Roll Your Own Item Template with the Export Template Wizard

Menu:  File -> Export Template
Command:  File.ExportTemplate
Versions:  2008,2010
Published:  8/17/2010
Code:  vstipProj0013

 

In vstipProj0004 I showed you how to roll your own project template.  Now we are going to look at how to make your own item template.  Recall that a project template encompasses an entire project and all the files in it.  Sometimes we just want to customize an individual item that we use frequently in projects. 

 

Let's do an example.  Make a new project and then add a class to it (CTRL + SHIFT + A):

 

NOTE:  The process is the same regardless of language used.

 

 

Here is the way the code looks before modification:

 

 

Now modify it the way you would like your item template to look and save your changes to the file:

 

 

Now it's time to export our item template so we can use it in future projects.  Go to File -> Export Template:

 

NOTE:  It may will prompt you to save changes to your project if you haven't already.

 

 

Choose "Item Template" and select the correct project where the item you want is at (if there is more than one in your solution):

 

 

Click "Next".  Select the item to export as a template:

 

NOTE:  The wizard will automatically select any dependent files as needed.

 

 

Click "Next".  Now you can select any references you want included with the item.  Normally, you would use an "Imports" or "Using" statement as appropriate in your code rather than need to use this dialog as we did in our example; however this is a chance to add additional references as needed:

 

NOTE:  The list of assemblies is generated from the assembly references in the current project. If the assembly you want to reference does not appear in the list, exit the wizard and add the reference to your project, and then run the wizard again.

 

 

Click "Next".  As you can see there is quite a bit here to put in:

 

Template name-this is a friendly name you want the template to be called when you pick it from the list of templates.

 

Template description-short description that gives a little more detail on the template's purpose.

 

Icon Image-small image that represents the icon for the item.

 

Preview Image-a larger image that gives a preview of what the template looks like.

 

Output location-the location where exported items will go.

 

Automatically import the template into Visual Studio-let's you decide if you want the template imported right away or want to do it manually later.

 

Display an explorer window on the output files folder-opens up the location where the template files are stored once they are created.

 

Here are the settings I'm using for this example:

 

Click "Finish".  It will open up the output file location and show the .zip file that contains the templates:

 

Looking inside the file we see this:

 

Finally, we can create a new item (CTRL + SHIFT + A) and see our new template:

 

The template can also be seen at "..\Users\ username\Documents\Visual Studio <version>\Templates\ItemTemplates\" folder:

 

If you aren't happy with your new template just delete the .zip file from this directory and it will no longer show up in the Add New Item dialog.

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 17, 2010
  Hi Zain, When you reference a previous tip, it'd be very handy if you included a url to take you directly there. Just a thought. Yann

• Anonymous
  August 17, 2010
  Yep.  Good point :)  I'll put them in going forward.   vstipProj0004 can be found here:  blogs.msdn.com/.../roll-your-own-project-or-item-with-the-export-template-wizard-vstipproj0004.aspx