Add a common namespace reference by default to all pages in a project

Question

Is there any easy way to add a using statement to every class I create in a project without having to write

using SomeNamespace;

in every file?

[edit] I could add a template I realise but I'm talking about doing it for every file in an existing project.

Answer 1

I believe you can do something like:

<system.web>
        <pages>
              <namespaces>
                    <add namespace="System.IO" />
                    <add namespace="System.Text"/>
                    <add namespace="Westwind.Tools"/>
              </namespaces>
        </pages>
</system.web>

http://www.west-wind.com/WebLog/posts/2287.aspx

Answer 2

Go to "My Project" > "References" tab > "Imported Namespaces" section. Check any namespaces that you want available on every page.

Answer 3

Note the web.config settings only work for code inside of page markup not in CodeFile/CodeBehind pages, so that's not really a solution.

Another way to do this is to create an empty page with just the right setup you want - namespaces, plus possibly a common base class etc. and then create a page template from that.

Check out File | Export Template...

It's extremely easy and lets you create exactly what you need. Works for most file types as well as entire projects that can be templatized (is that a word? :-})...

Answer 4

A find/replace across your project of "using System;" with "using System; using SomeNamespace;" will get you most of the way there quickly.