Reference3.Description Property

Gets a text description of the reference.

Namespace:  VSLangProj80
Assembly:  VSLangProj80 (in VSLangProj80.dll)

Syntax

'Declaration
ReadOnly Property Description As String

string Description { get; }

property String^ Description {
    String^ get ();
}

abstract Description : string with get

function get Description () : String

Property Value

Type: System.String
For a Reference object, the return value depends on the reference type.

Remarks

The Description property and Name property of a reference differ in purpose and length. The Name property, for example System.Windows.Forms, is meant to be descriptive yet short. The Description property may be longer and contain more detailed information. It has the same function as a COM type library description.

The Description property is stored as a custom attribute in the assembly. This is unlike most other properties exposed by the Reference object, which are stored in the metadata.

This read-only property may be changed in the development environment by editing the custom attributes in the AssemblyInfo.vb file (for Visual Basic projects) or the AssemblyInfo.cs file (Visual C# projects).

Examples

This example displays the Description strings for all references in an open Visual Basic or Visual C# project. To run this example as an add-in, see How to: Compile and Run the Automation Object Model Code Examples.

Imports VSLangProj
Imports VSLangProj2
Imports VSLangProj80
Public Sub OnConnection(ByVal application As Object,_
 ByVal connectMode As ext_ConnectMode, ByVal addInInst As Object, _
 ByRef custom As Array) Implements IDTExtensibility2.OnConnection
    applicationObject = CType(application, DTE2)
    addInInstance = CType(addInInst, AddIn)
    DisplayDescriptions(applicationObject)
End Sub
Public Sub DisplayDescriptions(ByVal dte As DTE2)
    ' The first project is a Visual Basic or C# project.
    Dim vsProject As VSProject2 = _
    CType(applicationObject.Solution.Projects.Item(1).Object, _
    VSProject2)
    Dim aRef As Reference3
    Dim refStr As String
    refStr = ""
    For Each aRef In vsProject.References
        refStr += (aRef.Name & "'s description is:  " _
        & aRef.Description.ToString() & vbCr & vbCr)
    Next
    MsgBox(refStr)
End Sub

using System.Windows.Forms;
using VSLangProj;
using VSLangProj2;
using VSLangProj80;
public void OnConnection(object application,
 ext_ConnectMode connectMode, object addInInst, ref Array custom)
{
    applicationObject = (DTE2)application;
    addInInstance = (AddIn)addInInst;
    DisplayDescriptions(((DTE2)applicationObject));
}
public void DisplayDescriptions(DTE2 dte)
{
    // The first project is a Visual Basic or C# project.
    VSProject2 vsProject = ((VSProject2)
 (applicationObject.Solution.Projects.Item(1).Object));
    Reference aRef = null;
    string refStr = null;
    foreach (VSLangProj80.Reference3 temp in vsProject.References)
    {
        aRef = temp;
        refStr += (aRef.Name + "'s Description is:   " 
+ aRef.Description.ToString() + "\n" + "\n");
    }
    MessageBox.Show(refStr);
}

.NET Framework Security

• Full trust for the immediate caller. This member cannot be used by partially trusted code. For more information, see Using Libraries from Partially Trusted Code.

See Also

Reference

Reference3 Interface

VSLangProj80 Namespace