Add Reference Dialog Box

  • Article

Displays tabbed panes that list the various types of components and projects you can browse. To view the Add Reference dialog box, select Add Reference from the Project menu, or right-click the References node in the Solution Explorer. Then select the tab for the type of component you wish to browse.

Note   The number of tabs available at the top of the Add Reference dialog box varies, depending upon the type of project open and the resources it is using.

This dialog box edits the project references file for the selected project. A project references file contains information about the run-time requirements of an application or component, such as which files are needed, how they are to be registered, and where on the user's machine they should be installed.

Security Note There is an issue that arises when incorporating components that require full-trust permissions to run. During development, projects run at full-trust, which may not be the case in the environment the project is deployed to. At run time, if the environment is partial-trust, you can get code-access security violations. Thus, it is necessary to test applications in a variety of diverse 'trust' scenarios.

  • .NET Framework Tab
    Lists all .NET Framework components available for referencing.
  • COM Tab
    Lists all COM components available for referencing.
  • Projects Tab
    Lists all projects available for referencing.
  • Component Name
    The full, or "friendly," name of the component. Select the title to sort by the component name.
  • Version
    The listed version number of the component. Select the title to sort by the version.
  • Path
    The filename of the component and the path where it is located. Select the title to sort by the path.
  • Project Name
    (Project Tab only.) Displays the names of referenced projects.
  • Project Directory
    (Project Tab only.) Displays the directory location for referenced projects.
  • Browse
    Displays the Select Component dialog box, which allows you browse additional files to find a component not listed in the current tab and add it to the Selected Components field.
  • Select
    Adds the selected component to the Selected Components list. You can also double-click items to add them to the list.
  • Selected Components
    Displays the selected components you will add to the project's browsing scope.
  • Type
    The listed component type. Select the title to sort by the component type.
  • Source
    The filename of the component and the path where it is located. Select the title to sort by the component path.
  • Remove
    Removes a component reference from the Selected Components list. Doing so does not delete the actual component from the system.

Smart Device Developer Notes

  • COM Tab
    Not exposed.

See Also

Adding and Removing References | Adding and Removing Project References | Viewing and Altering the Browsing Scope | Projects as Containers | Item Management in Projects | Browsing Code and Components | Object Browser | Object Browser Elements | Navigating in the Object Browser | Searching for Symbols: Objects, Definitions and References | Build Configurations