I am writing a custom tool and I currently have it doing what I want as far as functionality. I would like to be able to write to Visual Studio if something goes wrong. (Incorrectly formatted code or whatever).
Are there any standards for this? Right now I basically can force the tool to fail and Visual Studio puts in a warning that it has done so. I'd like a category in the Output window with any resulting messages I want to send. I could also live with a more descriptive task/warning in the Error list window.
Output Window
To write to the "General" output window in Visual Studio, you need to do the following:
IVsOutputWindow outWindow = Package.GetGlobalService( typeof( SVsOutputWindow ) ) as IVsOutputWindow;
Guid generalPaneGuid = VSConstants.GUID_OutWindowGeneralPane; // P.S. There's also the GUID_OutWindowDebugPane available.
IVsOutputWindowPane generalPane;
outWindow.GetPane( ref generalPaneGuid , out generalPane );
generalPane.OutputString( "Hello World!" );
generalPane.Activate(); // Brings this pane into view
If, however, you want to write to a custom window, this is what you need to do:
IVsOutputWindow outWindow = Package.GetGlobalService( typeof( SVsOutputWindow ) ) as IVsOutputWindow;
// Use e.g. Tools -> Create GUID to make a stable, but unique GUID for your pane.
// Also, in a real project, this should probably be a static constant, and not a local variable
Guid customGuid = new Guid("0F44E2D1-F5FA-4d2d-AB30-22BE8ECD9789");
string customTitle = "Custom Window Title";
outWindow.CreatePane( ref customGuid, customTitle, 1, 1 );
IVsOutputWindowPane customPane;
outWindow.GetPane( ref customGuid, out customPane);
customPane.OutputString( "Hello, Custom World!" );
customPane.Activate(); // Brings this pane into view
Details on IVsOutputWindow and IVsOutputWindowPane can be found on MSDN.
Error List
For adding items to the error list, the IVsSingleFileGenerator
has a method call void Generate(...)
which has a parameter of the type IVsGeneratorProgress
. This interface has a method void GeneratorError()
which lets you report errors and warnings to the Visual Studio error list.
public class MyCodeGenerator : IVsSingleFileGenerator
{
...
public void Generate( string inputFilePath, string inputFileContents, string defaultNamespace, out IntPtr outputFileContents, out int output, IVsGeneratorProgress generateProgress )
{
...
generateProgress.GeneratorError( false, 0, "An error occured", 2, 4);
...
}
...
}
The details of GeneratorError() can be found on MSDN.
There is another way using Marshal.GetActiveObject
to grab a running DTE2
instance.
First reference EnvDTE and envdte80. This currently works in VisualStudio 2012, I haven't tried the others yet.
using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using EnvDTE;
using EnvDTE80;
internal class VsOutputLogger
{
private static Lazy<Action<string>> _Logger = new Lazy<Action<string>>( () => GetWindow().OutputString );
private static Action<string> Logger
{
get { return _Logger.Value; }
}
public static void SetLogger( Action<string> logger )
{
_Logger = new Lazy<Action<string>>( () => logger );
}
public static void Write( string format, params object[] args)
{
var message = string.Format( format, args );
Write( message );
}
public static void Write( string message )
{
Logger( message + Environment.NewLine );
}
private static OutputWindowPane GetWindow()
{
var dte = (DTE2) Marshal.GetActiveObject( "VisualStudio.DTE" );
return dte.ToolWindows.OutputWindow.ActivePane;
}
}
If you want anything to appear in the Output window, it has to come from stdout. To do this, your app needs to be linked as a "console" app. Set the /SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE flag in the project's property page, under Linker/System set the SubSystem property to CONSOLE.
Once you have your output in the window, if you include the text "Error:" it will appear as an error, or if you set "Warning:" it will appear as a warning. If your error text begins with a path/filename, followed by a line number in parenthesis, the IDE will recognize it as a "clickable" error, and navigate you automatically to the faulting line.
You can use the Debug and/or Trace classes. There is some information here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bs4c1wda(VS.71).aspx
Best of luck.
use System.Diagnostics.Debugger.Message