Reference Manager for Visual Studio 2005 RC
If you are working with references (assembly or project references) in VS probably sometimes you have to do some annoying tasks:
Case 1) Where am I using this reference (i.e.: System.Data) in this solution?
Solution: I have to traverse all the projects in the solution and depending on the kind of project expand the references item or even worst open the properties dialog to see the references!!
Case 2) Remove a reference from multiple projects.
Solution: I have to go project by project removing the reference!!
Case 3) Add a reference to multiple projects
Solution: Project by project call to Add Reference dialog!!
Case 4) we have installed a new version of some assembly so we need to replace all references
Solution: You have to apply 1, 2 and 3!!!
So that I decided to make my life easier and I developed a tool called "Reference Manager"
You will have this tool available on the solution context menu. I tried to solve the above use cases. So now the solution for each case is easier.
Case 1) Open Reference Manager, write your reference filter (regular expression) and you will have what are the projects that use these references.
Case 2) Filter by your reference (the reference manager select all the projects that contains this reference), press Remove (the reference manager will remove
the reference for each selected project)
Case 3) Select the projects that you want and press Add Reference, the references will be added to each project.
Case 4) Filter by your references, press Remove after that add your references to the selection.
It works with C#, VB.Net, C++ and WebSites projects. Even if you have solution folders it should works.
I included the reference manager in the new version of coolcommands.
Installation
- Unzip coolcommands.zip (ie: c:\coolcommands )
- Open VS 2005 command prompt
- run c:\coolcommands\install.bat
Requirements
Visual Studio 2005 RC