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Sample Image - VSFileFinderScreenShot.gif

Introduction

VS File Finder is a Visual Studio .NET 2003 Add-In that helps you find files quickly in large projects. It is written in C++ and can list files from all the project types that Visual Studio supports.

After installing, you will see a new window in the IDE listing all the files in your current solution. By typing a few letters from any part of a filename, you can quickly narrow down the list to just a few files and then open the file you are interested in.

This is more useful than the Solution Explorer or the file open dialog in large projects as files can be spread over many folders and you might only remember part of a file name.

There are options to highlight or exclude files based on the file name so you can quickly get to the files you want.

Requirements

The add-in should work well with projects written in any of the languages Visual Studio .NET supports. I have tested the add-in with C++, C# and VB.NET projects.

The add-in works with Visual Studio .NET 2003 (version 7.1). It does not work with Visual Studio .NET 2002, Visual Studio .NET 2005 beta or any previous version of Visual Studio. Adding support for VS2002 or VS2005 may be as simple as changing the registration code to list the add-in as working with those versions or it may require some code changes (I don't have access to either of these versions to find out).

Background

The add-in uses the Visual Studio .NET automation interface to find the files in the project and to display its window.

It took a long time to find a method of building the file list that was both quick and reliable. I started with a version that built a list of files and then tried to use the solution events to update the list whenever the project changed. This method didn't work that well as some actions (like loading a solution) can cause a lot of events to be triggered and some actions don't generate events or send events that are too generic to work out their effect on the list of files. I tried adding more and more event handlers but this method seemed doomed to failure.

The method that I now use is to rebuild the list of files on each event. To keep things working quickly, I delay the actual building of the list by a few hundred milliseconds so multiple events will get batched up into one rebuild. The add-in also uses a virtual list control to reduce the amount of flicker when the list changes.

This method seems to work well even with large solutions (I typically use it on a project with two or three thousand files with no problems at all).

Using the code

There are a few bits of code from this project that might be useful for other projects. SolutionExplorer.cpp/.h provides the base class for classes that need to iterate over the files in a solution in a visitor style and hides a lot of the tedious details.

The code also has some useful helper classes for handling Visual Studio events and has some code for displaying and sorting a virtual list control.

Points of Interest

The solution is actually built using two projects, a Visual Studio Add-in and an ActiveX control. There seems to be an odd problem with hosting ActiveX controls in Visual Studio when the controls are built using MFC. The control gains an extra border which should not be there. This also happens with simple AppWizard created code as well, so I am wondering if this is an MFC bug. The only solution I could find is to call DestroyTracker in CVSFileFinderCtrl::OnActivateInPlace. This fixes the problem but I would be interested to find out why this is needed.

History

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QuestionSource files navigation
Grotichaz Morek
11:58 29 Jul '07  
First, this is a very nice add-in and a very good job, thank you for sharing Smile

Perhaps someone knows:

I would like to instruct the DTE to jump to a given line within a given source file.

What I am looking for is a function similar to the
void CVSFileFinderCtrl::OpenFile(CString strName) but with the addition
of an unsigned int parameter for the line within the file.

Any suggestions?


QuestionAdd the new project types
karabagamoorthy
1:17 16 Nov '06  
I need to add the new project types apart from default VS.Net 2005 IDE..

whether is it possible in ADD-in? Can anybody give some ideas?

do needful!!!!

Regards,

DK Moorthy
GeneralNew version with Visual Studio 2005 support
J W Payne
11:18 10 Jun '06  
Please see http://www.zero-one-zero.com/vs for a new version of the addin which supports Visual Studio 2005. The new version is a complete rewrite in C# but supports all the old features.
GeneralGreat Work & Small Suggestion
Paul Hooper
20:12 20 Feb '06  
Great work - it has indirectly solved a messy problem for me and looks like a great addition to the IDE.

The small suggestion is to permit copying the current filtered list to the clipboard - tab delimited.

To put it in context, I had a project handed to me that included source directories with lots of "orphans" - coding deritus that had been left in the directory. Your file finder made finding these files trivial. Being able to copy the list out would have made the documentation of this process trivial.

In any case, you get my 5.

ThanksBig Grin ,

Paul Hooper

If you spend your whole life looking over your shoulder, they will get you from the front instead.
GeneralVersion 3.1.1
J W Payne
5:47 8 May '05  
There is now an updated version of this add-in on my web site at http://www.zero-one-zero.com/vs. The new version has a few features not included in the version here and adds support for Visual Studio 2005 (beta 2).

Jonathan
GeneralInstaller for VS 2005 Beta 2
Mark Levison
9:18 25 Apr '05  
I just switched my devenv to VS 2005 Beta 2 and already I miss VS File Finder. Copying the 2003 (aka 7.1) registry entries over works - but an installer that did correctly would help. I think that you will find the only difference is that 2005 is version 8.0 (vs 7.1/8.0). If you put together an installer I will test it.

Thanks again for an indepensible tool.
GeneralRe: Installer for VS 2005 Beta 2
J W Payne
9:54 25 Apr '05  
I am keen to add support for Visual Studio 2005 but I don't have access to the beta at the moment. From my previous testing, the add-in seems to work with both the full version and the express versions. Once I get hold of the beta I intend to create a new installer using WiX that supports as many versions of VS as possible.

Jonathan
GeneralRe: Installer for VS 2005 Beta 2
Mark Levison
5:52 6 May '05  
Jonathan - is there anything (within reason) that I can I do to help with the new installer.

