Using the Automation Model

Visual Studio 2015
 

The new home for Visual Studio documentation is Visual Studio 2017 Documentation on docs.microsoft.com.

The latest version of this topic can be found at Using the Automation Model.

After you have connected your VSPackage to automation, you can obtain the properties and methods by calling the GetObject method on the _DTE object, passing a string representing the object you wish to retrieve.

The following are two code examples that show how an automation consumer obtains the project automation objects. For information about how to get the DTE object, see How to: Get References to the DTE and DTE2 Objects.

C++
VB
Copy 
void DoAutomation(void)  
{  
  CComQIPtr<Projects> pMyPkg; // Use an IDispatch-derived object type.  
    pMyPkg = pDTE->GetObject("AcmeProjects");   
  
   // The '=' performs a Query Interface.  
   // Assumes pDTE is already available as a global.  
   // Use pMyPkg to access your projects object's properties and methods.  
}

At this point, you can use the standard project objects that are part of a specific VSPackage to move down the hierarchy model.

The following code example shows how to get a custom object that is a property of a custom project type.:

VB
Copy 
Dim MyPrj As Project  
Dim MyPrjItem As ProjectItem  
Dim objMyObject as MyExtendedObject  
  
MyPrj = MyProjects.Item(1) 'use the Projects collection to get a project  
objMyObject = MyPrj.Object 'You call .Object to get to special Project  
                           'implementation  
objMyObject.MySpecialMethodOrProperty

The following code lists the names of all of the properties in the Visual Studio environment General option on the Tools menu:

VB
Copy 
dim objDTE  
dim objEnv  
set objDTE = CreateObject("VisualStudio.DTE")  
set objEnv = objDTE.Properties("Environment", "General")  
for each obj in ObjEnv  
MsgBox obj.Name  
Next

GetObject

Show: