Regions Add-In for VS.NET 2003

• Download v1 setup - 264 Kb
• Download v1 source - 20.9 Kb
• Download v2 setup - 529 Kb
• Download v2 source - 118 Kb

Introduction

I find I spend a lot more time than I would like adding newly created functions to existing regions or new regions. So for myself and anyone else like me, I have developed this add-in.

Using the code

Two new commands are added to the context menu in the code window, when there is code selected.

Add To New Region will create a new Region, using the text supplied from a dialog, around the selected code.

Add To Existing Region will show a dialog allowing you to select which region the code should be added to. You can also use this function to create a sub-region by ticking the checkbox.

V2.0

I have added a couple of new features.

The Region Explorer

This is a tool window that can be docked or floating, just like the Solutions Explorer and other VS tool windows.

• Shows the position of regions in the opened document.
• Can be used to 'jump' to a region that is not visible in the current document view.
• Can be used to paste text from the clipboard to a region.
• Can be used to add text to a region via drag'n'drop.

The Region Explorer is not available and will be empty, if the current active editor window is a Design View or any tool window type (e.g. Start Page, XML, etc...).

Use the Region Explorer command on the View menu to show, and the close button of the control to hide.

Setup Dialog

Also in v2 is a setup dialog to allow some flexibility in the way the add-in is configured. This setup can be accessed from the Tools menu or from the button on the Region Explorer.

Points of Interest

This version should work for C# and VB in VS.NET 2003.

It has not been tested under VS.NET 2002, but it will at least need the registry entries changing from:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
 SOFTWARE\
   Microsoft\
     VisualStudio\
       7.1\
         AddIns\
           RegionsAddIn.Connect

to probably:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
  SOFTWARE\
    Microsoft\
      VisualStudio\
        7.0\
          AddIns\
            RegionsAddIn.Connect,

although this is only supposition on my part.

Important

If the v1.x version was previously installed, it should be removed using the following process, before installing v2.0.

• Close VS.NET.
• Uninstall v1.x from Add/Remove Programs.
• Open VS.NET (you may get a message declaring that VS.NET cannot load the add-in; this is fine, we want VS.NET to remove all its references to this add-in).
• Load a project, and select some code. Right click, select 'Add To New Region'. (You may get a message declaring that VS.NET cannot load the add-in; this is fine, we want VS.NET to remove all its references to this add-in.) Now do the same for the 'Add To Existing Region' command.
• Close VS.NET.
• Install v2 of the add-in, and continue as normal.

History

• 08/06/2004 - First release.
• 15/06/2004 - v1.1. Updated code to fix bugs identified by 0siris, and Alex Kucherenko. Also, added check to stop any region that is spanned by the selection from being displayed in dialog.
• 06/02/2005 - v2.0. Major rewrite to fix reported bugs and to add new features.