I have two solutions which have some common code, so I'd like to extract it out and share it between them. Furthermore, I'd like to be able to release that library independently because it might be useful to others. What's the best way to do it with Visual Studio 2008? Is a project present in more than one solution? Do I have a separate solution for the separate piece of code? Can a solution depend on another one?
+6
A:
You would simply create a separate Class Library project to contain the common code. It need not be part of any solution that uses it. Reference the class library from any project that needs it.
The only trick at all is that you will need to use a file reference to reference the project, since it will not be part of the solutions that refer to it. This means that the actual output assembly will have to be placed in a location that can be accessed by anyone building a project that references it. This can be done by placing the assembly on a share, for instance.
John Saunders
2009-07-12 17:29:16
+4
A:
You can include a project in more than one solution. I don't think a project has a concept of which solution it's part of. However, another alternative is to make the first solution build to some well-known place, and reference the compiled binaries. This has the disadvantage that you'll need to do a bit of work if you want to reference different versions based on whether you're building in release or debug configurations.
I don't believe you can make one solution actually depend on another, but you can perform your automated builds in an appropriate order via custom scripts. Basically treat your common library as if it were another third party dependency like NUnit etc.
Jon Skeet
2009-07-12 17:31:05
+1
A:
You could include the same project in more than one solution, but you're guaranteed to run into problems sometime down the road (relative paths can become invalid when you move directories around for example)
After years of struggling with this, I finally came up with a workable solution, but it requires you to use Subversion for source control (which is not a bad thing)
At the directory level of your solution, add a svn:externals property pointing to the projects you want to include in your solution. Subversion will pull the project from the repository and store it in a subfolder of your solution file. Your solution file can simply use relative paths to refer to your project.
If I find some more time, I'll explain this in detail.
Philippe Leybaert
2009-07-12 17:31:32
In defining your projects, make sure to use only relative paths... That should, especially for a reusable one, solve more than a tiny problem.
xtofl
2009-07-12 17:38:38
Just for reference, `svn:externals` hard links to a repository. When you move the repository, the external links still point to the old repository.
Andomar
2010-08-01 16:13:50
+3
A:
A project can be referenced by multiple solutions.
Put your library or core code into one project, then reference that project in both solutions.
ilivewithian
2009-07-12 17:31:48
+1
A:
Extract the common code into a class library project and add that class library project to your solutions. Then you can add a reference to the common code from other projects by adding a project reference to that class library. The advantage of having a project reference as opposed to a binary/assembly reference is that if you change your build configuration to debug, release, custom, etc, the common class library project will be built based on that configuration as well.
Mehmet Aras
2009-07-12 17:36:45
+2
A:
File > Add > Existing Project... will let you add projects to your current solution. Just adding this since none of the above posts point that out. This lets you include the same project in multiple solutions.
Aseem Kishore
2009-07-12 17:49:22
+1
A:
It is a good idea to create a dll class library that contain all common functionality. Each solution can reference this dll indepently regardless of other solutions.
Infact , this is how our sources are organized in my work (and I believe in many other places).
By the way , Solution can't explicitly depend on another solution.
A:
If you're attempting to share code between two different project types (I.e.: desktop project and a mobile project), you may look into the shared solutions folder. I have to do that for my current project as the mobile and desktop projects both require identical classes that are only in 1 file. If you go this route, any of the projects that have the file linked can make changes to it and all of the projects will be rebuilt against those changes.
Stevoni
2009-08-24 17:13:37
+1
A:
You can "link" a code file between two projects. Right click your project, choose Add -> Existing item, and then click the down arrow next to the Add button:
In my experience linking is simpler than creating a library. Linked code results in a single executable with a single version.
Andomar
2010-08-01 16:29:03