make trial changes. Do not want to alter current project. Is there any way to copy a project so I do not have to start over from scratch?
Searched here and other forums and documentation and cannot find solution.
Short answer: you can very simply copy the directory in which your project reside on disk. Open the new directory and double click on the .csproj file and you are now working in your new copy of the project. But, if you want to do that in a more professional and maintainable way, please read on...
The best way to do that in a more robust way is using Git.
In the bottom right corner of Visual Studio find the "Add to Source Control" command, click it, then choose Git. Now the command says "master", that is your main "copy" of the project: in Git, this is called your main "branch".
Now click on it, choose "New branch", give it a name (e.g.: trial), leave the checkbox "Checkout branch" checked, then click on "Create branch". Now the command in the right bottom has changed to "trial".
Now you have another copy of your project: you can work on it, save your work on local disk. When you are ready to save it in Git, press the pencil icon, that is located in the bottom toolbar, on the right, near the command you used before (the number near it shows how many files you have changed): click it, enter a "commit message", then click on "Commit all". Now you have saved all your work in the trial "branch" of your project in Git.
If you want to come back to your initial copy of the project, click on "trial", then choose "master", and voila... your are now working on the old copy or your project. You can switch between the two branches anytime, only remember that, before switching, you have to "commit" your changes, that is, save them in Git, as I explained above.
At some point, you may want to bring the changes you made in trial to master. To do so, when you are working in master, click on master (always in the bottom toolbar, on the right), then choose "Manage branches", then right click on "trial", click on "Merge from...", then click the Merge button: you have now brought the changes made on trial into master. The only problem can arise if you have changed a file both in master and in trial, and the changes are conflicting: in this case, VS will warn you, show you the conflicting changes, and you will have to choose which version of the conflicting changes you want.
If one don't want or can't use git, one can also copy and paste the project folder. Once in the new folder, Here is what I usualy do (I assumed the old project is named "projectOld" and new one "projectNew").
:
rename projectOld.sln to projectNew.sln
open projectNew.sln and change the following line in order to set the new project name :
Project("{C9CE8BB8-8B4A-11D0-5E31-C9100A0BC942}") = "projectNew", "projectNew.vcxproj", "{66F6A241-22E1-4941-6DA3-B6D9E7A8AF86}"
rename projectOld.vcxproj to projectNew.vcxproj
open projectNew.vcxproj and change the lines with the <!-- here --> comments
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
[...]
<PropertyGroup Label="Globals">
[...]
<RootNamespace>projectNew</RootNamespace> <!-- here -->
[...]
<ProjectName>projectNew</ProjectName> <!-- here -->
[...]
<ItemGroup>
<ClCompile Include="..\..\..\..\..\IncludePath(1)\ImplementatFile(1).cpp" /> <!-- here -->
[... up to last]
<ClCompile Include="..\..\..\..\..\IncludePath(n)\ImplementatFile(n).cpp" />
[...]
<ItemGroup>
[same thing for every ItemGroups] <!-- here -->
[...]
rename projectOld.vcxproj.filters to projectNew.vcxproj.filters
rename projectOld.vcxproj.user to projectNew.vcxproj.user
one can delete the Debug and X64 folders, they will be created again by mvsc.
Yes, with GIT branching you can create variations of a project easily.
But I think that was not the core of the question asked, because if you create a branch, it is kept separate.
I had a similar scenario where I needed a similar project in the same solution (code first database). A clone of the database project to start with and make some changes for a different database. So in the end I wanted to have 2 databases, not identical but similar, in the same solution.
Adding a new project in the solution and then copying the .CS-Files is possible but cumbersome because of the references and dependencies.
So what I did is:
Close Visual Studio
Open the file explorer and copy the entire folder (e.g. MyProjectA), rename the copy (e.g. to MyProjectB)
Rename the .csproj project file of the copied project MyProjectB. Then open it with a text editor of your choice, to see if you need to adapt anything (for example, project references if you moved it to a different directory level; they usually refer to a different project with a relative path, e.g. <ProjectReference Include="..\SomePathOfADifferentProject\SomeProject.csproj"/>)
Open Visual Studio, load the solution
In the solution explorer, right click on the solution, select "Add existing project...". Now browse for MyProjectB to add it as existing project
and you're done!
If you're using source control like GIT, make sure to check if the clone was correctly added (i.e. check if the files are tracked by source control).
I suggest you go with Project Template inside Visual Studio. You create a project template, store it somewhere, then create a new project by using the stored template. Here are more details
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/visualstudio/visual-studio-2010/ms247121(v=vs.100)?redirectedfrom=MSDN
I moved my Asp.net-mvc project from desktop to F drive and all the files are showing as miscellaneous files.
I've tried running the visual studio installer and modify to make sure that "Nuget targets and build tasks" are ticked.
I've also tried :
excluding the file
add existing member(adding the file again)
but nothing's working.
Same thing happened with my asp.net core web api when I moved it, it's working fine tho, getting data from server.
Hope you will solve your problem
Solution 1:
Create new project then paste all project contents in new created project.Restore Nuget packages then Build it.
Solution 2 :
Go to the file which are Miscellaneous inside Solution Explorer.
