Is there a way to "Export" a Visual Studio 2008 solution
I was called to "clean up" and start working again in the .NET environment, where the developers left a rather confusing mess. The developer is still available to me and he / was able to find a solution on his machine, but when I try to use it on my machine it makes a mess.
What I would like to do is have an "Export Solution" that pulls all the various dependencies and merges them into one directory that reflects the layout of the solution.
If copying files is not possible (for exmaples, item referencing in the GAC) is there any utility or way to get a full report of where everything really is, physical and virtual paths for Debug and Release configurations. Post build tasks, etc. With a ton of projects of different types and different configuration screens, one could simply manually document them, but proved to be very error prone, even for one very specific person.
I tried to parse the solution file from its plain text, but it doesn't tell the whole story. Also, part of the story is where the files are in Visual Source Safe, because when I was able to put together a working solution, VSS "fixes" me by randomly loading files into that and then links to nonexistent locations. It was fun and VSS is a virus.
Any suggestions for getting this out of the only machine on the planet that will build this (and only in Release) so someone else can work on it?
Once I get it in my car, I'm going to restructure it, but without a clear idea of how it "did" the job, which will be filmed in the dark.
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I don't know how to export and I can't guarantee anything because it sounds pretty confusing, but here's what I'll do. First, I asked the guy to zip up the folder with his solution and send it to you. Then I would create the same directory structure on my computer (so if it had a solution in s: \ ... \ solution \ I would do the same. Use subst to make a drive letter if needed). Then I unpack the solution to a new root directory and open it with visual studio. Now the fun part begins. Then I will try to redo the bindings for VSS.
Once I had it all in place, I asked the guy to tell me what third party builds I needed, if any. (Remember, the GAC is not an issue, as it is a temporary assembly reference, not a compilation reference. Unless it did something crazy like referencing the physical GAC file.) And ask him what is the correct build order That is what projects are that do not depend on other projects.
Then you need to try to build the lowest level projects one at a time and fix build errors. Then move one level down to projects that depend on the projects you just compiled, and so on until you complete the entire solution. Start by creating one project, then two, then three, until you have all the problems associated with it.
Once you have a solution to create, you can clean it up. Then RUN is not suitable to replace VSS as the original repository.
GL. :)
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There is no export option.
Since you still have access to the old developer, see if you can get him to reinstall the solution. The problem is usually related to relative file paths, linking and not all checked files. This can be a big mystery to you if you don't have the whole story. (his files are unchecked)
I think it is also perfectly reasonable to require an old developer to reverse a working solution ... or else.
Solution.sln
[Project1]
[Project2]
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