2

In visual studio when you add a reference to an existing project in your solution in the .csproj file it ends up like so:

<ProjectReference Include="..\TestProject2\TestProject2.csproj">
  <Project>{15EC8369-B0C5-4F71-A366-19042F450A2D}</Project>
  <Name>TestProject2</Name>
</ProjectReference>

If I add a reference to an assembly DLL via EnvDTE:

var p = _project as VsProject;
p.References.Add(<path to assembly DLL>);

it ends like this:

<Reference Include="TestProject2.csproj">
  <HintPath>..\TestProject2\bin\Debug\TestProject2.csproj.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>

This is not so great because if I switch to a Release build it will still reference the debug assembly. Another problem is that I have to build the referenced assembly before I can add it as a reference. With Visual Studio UI I can add a reference to an unbuilt project.

Is it possible via the EnvDTE API to add a project reference?

I know I can manipulate the .csproj file as an XML document and do whatever I want, but since I started on the path on EnvDTE I would prefer to stick to it.

Pyramid Newbie
  • 6,865
  • 3
  • 24
  • 28

2 Answers2

6

It looks like the References interface has an AddProject method which handles project-to-project refrences.

Jimmy
  • 27,142
  • 5
  • 87
  • 100
  • I believe you can also add a reference to a project with Add.References by supplying the project name. see http://blogs.msdn.com/b/murat/archive/2008/07/30/envdte-adding-a-refernce-to-a-project.aspx – Peter Ritchie Jul 17 '12 at 20:34
  • 1
    Getting this error. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms228768(v=vs.110).aspx Tried the solution still couldn't make that work. – A Coder Mar 10 '14 at 10:25
0

What worked for me is to formulate references this way:

<Reference
  Include="MyDll"
  Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|x86' ">
  <HintPath>..\..\somePath\Debug\myDll.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>
<Reference
  Include="MyDll"
  Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|x86' ">
  <HintPath>..\..\somePath\Release\myDll.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>

This way, the release build references release dependency, and debug build references Debug. Of course, x86/x64 can also be handled if necessary. This was for a 32-bit app.

srdanz
  • 31
  • 2