Fastest way to insert replacement characters in Visual Studio - asp.net-mvc

Question

I'm just starting to pick up ASP.Net MVC and find myself writing a lot of <%= %> in the views. Intellisense does supply the closing %>, but I find that typing the introductory <%= to be burdensome (they are tough for me to type :-)).
I've dabbled around a bit with Rails and the NetBeans IDE where I was able to type:
r<tab> - which would expand to <% %>
and
re<tab> - which would expand to <%= %>
Can something similar be done in the Visual Studio 2008 IDE?

Answer 1

Based on a comment, I double-checked the snippets answer below and it unfortunately doesn't run in HTML view. The other way to do this is via a recorded macro:
In your web project, start recording: CTRL+SHIFT+R
Type <%= %> then return the caret to between the spaces after the "="
Stop recording: CTRL+SHIFT+R
Insert the macro via CTRL+SHIFT+P
That could be enough, but it would be better to have it across all projects, plus we'd like a better keystroke than CTRL+SHIFT+P:
Save the Macro: Tools->Macros->Save Temporary Macro, giving it a name
Bind it to a keystroke combination:
Tools->Options, and choose the Keyboard node
Search for the name you chose
Enter a key combination (e.g. ALT+A) and click OK
Now you can press the key shortcut (e.g. ALT+A) in HTML view, it will insert <%= %>, and position the caret in the tags, ready for input.
[Old Answer: doesn't work in HTML view, unfortunately.]
For a Code Snippet, create an XML snippet file (e.g. "asp.snippet") with the name, shortcut and expansion, then use Tools -> Code Snippet Manager to add the folder where your snippet is stored.
Here's the XML for snippet that (via "asp[tab][tab]"), expands "<%= [code] %>"
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<CodeSnippet Format="1.0.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005/CodeSnippet">
<Header>
<Title>ASP Server Tags</Title>
<Author>Chris Bowen</Author>
<Shortcut>asp</Shortcut>
<Description>ASP.NET server escape characters, including equals</Description>
<SnippetTypes>
<SnippetType>SurroundsWith</SnippetType>
<SnippetType>Expansion</SnippetType>
</SnippetTypes>
</Header>
<Snippet>
<Declarations>
<Literal>
<ID>code</ID>
<Default>Code</Default>
</Literal>
</Declarations>
<Code Language="csharp">
<![CDATA[<%= $code$ $selected$%>$end$]]>
</Code>
</Snippet>
</CodeSnippet>
More details are here on MSDN.
BTW, VS has a snippet to create snippets. Just open a new XML file, then right click and choose Insert Snippet -> "Snippet".

Answer 2

This macro function should do it:
The main code will do one of two things, if nothing is selected it will just insert the <%= %> code construct, if you have something currently selected in the editor, it will wrap that code with the construct E.G. <%= selected code here %>
Public Sub WrapMVC()
Try
DTE.UndoContext.Open("Wrap MVC")
Dim OutText As String = ""
Dim OutFormat As String = "<%={0} %>"
DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection.Text = String.Format(OutFormat, ActiveWindowSelection)
Finally
DTE.UndoContext.Close()
End Try
End Sub
Helper Routines:
Friend Function ActiveWindowSelection() As String
If DTE.ActiveWindow.ObjectKind = EnvDTE.Constants.vsWindowKindOutput Then
Return OutputWindowSelection()
End If
If DTE.ActiveWindow.ObjectKind = "{57312C73-6202-49E9-B1E1-40EA1A6DC1F6}" Then
Return HTMLEditorSelection()
End If
Return SelectionText(DTE.ActiveWindow.Selection)
End Function
Private Function HTMLEditorSelection() As String
Dim hw As EnvDTE.HTMLWindow = ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.Object
Dim tw As TextWindow = hw.CurrentTabObject
Return SelectionText(tw.Selection)
End Function
Private Function OutputWindowSelection() As String
Dim w As Window = DTE.Windows.Item(EnvDTE.Constants.vsWindowKindOutput)
Dim ow As OutputWindow = w.Object
Dim owp As OutputWindowPane = ow.OutputWindowPanes.Item(ow.ActivePane.Name)
Return SelectionText(owp.TextDocument.Selection)
End Function
Private Function SelectionText(ByVal sel As EnvDTE.TextSelection) As String
If sel Is Nothing Then
Return ""
End If
If sel.Text.Length <= 2 Then
SelectWord(sel)
End If
If sel.Text.Length <= 2 Then
Return ""
End If
Return sel.Text
End Function
Private Sub SelectWord(ByVal sel As EnvDTE.TextSelection)
Dim leftPos As Integer
Dim line As Integer
Dim pt As EnvDTE.EditPoint = sel.ActivePoint.CreateEditPoint()
sel.WordLeft(True, 1)
line = sel.TextRanges.Item(1).StartPoint.Line
leftPos = sel.TextRanges.Item(1).StartPoint.LineCharOffset
pt.MoveToLineAndOffset(line, leftPos)
sel.MoveToPoint(pt)
sel.WordRight(True, 1)
End Sub

Answer 3

I believe Code Snippets would fit the bill.

Answer 4

I've found it straight forward to write a macro and then bind it to a keyboard command.
I use Tools->Macros->Macro Explorer to see what's there and you can create a new module and add in a macro to inject your code. Then you bind it to a key with Tools->Customize->Keyboard...
Since it's not too different from what you're doing, here is a macro to inject a source command with the date and username - VBScript - I didn't look to hard for other alternatives.
Imports System
Imports EnvDTE
Imports EnvDTE80
Imports EnvDTE90
Imports System.Diagnostics
Public Module Module1
Private Function GetUserName() As String
GetUserName = System.Environment.UserName
End Function
Sub InjectChangeComment()
ActiveDocument().Selection().Text = "// " + System.DateTime.Now.ToString("MM-dd-yy") + " " + GetUserName() + vbTab + vbTab + vbTab
End Sub
End Module

Answer 5

Code Snippets in the HTML view do not work. It's slated for the next version of Visual Studio. I'd look at a Macro approach for now, or see if other tools allow for snippets in the HTML editor.

Answer 6

One good tool which will allow you to do this is Resharper. You can create your own templates that will do what you require but also have surround with tags too. There are a whole host of features and is well worth it for the price.