So after figuring, that the WSPBuilder is actually representing the good I fully embraced it.

To take it to the next level, I installed the Visual-Studio extensions (not only to increase the number of plugins, but this is a nice side-effect; [pluginCount++]). Unfortunately this wasn’t very cooperative to work with my german version of Visual Studio.

So after some frustration I came across an according issue and tried the proposed alternative WSPTools.VisualStudio.VSAddIn.dll – and what should I say – it actually works!

So now I’m actually waiting for this to be merged into the release of the WSPBuilder.

(happy WSPBuilding …)

If you’re a keyboard-shortcut-junkie just like me, you want to have all your currently assign keybindings memorized … but there’s a way to supply you some kind of cheat.

With this little macro you can list all currently active keybinding of visual studio:

Imports System
Imports EnvDTE
Imports EnvDTE80
Imports EnvDTE90
Imports System.Diagnostics
Public Module KeyboardShortcuts
Function GetOutputWindowPane(ByVal Name As String, Optional ByVal show As Boolean = True) As OutputWindowPane
Dim window As Window
Dim outputWindow As OutputWindow
Dim outputWindowPane As OutputWindowPane
window = DTE.Windows.Item(EnvDTE.Constants.vsWindowKindOutput)
If show Then window.Visible = True
outputWindow = window.Object
Try
outputWindowPane = outputWindow.OutputWindowPanes.Item(Name)
Catch e As System.Exception
outputWindowPane = outputWindow.OutputWindowPanes.Add(Name)
End Try
outputWindowPane.Activate()
Return outputWindowPane
End Function
Sub ListCommands()
Dim outwin As OutputWindowPane = GetOutputWindowPane("List Commands", True)
outwin.Clear()
For Each cmd As Command In DTE.Commands
Dim bindings() As Object
bindings = cmd.Bindings
For Each binding As String In bindings
outwin.OutputString(cmd.Name.ToString() + vbTab + binding + vbCrLf)
Next
Next
End Sub
End Module

OK, you probably know it by now … there is a whole lot of stuff writte in nice angle-brackets, but there is way to little intellisense support for all this.

Just like others (NHibernate, WCF) the solution is quite simple: just copy the appropriate xsd file to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Xml\Schemas\1033. In this case the MSBuild.Community.Tasks.xsd can be found in C:\Program Files\MSBuild\MSBuildCommunityTasks.

Seems like every piece of XML-code I recently write (mainly for WiX and MOSS these days) needs just about a dozen of GUIDs all over the place – well maybe just a bundle :=) … anyway!

OK, so guidgen.exe is a lot of help, but it’s also kind of a PITA to leave the keyboard, grab the mouse, do the clicking … in this time you could think of a new GUID yourself! So there must be a better way – and there is!

Just create a simple macro returning a new GUID – and you’re all set.

1. start a new macro-project, maybe rename the default-module to something more appropriate
2. use DTE.ActiveDocument.Selection.Text = System.Guid.NewGuid().ToString("D").ToUpper() to grab a new GUID
3. assign the newly created macro a keyboard shortcut (tools\options\environment\keyboard) – ALG+G seems to be pretty intuitive
4. ready to roll the GUIDs

I just found a great post about tips & trick on how to work more efficient with Visual Studio 2008 – go check it out on Steven Walter’s Blogpost.