Abstract Method / Interface Implementation Macro

Yaron Golan

2.71/5 (7 votes)

Jun 2, 2003

CPOL

3 min read

86117

650

Macro for auto-implementing abstract methods extended by given class or interfaces.

Introduction

So... I got pretty sick and tired of re-overriding abstract methods for each class based off an abstract one, and decided to write the following macro so I wouldn't have to do it, ever again :).

Notes:

Code should have better modularity, and will in the future. If you want to contribute, contact me --> yaron@valor.com.
Uses ProjectItem, which means it requires that you select an item from the Class View and right-click on it to get the context menu, then ... well, you'll get the hang of it.
Setup also auto-removes itself, but it's badly written. It does, however, get the job done.

Installing:

To install, download the vsmacros ZIP file (above), and extract it into any directory. Then go to Visual Studio .NET, and hit Alt-F8. The Macros window should open up. Select the topmost element ("Macros"), right-click and choose "Load Macro Project...", and then select the file from where you dropped it to. You will now get an element named CodeAssist under the "Macros" parent. Hit "Setup" to have it bind the popup-menus to your Solution and Class View. You're set!

Usage:

Select a class from your Solution or Class View, right-click and choose "Code-Assist -> Implement Abstract Methods". This will automatically add methods with their respective comments from parent abstract classes and interfaces.

Comments welcome, and encouraged!!!

The Code

First off, some functional tools:

checkLanguage - Verifies that a given document is in C#. Otherwise throws exception.

' Checks to see that we're using
' CSharp (otherwise, this thing WILL fail)
Private Sub checkLanguage(ByVal document As Document)
    If document.Language <> "CSharp" Then
        Throw New System.Exception("This Macro only works on C# code")
    End If
End Sub

hasFunction - Verifies if function exists in class (Note - this is still WIP, as it doesn't check overload for same name, different parameters). Will be improved in the future. To perform this, we received a ClassElement (of type CodeClass), and we then retrieve a list of its class members. We then iterate through them and find functions of the same name. Note that we check if the member is a function, by comparing against vsCMElementFunction.

' Checks to see if function already exists in class
'TODO: Make this check parameters, as well
Private Function hasFunction(ByVal classElement As CodeClass, _ 
                            ByVal functionElement As CodeFunction)
    Dim member As CodeElement
    For Each member In classElement.Members
        If (member.Kind = vsCMElement.vsCMElementFunction) Then
            If (member.Name = functionElement.Name) Then
                Return True
            End If
        End If
    Next

    Return False
End Function

Now we start with the nuts and bolts of the whole thing:

processBaseClasses - this piece here will process base classes and interfaces, and add their abstract functions or must-implement methods to the the list of functions to be implemented. First off, it receives a functions ArrayList - note that this function is recursive, and therefore this is the sole container of all the functions which are to be processed later. It also receives the list of base classes and implemented interfaces which a given class contains. These are iterated through and each of their "MustImplement" functions are added to the container (functions), and will then be added to the class itself.

The code contains comments, which will allow for following the code. I will expand on request.

' Recursively process base classes
Sub processBaseClasses( _
    ByVal functions As ArrayList, _
    ByVal baseClasses As CodeElements, _
    ByVal implementedInterfaces As CodeElements)

    ' Create elements array
    Dim baseElement As CodeElement

    ' Collect all items
    Dim elements As ArrayList = New ArrayList()
    For Each baseElement In baseClasses
        elements.Add(baseElement)
    Next
    If (Not implementedInterfaces Is Nothing) Then
        For Each baseElement In implementedInterfaces
            elements.Add(baseElement)
        Next
    End If

    ' Exit if done
    If (elements.Count = 0) Then
        Exit Sub
    End If

    ' Process base classes
    Dim cFunction As CodeFunction
    For Each baseElement In elements
        Debug.WriteLine(baseElement.Name)

        If (baseElement.Kind = vsCMElement.vsCMElementInterface) Then
            ' Recurse
            processBaseClasses( _
                functions, _
                baseElement.Bases, _
                Nothing _
            )
        Else
            ' Recurse
            processBaseClasses( _
                functions, _
                baseElement.Bases, _
                baseElement.ImplementedInterfaces)
        End If

        ' Check if this level implements lower ones
        Dim fCnt As Integer = 0
        Do While fCnt < functions.Count
            cFunction = functions.Item(fCnt)
            If (baseElement.Kind = vsCMElement.vsCMElementClass) Then
                If (hasFunction(baseElement, cFunction)) Then
                        functions.Remove(cFunction)
                End If
            Else
                fCnt += 1
            End If
        Loop

        ' Get members
        Dim member As CodeElement
        For Each member In baseElement.Members
            If (member.Kind = vsCMElement.vsCMElementFunction) Then
                cFunction = member

                If (cFunction.MustImplement) Then
                    functions.Add(cFunction)
                End If

            End If
        Next
    Next
End Sub

This is the subroutine which is called when clicking the "Implement Abstract Methods" popup menu item:

It will process the list of classes in the given file.

Receives list of functions to be implemented (see processBaseClasses, above)
Adds them to the current class.

