Alternative to macros in Visual Studio 2012 - visual-studio-2012

Question

I use macros extensively for ViewModel properties in XAML development. I use them even more in WCF to generate Message and DataContract properties.
To my disappointment, the macros I've built aren't going to be usable in Visual Studio 2012.
An example of what I'm talking about, for a VM, I would enter something like this.
int id;
string name;
Select both lines, run a macro and end up with
private int _id;
private string _name;
public int Id
{
get {return _id;}
set
{
if(_id != value)
{
_id = value;
RaisePropertyChanged("Id");
}
}
public string Name
{
if(_name != value)
{
_name = value;
RaisePropertyChanged("Name");
}
}
I'm looking for ideas of other solutions deal with losing macros.

Answer 1

The simplest alternative to macros is creating add-ins. I know, I know, I wasn't excited about it either, but it's actually surprisingly easy. There are three simple parts to it:
Create the macro project, stepping through a wizard UI.
Write your code.
Copy the macro's .addin and .dll files to your Visual Studio Addins directory.
Let's take a simple macro I wrote to show the Start Page after closing a solution and turn it into an add-in.
Create the macro project
Run VS 2012 and create a new project.
Go to Templates > Other Project Types > Extensibility and select Visual Studio Add-in.
Give it a name, such as ShowStartPage.
Click OK. This brings up the Add-in Wizard.
Step through the wizard, choosing:
Programming language: we'll use C#
Application host: VS 2012 should be selected
Name and description for your add-in
On the add-in options page, checkmark only the second option ("I would like my Add-in to load when the host application starts")
Skip past the About Box stuff for now, and click Finish.
Now you have an add-in project. Here's what you do with it:
Write the code
Open the Connect.cs file. (It might already be open. Some of the "DTE" stuff should look familiar.)
Add this code at class level:
SolutionEvents solutionEvents;
Add this code to the OnConnection method, right after the _addInInstance = (AddIn)addInInst; line:
solutionEvents = _applicationObject.Events.SolutionEvents;
solutionEvents.AfterClosing += () =>
{
_applicationObject.ExecuteCommand("View.StartPage");
};
Hit the "Run" button to test your code. A new instance of Visual Studio 2012 starts up, with your add-in loaded. Now test the add-in and make sure it works. (Open a solution, then close it; the Start Page should return when you do.)
Deploy it
Once the add-in works, to use it regularly with Visual Studio 2012, you only need to deploy two files:
ShowStartPage.AddIn (from your main project directory)
ShowStartPage.dll (from your project's build directory; e.g. bin\Debug or bin\Release)
Put those two files in your VS 2012 add-ins directory, probably located here:
C:\Users\[your user name]\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Addins
Then exit and restart Visual Studio, and you should see your add-in working. You should also see it listed when you go to Tools > Add-in Manager.
While this is a bit more of a nuisance than just opening the macro editor and sticking your macro code in there, it does have the advantage that you can use any language you want, instead of being stuck with the somewhat flaky VB-like editor in past versions of Visual Studio.

Answer 2

The Visual Commander extension (developed by me) is an alternative to macros in Visual Studio 2012/2013/2015. You can even reuse your existing Visual Studio macros code in new VB commands.

Answer 3

I'll stick to cutting the text into Notepad++ and using macros there, then pasting back. It is a shame the feature isn't in Visual Studio 2012 any more...

Answer 4

There is an add-in, VSScript, for Visual Studio which replaces missing macros functionality. Although it does not use Visual Basic, but the Lua scripting language, you might want to try it out.
There is a recorder, macro code editor window with IntelliSense, and a simple debugger. The add-in also supports earlier versions of Visual Studio, so if you prefer the Lua language rather than Visual Basic, you can use it instead original Visual Studio macros.

Answer 5

I was very sad to see Macros go too. You can get close with substitutions using the regular expression search and replace inside of Visual Studio 2012. In your case:
Find:
(.*) (.*);
Replace with:
private $1 _$2;\npublic $1 $2\n{\n get {return _$2;}\n set\n {\n if(_$2 = value;\n RaisePropertyChanged("$2");\n }\n}\n
That will get you everything except capitalization of property names which Macros would be better for.
But one advantage of the regular expression approach is when the input isn't as simple (e.g. database table DDL statements).
Here are a couple of useful links from MSDN:
Substitutions in Regular Expressions
Using Regular Expressions in Visual Studio

Answer 6

I use Notepad++ with regular expressions like this:
Find:
public (.\*) (.)(.*) \\{ get; set; \\}
Replace:
private \1 \l(\2)\3; \r\n public \1 \2\3 \\{ get \\{ return \l(\2)\3; \\} \r\n set \\{ \l(\2)\3 = value; OnPropertyChanged\(para => this\.\2\3\); \\}\\}

Answer 7

Check out http://devexpress.com/coderush
The templates feature does pretty much what you want.
There is a free "Express" version too.

Answer 8

Visual Studio 2012's lack of macros was getting me down, as I have a few that I use literally all the time to insert standard little bits of text with a single keypress. So I wrote a very simple scripts extensibility package, VSScripts, which allows manipulation of the current selection from a command-line program.
This doesn't claim to be some all-encompassing full replacement for the old macro system, and it doesn't provide keyboard macros, but it does make it possible to recreate many types of text manipulation macro.

Answer 9

Here's what I did to keep my macro functionality...
Download and install the Visual Studio 2012 SDK here (it contains the "Visual Studio Package" template)
New project -> Installed.Templates.Visual C#.Extensibility.Visual Studio Package
Wizard page 1 of 7
language = C#
gen new key is fine, or use another if you have one
wizard page 3 of 7
check "menu command"
Wizard page 7 of 7
uncheck both integration and unit test project options
Click finish
In the .cs file:
using EnvDTE;
using EnvDTE80;
...
private void MenuItemCallback(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
MenuCommand cmd = sender as MenuCommand;
// This should start to look like familiar macro code...
EnvDTE80.DTE2 dte2 = Package.GetGlobalService(typeof(EnvDTE.DTE)) as DTE2;
TextSelection selection = (TextSelection)dte2.ActiveDocument.Selection;
dte2.UndoContext.Open("macro command replacement");
selection.Text = "inserted from macro replacement";
selection.NewLine(1);
dte2.UndoContext.Close();
...
Run the project. A new Visual Studio instance will start with the package loaded.
Find your command as the first entry at the top of the Tools menu. Click it to see if it works.
To install for real, go to your bin\debug(/release) directory and double-click on the .vsix file
It should be installed for the next time you run
Go to menu Tools -> Options... -> environment.keyboard and map a keystroke to your tool
Mapping theme : Visual C# 2005
Command : Tool.yourFunctionName (functions defined in the .vsct file)
If you want more than one command, you will need to add menu id's in the PkgCmdID.cs, Guids in the Guids.cs, layouts in the .vsct and a function in the *package.cs (and button(MenuCommand) in the Initialize function) for each one. It can all be done in the same project.
I used this project to create several new 'tools' with my old macro code, then mapped my keys to them. It's a lot more work (and headaches) up front, but doesn't have the lag time that macros had.
There is probably a way to do this without having it take up tool menus. I started looking at this last night and finally got it to work, so I'm done with it for now (at least until Microsoft decides to drop this too).

Answer 10

Personally I like this one - the Visual Commander extension lets you automate repetitive tasks in Visual Studio.