Visual Studio Hacks

138

|

Chapter 4, Customizing Visual Studio

#35 Modify the Build Output and Navigate the Results

HACK

HACK

#35

Modify the Build Output and Navigate the

Results Hack #35

Find out how to add your own information into the build output, as well as get

more out of the standard results by jumping directly to source of the problem.

The build output window is very important to developers. It tells us when

we have errors and warnings in our builds, provides a means of tracking

those issues down, and gives us a view into the progress of the build process.

Modifying the Build Output Results

You have the capability of modifying the output of the build results to pro-

vide some extra information. All you need to do is tap into the build events

[Hack #34] and add your own output. For example, a failed build of a project

looks like the screen shown in Figure 4-27.

If you use the hack to stop a build process when one of the project builds

fail

[Hack #34], then on a large solution build, you’ll want to know exactly

which project is causing the build to die. Starting with the code from

“Customize Your Project Build Process” [Hack #34], the code in the Macro

Explorer looks like this:

Figure 4-27. Failed build output

Modify the Build Output and Navigate the Results #35

Chapter 4, Customizing Visual Studio

|

139

HACK

Private Sub BuildEvents_OnBuildProjConfigDone( ...