Mark
GeneralRe: Installer for VS 2005 Beta 2
J W Payne
5:45 8 May '05  
I've got the beta now and I've changed the installer to support it. You can get the new version from my web site at http://www.zero-one-zero.com/vs. Please give it a go and tell me how you get on.

If you (or anybody else) could give this new version a go on a PC has never had VSFileFinder installed on it and report back here, I would be very grateful.

Jonathan
GeneralRe: Installer for VS 2005 Beta 2
Pablo Aliskevicius
0:11 16 Apr '06  
Works fine.
Thanks for a beautiful add in!
Smile

Pablo_A
GeneralRe: Installer for VS 2005 Beta 2
J W Payne
11:15 10 Jun '06  
I have just updated my web site with a new version of the addin for Visual Studio 2005. See http://www.zero-one-zero.com/vs.
GeneralVery Good one
Vijay Chandra Sekhar Parepalli
20:56 1 Feb '05  
I liked this very much.Can any one point me to any resources by which I can get this converted to C#. I am not proficient in C++ and hence unable to extend the functionality offered here. This is a very nice tool.

Sekhar
GeneralRe: Very Good one
J W Payne
8:47 7 Feb '05  
Thanks for the complement.

I am not sure how you would convert the project to C#. I think creating tool windows in C# might require a special shim control, see this page. It might be easier to just extend the current version - I am sure you can pick up the C++ easily enough or alternatively you could suggest your ideas here and see if some one else could be tempted to implement it!

Jonathan
GeneralRe: Very Good one
Vijay Chandra Sekhar Parepalli
9:51 7 Feb '05  
Thanks Jonathan, my small-changesSmile are
1) To save the auto-hide status , which is not yet there now for this addin.
2) Text and Regex based search across solution..just as you said.
3) To make the behavior configurable : as soon as I click the any link in the search results, again the search field value vanishes resetting back everything again.


Smile

Sekhar
GeneralRe: Very Good one
J W Payne
2:39 8 Feb '05  
I think the version on my web site fixes 3 and maybe 1. I thought 2 would be a useful feature but I have never actually wanted to use it in day-to-day work - is it something you think you would actually use?


Jonathan
GeneralRe: Very Good one
Vijay Chandra Sekhar Parepalli
20:07 8 Feb '05  
OK. I downloaded the latest one from your site. seems fine. regarding 2: In situations where there are multiple proj files in a solution, it helps in finding out all the occurences of a particular string or a pattern. Very few advantages on top of my mind with this are to find out:
1) how many times a particular function is called and from where.
2) how many and what are functions declared or used and at/from where.

Thanks,

SekharSmile
GeneralRe: Very Good one
J W Payne
11:16 10 Jun '06  
Although this is over a year late, I have just finished a new version of the addin written entirely in C#. Please see http://www.zero-one-zero.com/vs.
GeneralSuggestion
Uwe Keim
2:32 19 Jan '05  
One suggestion: It would be cool to have the result list view with multiple selection enabled to open multiple files at once.

--
Affordable Windows-based CMS: www.zeta-producer.com

GeneralSolution on unmodeled projects
Ad0
13:29 16 Dec '04  
I solved that problem by generating the tree into my own tree class, wrapping the objects in a safe manner.

I went the UIHieracy way, and where elements is not projects, not solution items project, but are one level above solution, are unmodeled projects.

IDispFileVwDataProject = doesn't work, but shows up in VS.NET in properties when you select DB project.

IDispFileVwNode = Works for files in unmodeled projects (DB Project)

IDispFileVwFolder = does not work.

UIHieracyItem-based traversing is the best universal way to get items and their information.

By having child and parent, you also can generate a path (like with mine find control).

Then you QueryInterface ('is' them in C#) to check if they are unmodeled or not.
I think you also can check kind on Constants::vsProjectKindUnmodeled

---

I actually stumbled across this page after writing my VS file finder-kind of control.

Knowledge is power!
GeneralProblem with Auto-Hide
Urs Eichman
22:06 8 Nov '04  
I use V3.1 and want to have the VS File Finder window in auto-hide state (sticking to the right border). This does work, but this state is not saved. The next time I open VS, it is not auto-hidden, and I have to press the Pin button again. Other tools' windows are being saved correctly, so it is not a problem with my VS installation.

This problem has nothing to do with the "unofficial" V3.1, it was already there with V2.0.

It would be nice if someone could fix this bug, as I currently don't have time to do it. Thanks!
GeneralVersion 3.1
J W Payne
12:13 12 Jun '04  
I have updated VSFileFinder to version 3.1. This version fixes a bug with opening files using the keyboard. You can now open files using the up and down arrow keys to select a file and pressing enter to open it (previously, the enter key opened the first file in the list which wasn't so useful).

I have put the updated version on my shiny new web site at http://www.zero-one-zero.com/vs/index.html.

There is also another work in progress add-in there! Wink

Jonathan
GeneralRe: Version 3.1
huzzaboo
10:58 18 Jun '04  
Thanks, this is now the perfect tool! I love it!
GeneralMinor feature request
huzzaboo
8:22 11 Jun '04  
Man I love this control, thank you so much, again and again.

One thing I'm dying for is complete independence from the mouse. The recent update allowing cursor navigation is great, but I cannot select my chosen file using the keyboard, still have to go for the mouse.

Can you make the Enter key open the selected file?

Thanks!
GeneralRe: Minor feature request
J W Payne
12:14 12 Jun '04  
Done!

See http://www.zero-one-zero.com/vs/index.html.

Jonathan
GeneralUsing GotDotNet Workspace?
kevingreiner
9:44 9 Jun '04  
Why not use the GotDotNet Workspace for this project? You already have all the files there and in source control.


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