Tabs Studio Blog (organizing Visual Studio document tabs)

I’ve added GetTabs function to the ITabsStudioEngine interface that returns information about the all currently opened tabs. Information returned is modeled based on tab controls specification.

GetTabs returns generic list of TabsStudioExt.Tabs objects representing Visual Studio tab groups.

TabsStudioExt.Tabs has TabPanel control property, IsGroupSelected boolean property and TabList property returning generic list of TabsStudioExt.Tab.

TabsStudioExt.Tab has TabItem control property, IsTabSelected and IsPreviouslySelectedTab boolean properties, TabExtensions property returning generic list of TabExtension.

TabsStudioExt.TabExtension has Label control property, IsExtensionActive boolean property and EnvDTE.Window Window property. This window is a Visual Studio window object associated with the original Visual Studio tab.

Particularly interesting EnvDTE.Window Members are Caption property returning window title, Activate method making this window active and EnvDTE.Document Document property. This document is a Visual Studio document object associated with the Visual Studio window.

Particularly interesting EnvDTE.Document Members are Saved and ReadOnly boolean properties, FullName property returning path to the document.

This is my first add-in for Tabs Studio that automatically sorts tabs in alphabetical order. Download Sorter v1.0.0 with precompiled Sorter.dll and source code. To install Sorter create TabsStudioAddins directory along with the installed TabsStudio.dll and copy Sorter.dll to it. Tabs Studio v1.5.4 is required:

TabsStudioAddins directory along with TabsStudio.dll

Sorter add-in installed

Let’s see how Sorter is implemented. I used Visual Studio 2008 and C#. Project is based on C# class library template. References to EnvDTE and EnvDTE80 were added to use EnvDTE80.DTE2 dte parameter in OnConnection function. PresentationCore, PresentationFramework and WindowsBase were added to work with WPF controls. TabsStudioExt defines all Tabs Studio extensibility interfaces:

Sorter add-in solution structure

My custom post-build command

Addin class should implement TabsStudioExt.ITabsStudioAddin interface:

namespace TabsStudioSorter
{
    public class Sorter : TabsStudioExt.ITabsStudioAddin
    {

On startup we hook TabCreated event:

        public void OnConnection(TabsStudioExt.ITabsStudioEngine engine, EnvDTE80.DTE2 dte)
        {
            engine.TabCreated += new TabsStudioExt.TabCreatedEventHandler(OnTabCreated);
        }

On shutdown we do nothing (though unhooking TabCreated event would be nice):

        public void OnDisconnection()
        {
        }

When new tab is created it is added to the end of tab panel. Following code scans existing tabs and finds a place to reinsert new tab in alphabetical order. GetTabNameWithoutPath function is used to compare only file name part of full tab name (p.s. newTabName initialization would be better moved out of foreach loop):

        private void OnTabCreated(object sender, TabsStudioExt.TabCreatedEventArgs e)
        {
            foreach (System.Windows.Controls.TabItem tabItem in e.TabPanel.Children)
            {
                string newTabName = GetTabNameWithoutPath(e.TabItem);
                if (tabItem != e.TabItem && 
                    System.String.Compare(GetTabNameWithoutPath(tabItem), newTabName, true) > 0)
                {
                    e.TabPanel.Children.Remove(e.TabItem);
                    e.TabPanel.Children.Insert(e.TabPanel.Children.IndexOf(tabItem), e.TabItem);
                    break;
                }
            }
        }

Following function returns tab name from TabItem. It uses Tabs Studio controls structure defined in the Specification part of the style documentation:

        private string GetTabName(System.Windows.Controls.TabItem tabItem)
        {
            System.Windows.Controls.DockPanel tabInternals = tabItem.Header as System.Windows.Controls.DockPanel;
            System.Windows.Controls.StackPanel tabNameGroup = tabInternals.Children[0] as System.Windows.Controls.StackPanel;
            System.Windows.Controls.Label tabName = tabNameGroup.Children[0] as System.Windows.Controls.Label;
            return tabName.Content as string;
        }

Following function strips path from tab name. E.g. for App_Code/Class1.cs title it returns Class1.cs:

I’m working on an add-in infrastructure for Tabs Studio. I decided to start from writing several simple add-ins and then, based on this experience, form requirements for the Tabs Studio SDK. So, right now SDK is minimal and will change much in the future.

Tabs Studio add-in is a .NET dll that should be placed to the TabsStudioAddins subdirectory of Addins directory. If Tabs Studio was installed to C:\Documents and Settings\[user_name]\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Addins then add-in .dll should be copied to C:\Documents and Settings\[user_name]\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Addins\TabsStudioAddins directory.

Add-in class should implement TabsStudioExt.ITabsStudioAddin interface to be loaded by Tabs Studio at startup:

namespace TabsStudioExt
{
    public interface ITabsStudioAddin
    {
        void OnConnection(ITabsStudioEngine engine, EnvDTE80.DTE2 dte);
        void OnDisconnection();
    }
}

Only one add-in class per dll is allowed. TabsStudioExt interfaces are declared in the TabsStudioExt.dll that is installed along with the TabsStudio.dll.

TabsStudioExt.ITabsStudioEngine interface offers Tabs Studio methods and events that add-in can use for Tabs Studio customization. Right now it contains only single TabCreated event:

namespace TabsStudioExt
{
    public delegate void TabCreatedEventHandler(object sender, TabCreatedEventArgs e);

    public interface ITabsStudioEngine
    {
        event TabCreatedEventHandler TabCreated;
    }
}

TabCreatedEventArgs has TabItem and TabPanel properties. TabItem is an instance of System.Windows.Controls.TabItem that was just created. TabPanel is an instance of System.Windows.Controls.Primitives.TabPanel tab group for which tab was created.

EnvDTE80.DTE2 dte parameter in OnConnection method offers access to the Visual Studio extensibility model.