Adding programmatically in C# a project reference (as opposed to an assembly reference) via EnvDTE

Question

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.

Jimmy · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-17 20:27:29Z

6

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

answered Jul 17, 2012 at 20:27

Jimmy

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2 Comments

Peter Ritchie Over a year ago

I believe you can also add a reference to a project with Add.References by supplying the project name. see blogs.msdn.com/b/murat/archive/2008/07/30/…

A Coder Over a year ago

Getting this error. msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms228768(v=vs.110).aspx Tried the solution still couldn't make that work.

srdanz · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-06 03:33:18Z

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.

answered Feb 6, 2013 at 3:33

srdanz

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