T4 code generation: access types in current project

Question

Using T4 code generation, is it possible to access the types defined in the current project?

For example, if I have an interface and I want to delegate its implementation to another class, i.e.

interface IDoSomething {
    public void do_something();
}

class DoSomethingImpl : IDoSomething {
    public void do_something() {
        // implementation...
    }
}

class SomeClass : IDoSomething {
    IDoSomething m_doSomething = new DoSomethingImpl();

    // forward calls to impl object
    public void do_something() {
        m_doSomething.do_something();
    }
}

I would like to automate the call-forwarding in SomeClass with code generation; is this possible?

Ask yourself how you would do this if it were not generated code. Then take that solution and have the template generate it. — John Saunders, Jul 20 '09 at 13:51
I didn't think it was. Maybe _you_ get how to do this, but not everyone understands the process of starting from something that works, then parameterizing it in a template. — John Saunders, Jul 27 '09 at 17:04
@John: I don't know, maybe you are right and not everybody gets it. Anyway here the point was how to access the type definitions in the project, not how to parametrize an existing snippet... — Paolo Tedesco, Jul 27 '09 at 17:35
Did anyone answer the question using just T4 yet? Because I don't need to look for other solutions, just iterate via reflection for my needs. — Richard Griffiths, Aug 31 '16 at 15:00
I expect this isn't possible as you have a kind of chicken and egg situation. I achieved something like this by moving the interface to another assembly, then you can just use typeof(IDoSomething). Might not be possible in your situation. HTH — RikRak, Apr 17 '18 at 15:34

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 16 '11 at 01:54

While this doesnt solve the locking problems (although ive heard that VS2010 does), you could try copy the dll to a temp location and just use that copied assembly..

<#@ template debug="false" hostspecific="false" language="C#" #>
<#@ output extension=".txt" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.Reflection" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.IO" #>
<#    
var newFileName = System.IO.Path.GetTempFileName();
System.IO.File.Copy(@"C:\Development\CustomAssembly.dll",newFileName,true);

var assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(newFileName);
var type = assembly.GetType("CustomAssembly.DummyClass");   
#>
<#=newFileName#>
<#=type#>

T4 code generation: access types in current project

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