how to dock a tool window when it open for the first time in vsix

Question

I have created tool window in VSIX, now i need to dock that when it open for the first time as per the desired position we set and next time if user moves the tool window it should persist with that position as visual studio doing already. i can dock the window by using below snippet , but it always docking to bottom position. how can i change and where i should write to set programmatically

 ToolWindowPane window = this.package.FindToolWindow(typeof(ToolWindow1), 0, true);
            if ((null == window) || (null == window.Frame))
            {
                throw new NotSupportedException("Cannot create tool window");
            }

            IVsWindowFrame windowFrame = (IVsWindowFrame)window.Frame;
            windowFrame.SetProperty((int)__VSFPROPID.VSFPROPID_FrameMode, (int)VSFRAMEMODE.VSFM_Dock);
            Microsoft.VisualStudio.ErrorHandler.ThrowOnFailure(windowFrame.Show());

Answer 1

Hello @Hepzibah C ,

Thanks for your reply.

This document: VsDockStyle indicates that

You cannot specify that a tool window is docked by default.

A very close method to dock the custom tool window when it opens for the first time is to dock it with other windows like Solution Explorer, Output Window…

An example(dock with Solution Explorer):

Using following code:

[ProvideToolWindow(typeof(ToolWindow1),
           Orientation = ToolWindowOrientation.Right,
           Window = "3ae79031-e1bc-11d0-8f78-00a0c9110057",
           Style = VsDockStyle.Tabbed)]

Steps:

1.Create a new VSIX project => right-click the project => Add => New Item…

2.Select Tool Window => Add => open xxxxPackage.cs file => Modify above code

3.Run the project => for the first time it opens, it docks on the right with Solution Explorer, if it doesn’t display, try to click View => Other Windows => ToolWindow1 to open it.

BTW, as it works for the very first time, you may need to create and use a new project to test.

Sincerely,

Tianyu

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