How do I open a new visual studio instance using E

Question

I'm using the EnvDTE COM objects to automate Visual Studio. I'm still looking through the documentation, however, I figured I'd drop the question here to see if someone already knows how to do this.

So, the problem is that when I get the DTE object and look at what Solution is open, I need to open another instance of Visual Studio if the solution is not the one I'm expecting. I don't necessarily want to load another solution over an existing instance of VS.

Answer 1

So, I figured this out on my own. It turns out that the RunningObjectTable is the way to iterate over all VS instances and look for one with the solution open that I am expecting. If I don't find an instance that I can use, then I call CoCreateInstance() to launch a new VS IDE:

#define RETURN_ON_FAIL( expression ) \
result = ( expression );    \
if ( FAILED( result ) )     \
    return false;           \
else // To prevent danging else condition

...

HRESULT result;
CLSID clsid;
CComPtr<IUnknown> punk;
CComPtr<EnvDTE::_DTE> dte;

RETURN_ON_FAIL( ::CLSIDFromProgID(L"VisualStudio.DTE", &clsid) );

...

// Search through the Running Object Table for an instance of Visual Studio
    // to use that either has the correct solution already open or does not have 
    // any solution open.
    CComPtr<IRunningObjectTable> ROT;
    RETURN_ON_FAIL( GetRunningObjectTable( 0, &ROT ) );

    CComPtr<IBindCtx> bindCtx;
    RETURN_ON_FAIL( CreateBindCtx( 0, &bindCtx ) );

    CComPtr<IEnumMoniker> enumMoniker;
    RETURN_ON_FAIL( ROT->EnumRunning( &enumMoniker ) );

    CComPtr<IMoniker> dteMoniker;
    RETURN_ON_FAIL( CreateClassMoniker( clsid, &dteMoniker ) );

    CComBSTR bstrSolution( solutionPath );
    CComPtr<IMoniker> moniker;
    ULONG monikersFetched = 0;
    while ( enumMoniker->Next( 1, &moniker, &monikersFetched ) == S_OK)
    {
        if ( moniker->IsEqual( dteMoniker ) )
        {
            result = ROT->GetObject( moniker, &punk );
            if ( result == S_OK )
            {
                dte = punk;

                if ( dte )
                {
                    CComPtr<EnvDTE::_Solution> solution;
                    RETURN_ON_FAIL( dte->get_Solution( &solution ) );

                    VARIANT_BOOL isOpen = FALSE;
                    RETURN_ON_FAIL( solution->get_IsOpen( &isOpen ) );
                    if ( !isOpen )
                    {
                        RETURN_ON_FAIL( solution->Open( bstrSolution ) );
                        break;
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        CComBSTR fullName;
                        RETURN_ON_FAIL( solution->get_FullName( &fullName ) );

                        if ( fullName == bstrSolution )
                            break;
                    }
                }
            }

            punk = NULL;
        }

        moniker = NULL;
    }


if ( !dte )
{       
    RETURN_ON_FAIL( ::CoCreateInstance( clsid, NULL, CLSCTX_LOCAL_SERVER, EnvDTE::IID__DTE, (LPVOID*)&punk ) );
    dte = punk;

    if ( !dte )
        return false;

    if ( solutionPath )
    {
        CComPtr<EnvDTE::_Solution> solution;
        RETURN_ON_FAIL( dte->get_Solution( &solution ) );

        CComBSTR bstrSolution( solutionPath );
        RETURN_ON_FAIL( solution->Open( bstrSolution ) );
    }
}