Fastest way to insert replacement characters in Visual Studio

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

I believe Code Snippets would fit the bill.

Answer 2

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 3

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"&gt;
  <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 4

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 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.