Add Reference without ever leaving the code editor!

You remember the time when for adding a new reference you had to wait for a few minutes (usually enough minutes to have breakfast or lunch) for the lovely “Add Reference” dialog to show up and then you had to scroll through a looooong list (which kept updating itself) of somewhat ordered assembly files:

 

 

 

 

 

We introduced back in June the Search Reference extension which made this A LOT faster and simpler by adding a search box and full keyboard support, meaning you type something like “mvc”, key-down, press ENTER and you had your ASP.NET MVC assembly added (no infinite scrolling, no touching your mouse):

 

 

 

 

This was a huge productivity improvement already. But we wanted more.

So we coded a (for lack of a better name…) “Quick Add Reference” extension which augments the smart tag that VS shows for unrecognized types giving you a chance to add the corresponding assembly reference for that type plus corresponding “using” clause if needed in a single shot.

Let’s say I’m working on a Web Application project and I just happen to want to use a type from ASP.NET MVC 2 which by default won’t be referenced by regular web app:

Isn’t this beautiful?

Or you’re working on a WPF application and you need to use configuration from System.Configuration?

And there is more. Yes, more.

Now say you just typed UIElement in a class library which doesn’t have a reference to PresentationCore.dll yet so you get the fancy smart tag:

Now when you try to build the project you will get a few errors complaining that there is an indirect reference to assembly WindowsBase.dll which you need to reference for the project to compile ok:

Is this really the end of our productivity improvement journey and you need to go back to the “Add Reference” dialog? No, not so fast.

You just have to right-click on those errors and choose… guess what… the “Add Reference” menu option!

 

And again, references do get added for you, without paying any visits to the “Add Reference” dialog. Beautiful, indeed.

We’re currently testing out the “Quick Add Reference” bits inside Clarius and with a close group of “crazy enough developers to test our beta bits” (btw, send email if you feel brave enough to join this group).

We plan to make this extension generally available during next week, so stay tuned!