tags:

views:

145

answers:

2
+2  Q: 

How to automatically include generated source files into a C# project in Visual Studio?

I have a situation where I need to generate a bunch of C# code files in a prebuild step of a project and include the generated files into the current project for compilation. Is there a way to do this cleanly without having to muck with the project file every time the prebuild step is run?

My solution should work for both IDE based build and a Team Build based on MSBuild. Since both are MSBuild based, I suspect there won't be much difference; but wanted to call it out.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

+2  A: 

One way to go would be to use Custom Tool like Linq 2 SQL does on dbml file with the MSLinqToSQLGenerator Tool. But I don't think custom tool work with MSBuild.

Developing a Visual Studio Custom Tool

davidwatercamp  2010-05-07 03:14:06
I would be generating these files from a DLL; and I don't know how many of them would be generated before hand. Otherwise I could use placeholders or custom tools on some other definition files.
Charles Prakash Dasari  2010-05-07 08:36:34
Somebody suggested to use a custom tool and modify the MSBuild project definition by writing a custom task that generates these files and includes them into the project during compile time. At this point that looks like a viable alternative. I will need a lot of time to put all of that together though. So won't have an immediate way to verify that. For this time, I consider this as answered. Thanks all for great answers.
Charles Prakash Dasari  2010-05-09 23:42:39
A: 

I have a project like this. The previous developer just added the current copies of the files, now each time the project it built they get pulled in.

On the other hand, he didn't document this, so it wasn't at all obvious; I had to spend a bit of time figuring out what was going on. But I haven't had to modify the setup.

egrunin  2010-05-07 03:19:25
OK; in my case I don't know how many files I would need to generate before hand. That is the biggest hurdle that is stopping me. Otherwise I could use place holders.
Charles Prakash Dasari  2010-05-07 08:34:09

related questions

Displaying Flash content in a C# WinForms application
How to get the value of built, encoded ViewState?
Unhandled Exception Handler in .NET 1.1
How do I connect to a database and loop over a recordset in C#?
How do I most elegantly express left join with aggregate SQL as LINQ query
Get a new object instance from a Type in C#
.NET Testing Framework Advice
Automatically update version number
What is the difference between an int and an Integer in Java/C#?
How to write to Web.Config in Medium Trust ?
WinForms ComboBox data binding gotcha
How do you sort a C# dictionary by value?
Adding Scripting functionality to .NET applications
Floating Point Number parsing: Is there a Catch All algorithm?
How do I print an HTML document from a web service?
Decoding T-SQL CAST in C#/VB.net
Anatomy of a "Memory Leak"
How do I get a distinct, ordered list of names from a DataTable using Linq
Reliable Timer in a Console Application
How do I fill a DataSet or a DataTable from a LINQ query resultset ?
What's the difference between Math.Floor() and Math.Truncate() in .NET?
How do I calculate relative time?
How do I calculate someone's age in C#?
Are there any conversion tools for porting Visual J# code to C#?
When setting a form's opacity should I use a decimal or double?