The .vsz File (Project Control)

The starting point of each wizard is the .vsz file. The .vsz file is a text file that determines the wizard to be called and the information to pass to the wizard. The file contains a two-line header, followed by various optional parameters to be passed to the wizard. For a list of optional parameters, see Predefined Custom Wizard Symbols.

The following sample shows the header in a .vsz file:

VSWIZARD 7.0
Wizard=VsWizard.VsWizardEngine.9.0
Param="WIZARD_NAME = My AppWizard"

• The first line of the header specifies the version number of the template file format. You may specify this number as 6.0, 7.0, or 7.1. No other numbers are valid, and using other numbers results in an "Invalid Format" error.

• The second line sets the Wizard variable to the ProgID of the wizard that is cocreated by Visual Studio. A ProgID is a string representation of a CLSID, such as VsWizard.VsWizardEngine.9.0.

  If your wizard has a user interface, the ProgID automatically specifies your wizard to implement IVCWizCtlUI. By default, the methods of this interface are used in the .htm files of your project. You can change the behavior of your wizard by using the methods for this interface in the .htm files. See VCWizCtl for more information, which is the coclass for IVCWizCtlUI.

• Following these two lines is an optional list of parameters that allow the .vsz file to pass additional custom parameters to the wizard. Each value is passed as a string element in an array of variants in the wizard control's Execute method. By default, a wizard with a user interface produces the following default parameters:

  Param="START_PATH = <path to the wizard>"
  Param="HTML_PATH = <path to the wizard's HTML file>"
  Param="TEMPLATES_PATH = <path to the wizard's template file>"
  Param="SCRIPT_PATH = <path to the wizard's script files>"
  Param="IMAGES_PATH = <path to the wizard's images>"
  

  If your wizard does not have a user interface, it does not have an IMAGES_PATH parameter and instead contains the following parameters:

  Param="WIZARD_UI = FALSE"
  Param="SOURCE_FILTER = txt"
  

• The .vsz file can contain the following parameters, which specify functions found in the Common.js file:

  Param="PREPROCESS_FUNCTION = CanAddATLClass"
  Param="PREPROCESS_FUNCTION = CanAddMFCClass"
  Param="PREPROCESS_FUNCTION = CanAddClass"
  

The functions CanAddATLClass, CanAddMFCClass, and CanAddClass are called by the wizard to confirm that the Visual C++ Code Model is available. If one function returns false, the wizard is not launched.

You can add your wizard to the Templates pane in the New Project dialog box in Visual Studio by placing the .vsz file in the vcprojects directory. By default, the Custom Wizard writes the .vsz file to this directory.

Note

If you delete your wizard files and directories, you must also delete the project's .vsz file, .vsdir file, and .ico file from the vcprojects directory.

See Also

Tasks

Creating a Custom Wizard

Concepts

Files Created for Your Wizard

Adding Wizards to the Add Item and New Project Dialog Boxes by Using .Vsdir Files

Designing a Wizard

Reference

Custom Wizard

Other Resources

Visual C++ Wizard Model

Change History

Date	History	Reason
October 2008	Updated version numbers.	Customer feedback.