Visual Studio Hacks

Define Templates for Generating Code #50

Chapter 6, Speed Hacks

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HACK

code again without losing your changes to the code. The CodeSmith cus-

tom tool performs what is called active code generation. Active code genera-

tion is when code is generated on the fly, usually during the build process of

your solution. Using active code generation, you almost never modify the

code generated, since it would simply be overwritten the next time you build

your solution. The CodeSmith custom tool is a little bit different in that it

generates the code when you save the file, as opposed to during the build

process, but the result is the same. (You could also create a custom build

step to execute the templates

[Hack #34].)

The first step in using CodeSmith is downloading and installing it. Code-

Smith can be downloaded from http://www.ericjsmith.NET/codesmith. Dur-

ing the installation process, you will be asked if you want to add support for

Visual Studio—be sure to answer yes.

Creating a Template

To make use of this tool, you first need to add a new CodeSmith template to

your Visual Studio Project by right-clicking on your project and choosing

Add New Item. From the Add New Item dialog, choose Text File and save

the file with a .cst extension. (You could also create a new template from the

CodeSmith Explorer window.)

Here is a simple CodeSmith template to generate a dictionary-based collec-

tion—you can put this ...