In Visual Studio, how do you make a specific window open during a build?

Question

Hi Everyone,

I've recently become a fan of the VSBuildStatus Visual Studio add-in which shows the status of your build in a nice graphical way. Its much more informative than the current progress bar or "Output" window. However, I can't seem to find an easy way to make it pop up during the build, then hide itself when done, which is similar to the current option in visual studio "Show Output window when build starts".

I've seen a few references to creating visual studio macros that can look for build events, but my current experience with VS macros are that they are slow and only in VB. I don't mind going that route if its the only way, but I figured I'd ask the hive mind first.

Thanks!

Jason

Answer 1

How about a keyboard macro? I think it still generates a vb macro in the background, but I've used plenty that aren't slow.

http://www.madprops.org/blog/quick-visual-studio-keyboard-macros/

You could start recording, open the window you want, Ctrl-shift-b, stop recording, etc.

Answer 2

It's not that difficult to hook up to an Environment Event:

1) Open the Macro IDE (Tools Menu --> Macros)
2) Open the 'EnvironmentEvents' module in the 'MyMacros' project
3) Add the following code after the auto-generated code:

Private Sub BuildEvents_OnBuildBegin(ByVal Scope As EnvDTE.vsBuildScope, ByVal Action As EnvDTE.vsBuildAction) Handles BuildEvents.OnBuildBegin
  DTE.Windows.Item("{43CD29AA-0CA4-4F1C-8265-219788EF4908}").Activate() 'Build Status
End Sub

You can dismiss the window by clicking anywhere outside of it.
You'll also see that it is very fast...

BTW, thanks for the addin, I didn't know about it and it is very useful indeed ;-)

Answer 3

Using Julien's help with the Macro IDE editor, this is the code that worked in my environment:

Private Sub BuildEvents_OnBuildBegin(ByVal Scope As EnvDTE.vsBuildScope, ByVal Action As EnvDTE.vsBuildAction) Handles BuildEvents.OnBuildBegin
  DTE.ExecuteCommand("VSBuildStatusAddin.Connect.VSBuildStatusAddin")
End Sub

Private Sub BuildEvents_OnBuildDone(ByVal Scope As EnvDTE.vsBuildScope, ByVal Action As EnvDTE.vsBuildAction) Handles BuildEvents.OnBuildDone
    DTE.Windows.Item("{43CD29AA-0CA4-4F1C-8265-219788EF4908}").Close()
End Sub