Automating Visual Studio

Visual Studio is both a curse and a boon. A boon because it is a very good IDE for debugging. A curse because it's restricted to a single platform and tends to lock out third-party editors, such as Emacs, jEdit, SlickEdit, or whatever it is you use.

Most decent editors expect to be able to compile a file via a shell command, capture that commands output, and then scan the output for errors, enabling you to jump to the exact locaton. This can be via make, scons, and the regexp can be modified for different compilers.

However the 'Export Makefile' command dissapeared from Visual Studio with version six. The functionality to compile individual files from the command line has gone, leaving the non-Microsoft editor user with a dilemma. Whether to change their editing habits for the sake of a peaceful life with the GUI, or forsake the ability to compile individual files - whole projects can still be built via the DevEnv command.

However there is a nice Python hack that lets you get at the compiling functionality. You need to use the Python Win32 COM extensions to access Visual Stduio automation from Python. Micheal Graz created this script and tightly integrated it with Vim. I've taken out the vim-specific parts, and added only one Emacs specific part (in dte_get_file) to invoke Emacs when "getting" the current file from Visual Studio. The compilation output now goes to the command line rather than a vim quickfix buffer, so it should be possible to adapt this to your needs.

import os, sys, re, time, pywintypes, win32com.client

vsWindowKindTaskList     = '{4A9B7E51-AA16-11D0-A8C5-00A0C921A4D2}'
vsWindowKindFindResults1 = '{0F887920-C2B6-11D2-9375-0080C747D9A0}'
vsWindowKindFindResults2 = '{0F887921-C2B6-11D2-9375-0080C747D9A0}'
vsWindowKindOutput       = '{34E76E81-EE4A-11D0-AE2E-00A0C90FFFC3}'

vsBuildStateNotStarted = 1   # Build has not yet been started.
vsBuildStateInProgress = 2   # Build is currently in progress.
vsBuildStateDone = 3         # Build has been completed

#----------------------------------------------------------------------

def dte_compile_file ():
    dte = _get_dte()
    if not dte: return
    try:
        dte.ExecuteCommand ('Build.Compile')
    except Exception, e:
        _dte_exception (e)
        return
    # ExecuteCommand is not synchronous so we have to wait
    while dte.Solution.SolutionBuild.BuildState == vsBuildStateInProgress:
        time.sleep (0.1)
    dte_output ('output')
    _status_msg ('Compile file complete')

#----------------------------------------------------------------------

def dte_build_solution():
    dte = _get_dte()
    if not dte: return
    if dte.CSharpProjects.Count:
        dte.Documents.CloseAll()
    _dte_raise ()
    _dte_output_activate ()
    try:
        dte.Solution.SolutionBuild.Build (1)
        # Build is not synchronous so we have to wait
        while dte.Solution.SolutionBuild.BuildState != vsBuildStateDone:
            time.sleep (0.25)
    except Exception, e:
        _dte_exception (e)
        return
    dte_output ('output')
    _status_msg ('Build solution complete')


#----------------------------------------------------------------------

def dte_output (window_kind):
    if window_kind == 'find_results_1':
        window_name = 'Find Results 1'
        window_id = vsWindowKindFindResults1
    elif window_kind == 'find_results_2':
        window_name = 'Find Results 2'
        window_id = vsWindowKindFindResults2
    elif window_kind == 'output':
        window_name = 'Output'
        window_id = vsWindowKindOutput
    else:
        _msg ('Error: unrecognized window (%s)' % window_kind)
        return
    dte = _get_dte()
    if not dte: 
        print ">> Failed to get dte."
        return
    if window_id == vsWindowKindOutput:
        owp = dte.Windows.Item(window_id).Object.OutputWindowPanes.Item('Build')
        sel = owp.TextDocument.Selection
    else:
        sel = dte.Windows.Item(window_id).Selection
    sel.SelectAll()
    _status_msg ('VS %s' % window_name)
    print sel.Text
    sel.Collapse()


#----------------------------------------------------------------------

def dte_get_file ():
    dte = _get_dte()
    if not dte: return
    doc = dte.ActiveDocument
    if not doc:
        _status_msg ('No VS file!')
        return
    pt = doc.Selection.ActivePoint
    file = os.path.join (doc.Path, doc.Name)
    os.system("emacsclientw -n +%d:%d %s " % (pt.Line, pt.DisplayColumn, file))

#----------------------------------------------------------------------

def dte_put_file (filename, line_num, col_num):
    if not filename:
        return
    dte = _get_dte()
    if not dte: return
    io = dte.ItemOperations
    rc = io.OpenFile (os.path.abspath (filename))
    sel = dte.ActiveDocument.Selection
    sel.MoveToLineAndOffset (line_num, col_num)
    _dte_raise ()

#----------------------------------------------------------------------

def _get_dte ():
    try:
        return win32com.client.GetActiveObject ('VisualStudio.DTE')
    except pywintypes.com_error:
        _msg ('Cannot access VisualStudio. Not running?')
    return None

#----------------------------------------------------------------------

_wsh = None
def _get_wsh ():
    global _wsh
    if not _wsh:
        try:
            _wsh = win32com.client.Dispatch ('WScript.Shell')
        except pywintypes.com_error:
            _msg ('Cannot access WScript.Shell')
    return _wsh

#----------------------------------------------------------------------


#----------------------------------------------------------------------

def _dte_raise ():
    dte = _get_dte()
    if not dte: return
    try:
        dte.MainWindow.Activate ()
        _get_wsh().AppActivate (dte.MainWindow.Caption)
    except:
        pass

#----------------------------------------------------------------------

def _dte_output_activate ():
    dte = _get_dte()
    if not dte: return
    dte.Windows.Item(vsWindowKindOutput).Activate()

#----------------------------------------------------------------------

def _dte_set_autoload ():
    dte = _get_dte()
    if not dte: return
    p = dte.Properties ('Environment', 'Documents')
    p.Item('DetectFileChangesOutsideIDE').Value = 1
    p.Item('AutoloadExternalChanges').Value = 1


#----------------------------------------------------------------------

def _dte_exception (e):
    if isinstance (e, pywintypes.com_error):
        try:
            msg = e[2][2]
        except:
            msg = None
    else:
        msg = e
    if not msg:
        msg = 'Encountered unknown exception'
    _status_msg ('ERROR %s' % msg)

#----------------------------------------------------------------------

def _status_msg (msg):
    try:
        caption = _get_dte().MainWindow.Caption.split()[0]
    except:
        caption = None
    if caption:
        msg = msg + ' (' + caption + ')'
    _msg (msg)

#----------------------------------------------------------------------

def _msg (msg):
    print ">> " + msg


#----------------------------------------------------------------------
# eg vsgo.py dte_compile_file
#    vsgo.py dte_put_file GridToolPanelComponent.cpp 10 5
#    vsgo.py dte_get_file
#    vsgo.py dte_build_solution

def main ():
    prog = os.path.basename(sys.argv[0])
    if len(sys.argv) == 1:
        print 'echo "ERROR: not enough args to %s"' % prog
        return

    fcn_name = sys.argv[1]
    if not globals().has_key(fcn_name):
        print 'echo "ERROR: no such fcn %s in %s"' % (fcn_name, prog)
        return

    fcn = globals()[fcn_name]
    try:
        apply(fcn, sys.argv[2:])

    except TypeError, e:
        print 'echo "ERROR in %s: %s"' % (prog, str(e))
        return

if __name__ == '__main__': main()