Right click those file'(s) and select Exclude from project.
Add Existing Item to project, you just excluded.
Probably your file property configuration is wrong.
Try this:
Right click over the File that has this problem
Click on Properties
Under Advanced -> Build Action, check if other than "Compile" is selected.
If so, change it to "Compile".
Properties Window
I'm trying to share some views across projects by using the "Add as Link" feature in VS2015 but the linked view appears broken in VS even though it works fine on the site.
Is there a way to get features like intellisense and "go to definition" working for a linked View?
I can reproduce this with a new solution/project:
Move Home/Index.cshtml to some other folder (currently I'm using a Solution Folder but it doesn't seem to matter where I move the files)
delete Index.cshtml from Home/
from Home/ right click and "add existing item"
choose Index.cshtml from the Solution Folder but choose "Add as Link" from the button drop down
on the linked Index.cshtml choose properties "Copy to Output Directory = Copy Always"
The site will work fine but in VS2015 the view then appears broken and no intellisense works.
This would be a great way to share a view across multiple projects but if VS thinks the view is broken it makes developing a pain.
Any suggestions? Is there a better way to share views across projects?
Here's the painful way I got it to work:
Unload the solution
Create a copy of one of the projects containing the views I want to replicate. Let's call the new project [SharedItems].
Rename the .csproj file and edit the .csproj file manually and replace the old name with the new name (probably optional, but made things easier)
Load the solution and add the new project.
Delete any files you don't need.
Rename the namespaces in the new project.
Build just to make sure it's working and Intellisense is working correctly.
Delete the files you intend to link in the original projects and create links.
Installed the MSBuild.WebApplication.CopyContentLinkedFiles NuGet package on all the original projects to automatically make physical copies of the linked files.
Now I can do all my edits in the templated project without having to maintain multiple copies everywhere.
Two big downsides:
I have to build after making edits to any linked object before I can see the changes.
I have to open the actual .cshtml files in the [SharedItems] project only. Opening a linked file breaks Intellisense until you close it and open it directly. This is especially annoying with Resharper's Search Everywhere feature because it suggests linked files.
I'm using team foundation server 2010 # work and home.
I want to exclude some element from the project build but still have them exist in Team Foundation Server 2010 source control. How do I achieve this?
Exclude From Project will delete the item.
Same problem here, only way to do this is manually edit project file :(
Please vote that this bug is important to fix
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/573582/vs-2010-exclude-from-project-deleting-files-from-source-control
Workaround posted on Connect:
Open the csproj file in notepad and find the files that need to be
excluded and remove or comment the compile element for that file, and
any related designer and resx files.
Editing a project file and removing the references to the files you want to exclude would be the easiest solution.
Another solution would be to remove files from the project via UI, but only checkin changes in the project file and undo the delete operations.
In the future you can add files directly to the TFS folder in Team Explorer.
May I ask: why would you want to do that? As I commonly have a problem of files which are not bound to any project and have to be getted manually.
I work in a TFS environment, and if it were me? I'd just change the name of the file (instead of excluding it from the project), and check that in instead. Since your project is expecting that particular filename...it won't find it. We use this when we're developing prototypes or holding on to antiquated code for documentation purposes. Sorry VS is eating your stuff!
Kind Regards,
-sf
I think these steps should help you do what you are looking for.
To exclude an item from a deployment project:
In Solution Explorer, select the file you want to exclude.
On the Solution Explorer toolbar, select Properties.
In the Properties window, set the Exclude property to True.
And this page explains the actions for project files supported by VS 2010:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0ebzhwsk.aspx
--- Edit ---
At work I tried 'Exclude From Project' in one of the files of a project we have in VS 2010, which is bound to a TFS 2010 server, and this action did not delete the item from TFS; the Source Control Explorer window shows the red delete mark next to the item, and the 'Pending Change' column says delete, but item is there. Right click the item in the Source Control Explorer window, one of the commands in the context menu that pops-up is 'Check In Pending changes' and another one is 'Shelve Pending changes'. Shelving enables you to set aside the pending changes.
The file is still in the local hard drive. If I do 'Include In Project' the item comes back to normal.
In an existing VS2008 SP1 web project I'm introducing an MVC page. I was able to manually create a view and get it working just fine but I'm unable to get the "Add View" and "Add Controller" to work from the Solutions Explorer. Also, the MVC templates don't show up when I try and Add a New Item.
I know my VS2008 is setup properly because on a new project everything works fine (MVC templates show up in Web Items) and the "Add View" and "Add Controller" work fine as well. Is there a trick to get my legacy project to see these options.
I tried look around the csproj files. Nothing obvious there.
I see the template zip files in my folder ...Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\Web\MVC
Thanks.
My guess is that the project type is probably set wrong. I know it did change after one of the betas.
Try this: First, check in your existing files to source control, in case you accidentally mess up the project file. Open both of the *.csproj files (the one that "works" and the one that "doesn't") as text. You will have to unload the projects in the IDE in order to do this. Copy the <ProjectTypeGuids> value from the one that "works" to the one that "doesn't". Now reload the projects. See if that fixes the problem.