If you’re like most developers, you’re always looking for ways to improve your development process. One way to do this is by using open source tools and frameworks. In this article, we’ll show you how to mimic the Eclipse Open Resource feature in Visual Studio. First, create a new project and name it “Eclipse Open Resource”. Then, add the following code to your project: using System; using System.IO; using System.Text; namespace EclipseOpenResource { public class OpenResource : IOpenResource { public override void OnLoad(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { // Do something with the resource } } } Next, open up your Visual Studio environment and create a new project called “Eclipse Open Resource 2”. This project will use the same resources as the first project but will also include a few additional features. To do this, open up your Project Settings dialog and select “Add New Item” in the left-hand pane. Then, select “File” in the right-hand pane and click on the “New File” button. In the new file dialog, enter “EclipseOpenResource2_1.cs” into the text field and click on the OK button. Now that you have a new file created, open it up and paste in the following code: using System; using System.IO; using System.Text; namespace EclipseOpenResource2 { public class OpenResource2 : IOpenResource { public override void OnLoad(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) { // Do something with the resource } } } Now that you have two projects created with similar resources (and features), it’s time to start mimicking some of the features of Eclipse Open Resource! First, let’s take a look at how to set up an eclipse project specifically for mimicking Open Resource: $e
For those of you that haven’t seen it, here’s what the Eclipse Open Resource dialog looks like.
And here’s a screenshot of VSFileFinder in action. You’ll notice that it’s very similar, but it doesn’t show open files first.
The first thing you’ll need to do is download and install it from the CodeProject site (registration required).
Next to set a shortcut key for it, you’ll want to open Tools \ Options and then browse down to Environment \ Keyboard
Now you can set the same keyboard shortcut by typing “vsfile” into the “Show commands” box, clicking on the “VSFileFinder.Connect.ShowVSFileFinder” entry in the list.
Add in the shortcut key you want, and click the Assign button.
Now you have a comparable feature attached to a hotkey. Personally, I docked the window on the side and set it to auto-hide so it works similarly.