' Impelements abstract methods for class
Sub ImplementAbstractMethods()
    Try
        ' Life stinks...
        If (DTE.SelectedItems.Count <> 1) Then
            MsgBox("Function will only work on 1 file")
            Exit Sub
        End If

        ' Get current selection
        Dim currItem As ProjectItem = _
          DTE.SelectedItems.Item(1).ProjectItem
        If (Not currItem.IsOpen) Then
            currItem.Open()
        End If

        Dim currDoc As Document = currItem.Document

        ' Check compatibility with language
        CheckLanguage(currDoc)

        ' Create arraylist to contain all abstracts items
        Dim functions As ArrayList = New ArrayList()
        Dim cFunction As CodeFunction

        ' Get namespace
        Dim fileCM As FileCodeModel = _ 
          currDoc.ProjectItem.FileCodeModel
        Dim cNameSpace As CodeNamespace = _ 
          fileCM.CodeElements.Item(1)

        ' Process classes
        Dim classElement As CodeClass
        For Each classElement In cNameSpace.Members
            processBaseClasses( _
                functions, _
                classElement.Bases, _
                classElement.ImplementedInterfaces _
            )

            ' Process all members
            DTE.UndoContext.Open("Add Abstract Implementations")

            For Each cFunction In functions
                ' Check if exists in class
                If (Not hasFunction(classElement, cFunction)) Then
                    ' Add function
                    Dim newFunction As CodeFunction
                    Dim type As String = cFunction.Type.AsString
                    If (cFunction.Parent.Kind = _ 
                      vsCMElement.vsCMElementFunction) Then
                        type = "override " + type
                    End If

                    ' Create function
                    newFunction = classElement.AddFunction( _
                        cFunction.Name, _
                        vsCMFunction.vsCMFunctionFunction, _
                        cFunction.Type.AsString, _
                        -1, _
                        cFunction.Access _
                    )

                    ' Create comment block
                    Dim commentString As String
                    commentString = _
                        "Implementation of " + _ 
                        cFunction.FullName

                    ' Add parameters
                    Dim parameter As CodeParameter
                    For Each parameter In cFunction.Parameters
                        newFunction.AddParameter( _
                            parameter.Name, _
                            parameter.Type.AsString() _
                        )

                        ' Add parameter comment
                        commentString += _
                                vbCrLf + "<param name=""" _ 
                                + parameter.Name + _ 
                                """></param>"
                    Next

                    ' now add comment
                    newFunction.Comment = commentString
                End If
            Next

            ' Close undo context
            DTE.UndoContext.Close()
        Next

    Catch ex As System.Exception

        MsgBox(ex.ToString())

    End Try

End Sub

Setup Script (run once)

Now this snippet here was quite a challenge to create. I had been searching around for several of the items here until finally I understood the way things worked. I broke it down into 3 main methods:

GetCommandBars - Retrieves command bars for Solution and Class popups.
AddMenu - Removes old submenu items (if exists), and adds new submenu.
AddCommand - Adds given macro command to menu item.

Please note bolded line in AddMenu (addCommand) -> points to macro location. It's currently pointing to a project named VisualStudioMacros. If this doesn't make sense to you or you deposit the macros in a different project - please change this.

Imports EnvDTE
Imports System.Diagnostics
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Text
Imports System.Collections
Imports Microsoft.Office.Core

Public Module Setup

    Private Function getCommandBars() As ArrayList
        Dim barList As ArrayList = New ArrayList()

        ' Locate solution and class view popups
        Dim cmdBar As CommandBar
        For Each cmdBar In DTE.CommandBars
            Dim cmdBarCtl As CommandBarControl
            If ((cmdBar.Name = "Item") Or _ 
             (cmdBar.Name = "Class View Item")) Then
                barList.Add(cmdBar)
            End If
        Next

        ' Couldn't find bars
        If (barList.Count = 0) Then
            Throw New _ 
              System.Exception("Failed to locate Popup Menus!")
        End If

        ' return bars
        Return barList
    End Function

    ' This should be run ONLY ONCE
    Private Sub AddMenu()
        Dim menu As CommandBarButton
        Dim cmdBar As CommandBar
        Dim cmdBars As ArrayList
        Dim cmdBarCtl As CommandBarControl

        ' Get command bars
        cmdBars = getCommandBars()

        ' Remove all oldies
        For Each cmdBar In cmdBars
            Dim ctrlCnt As Integer = 1
            While (ctrlCnt <= cmdBar.Controls().Count)
                cmdBarCtl = cmdBar.Controls().Item(ctrlCnt)
                If (cmdBarCtl.Caption.IndexOf("Code-Assist") _
                                              > -1) Then
                    cmdBarCtl.Delete()
                Else
                    ctrlCnt += 1
                End If
            End While

            ' Create menu
            Dim menuPopup As CommandBarPopup
            menuPopup = _ 
             cmdBar.Controls.Add(vsCommandBarType.vsCommandBarTypePopup)
            menuPopup.BeginGroup = True
            menuPopup.Caption = "Code-Assist"

            ' Add commands
            addCommand( _
              "Implement Abstract Methods", _
              "Macros.VisualStudioMacros.Coding.ImplementAbstractMethods", _
              menuPopup _
            )
        Next
    End Sub

    ' Get command to add
    Sub addCommand( _
        ByVal caption As String, _
        ByVal cmdName As String, _
        ByVal menuPopup As CommandBarPopup)

        Dim cmd As Command
        Dim cmdBarCtl As Microsoft.Office.Core.CommandBarControl

        ' Get item
        cmd = DTE.Commands.Item(cmdName)
        ' Add to command bar
        cmdBarCtl = cmd.AddControl(menuPopup.CommandBar())
        cmdBarCtl.Caption = "Implement Abstract Methods"
    End Sub

    ' Sets up menus, ...
    Sub Setup()
        AddMenu()

        MsgBox("Setup done!" & vbNewLine & _ 
           "Check Item menu for Code-Assist entries")
    End Sub

End Module

That's it!

History

Updated -> June 10th, 9:30 EST
1. Added source code to article.
2. As per request, now added ZIP file of macros project (.vsmacros).
Updated -> June 3rd, 9:30 EST
1. Fixed Setup to perm-remove menu items instead of temporarily.
2. Added menu item to both Class and Solution item views.