Determining the Build Path of a Project

    In seamless non-destructive debugging scenarios (macro recording and running) the host application must keep track of the latest version of the “macro” project assembly.  The IDE offers the user many opportunities to change settings like the active configuration or the output path which can make it difficult for the host to find the latest version of the assembly. 

    To make it more complicated, when the advanced build configurations are not shown the build path is dependent on the context of the build (this mirrors Visual Studio).  Specifically, if the user starts debugging with F5, the project builds to the debug configuration output path; however, if the user builds through the menu the project builds to the release output path.  Very complicated.

    The good news is there are a couple of events a host can hook into through DTE.BuildEvents which can be used to determine the build location.  These events are the OnBuildProjConfigBegin and OnBuildProjConfigDone events (you should only need to hook into one of these).  Below is code from a modified ShapeAppCSharp sample (this will work for VSTA v 1 and v 2) which catches these events and outputs the configuration and build path for the macro project.

private void EnsureIDE()

{

    if (this.dte == null)

    {

        try

        {

            IDTEProvider dteProvider = (IDTEProvider)new

VSTADTEProviderClass();

            this.dte = (EnvDTE.DTE)dteProvider.GetDTE("ShapeAppCSharp", 0);

            System.Diagnostics.Debug.Assert(this.dte != null);

        }

        catch

        {

            // If DTEProvider does not work, try co-creating DTE instead.

            object objDTE = new DTE();

            this.dte = (EnvDTE.DTE)objDTE;

        }

        // Save a copy of the event sync locations so they don't get

        // garbage collected.

        this.buildEvents = dte.Events.BuildEvents;

        this.solutionEvents = dte.Events.SolutionEvents;

        this.dteEvents = dte.Events.DTEEvents;

        this.buildEvents.OnBuildDone += new

EnvDTE._dispBuildEvents_OnBuildDoneEventHandler(BuildEvents_OnBuildDone);

        this.solutionEvents.AfterClosing += new

EnvDTE._dispSolutionEvents_AfterClosingEventHandler(solutionEvents_AfterClosi

ng);

        this.dteEvents.OnBeginShutdown += new

EnvDTE._dispDTEEvents_OnBeginShutdownEventHandler(dteEvents_OnBeginShutdown);

        this.buildEvents.OnBuildProjConfigBegin += new

EnvDTE._dispBuildEvents_OnBuildProjConfigBeginEventHandler(buildEvents_OnBuil

dProjConfigBegin);

        this.buildEvents.OnBuildProjConfigDone += new

EnvDTE._dispBuildEvents_OnBuildProjConfigDoneEventHandler(buildEvents_OnBuild

ProjConfigDone);

    }

}

void buildEvents_OnBuildProjConfigDone(string Project, string ProjectConfig,

string Platform, string SolutionConfig, bool Success)

{

    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Write("\n\n Try OnBuildProjconfigDone");

    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Write("\n\t ProjectConfig " + ProjectConfig);

    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Write("\n\t SolutionConfig " + SolutionConfig);

    GetAssemblyPath(macroProject);

}

void buildEvents_OnBuildProjConfigBegin(string Project, string ProjectConfig,

string Platform, string SolutionConfig)

{

    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Write("\n\n Try OnBuildProjConfigBegin");

    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Write("\n\t ProjectConfig " + ProjectConfig);

    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Write("\n\t SolutionConfig " + SolutionConfig);

    GetAssemblyPath(macroProject);

}

static string GetAssemblyPath(EnvDTE.Project vsProject)

{

    string fullPath = vsProject.Properties.Item("FullPath").Value.ToString();

    string outputPath =

vsProject.ConfigurationManager.ActiveConfiguration.Properties.Item("OutputPat

h").Value.ToString();

    string outputDir = Path.Combine(fullPath, outputPath);

    string outputFileName =

vsProject.Properties.Item("OutputFileName").Value.ToString();

    string assemblyPath = Path.Combine(outputDir, outputFileName);

    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Write("\n\n Try #");

    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Write("\n ActiveConfig:  " +

vsProject.ConfigurationManager.ActiveConfiguration.ConfigurationName);

    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Write("\n fullPath: " + fullPath);

    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Write("\n outputPath: " + outputPath);

    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Write("\n outputDir: " + outputDir);

    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Write("\n outputFileName: " + outputFileName);

    System.Diagnostics.Debug.Write("\n assemblyPath: " + assemblyPath);

    return assemblyPath;