Reference Element (Visual Studio Templates)
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The latest version of this topic can be found at Reference Element (Visual Studio Templates).
Specifies the assembly reference to add when the item is added to a project.
<VSTemplate>
<TemplateContent>
<References>
<Reference>
<Reference>
<Assembly> ... </Assembly>
</Reference>
The following sections describe attribute, child elements, and parent elements.
Attributes
None.
Child Elements
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Assembly | Required element. Specifies information about an assembly, which the template uses to add a reference of that assembly to projects. There must be one Assembly element in every Reference element. |
Parent Elements
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| References | Groups the assembly references that the template adds to projects. |
Reference is a required child element of References.
The Reference and References elements can only be used in .vstemplate files that have a Type attribute value of Item.
The following example illustrates the TemplateContent element of an item template. This XML adds references to the System.dll and System.Data.dll assemblies.
<TemplateContent>
<References>
<Reference>
<Assembly>
System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
</Assembly>
</Reference>
<Reference>
<Assembly>
System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
</Assembly>
</Reference>
</References>
...
</TemplateContent>
Visual Studio Template Schema Reference
Creating Project and Item Templates