Tabs Studio Blog (organizing Visual Studio document tabs)

Now that documents from different folders can be grouped together, OpenCorrespondingFile command and Open context menu command have been augmented to find corresponding files in other folders (other than current folder for active document). Currently opened solution is scanned for files and those files that match grouping options are displayed in context menu.

Currently, tabs are combined only if their associated documents are in the same folder. This is a good default as you don’t want Window1 .xaml .xaml.cs from Project1 to be combined with Window1 .xaml .xaml.cs from Project2. But sometimes files that are really relevant can reside in different folders. For example, it would be nice to combine c:\Projects\4\4\Scripts\1033\default.js and c:\Projects\4\4\HTML\1033\default.htm files. It will be possible in the next version.

Paths matching is somewhat convoluted as I wanted to achieve maximal customizability. Having two files c:\src\Window1.xaml and c:\src\Window1.xaml.cs matching algorithm removes common path from two files, appends ‘$’ symbol to the end of both files and concatenates them. Resulting Window1.xaml$Window1.xaml.cs$ string is matched with paths matching regex. If M named group matches the string then two files are combinable. If not, two full paths with ‘$’ symbol are concatenated (resulting in c:\src\Window1.xaml$c:\src\Window1.xaml.cs$ string) and again matched with paths matching regex. If M named group matches the string then two files are combinable. If not, then files are not combinable. If files are combinable then additional tab title grouping rules are checked.

Default paths matching regex (?<M>^[^\\]+$) checks that there are no back slashes in first paths concatenation and thus allows files only from the same directory. If we try c:\Project1\Window1.xaml and c:\Project2\Window1.xaml.cs files, then first concatenation would be Project1\Window1.xaml$Project2\Window1.xaml.cs$ – it has two back slashes and would not match default regex. Two file names are lexicographically “sorted”, it is guaranteed that concatenation would be Project1\Window1.xaml$Project2\Window1.xaml.cs$ and not Project2\Window1.xaml.cs$Project1\Window1.xaml$.

Let’s create rule that allows htm files from HTML folder to be combinable with js files in Scripts folder. For c:\Projects\4\4\Scripts\1033\default.js and c:\Projects\4\4\HTML\1033\default.htm first concatenation would be HTML\1033\default.htm$Scripts\1033\default.js$ and simple matching regex would be (?<M>^HTML.+?htm\$Scripts.+?js\$). As for other cases we want that default same folder restriction apply, we add our new rule before default one using OR symbol. The result is (?<M>^HTML.+?htm\$Scripts.+?js\$)|(?<M>^[^\\]+$).

We can solve htm files combining problem differently if there is only one project with htm files. In this case htm files can’t clash with htm files in other folders and simply allowing htm extension to be combinable with everything else would suffice – (?<M>htm\$)|(?<M>^[^\\]+$). Using absolute path in regex would achieve the same –
(?<M>c:\\Projects\\4\\4\\HTML)|(?<M>^[^\\]+$).

When one of two files is in a subfolder (for example, c:\Projects\4\default.htm and c:\Projects\4\code\default.js), regex matching single back slash would allow files to be combinable – (?<M>^[^\\]+\\[^\\]+$)|(?<M>^[^\\]+$).

It’s possible to create a rule that denies files combining. Use matching regex without M group for it. E.g., to deny files with .Designer.cs extension to be combinable and deny their appearance in corresponding files list use (.+Designer\.cs\$)|(?<M>^[^\\]+$) regex.

I’m working on better tab grouping. Currently, there is a hardcoded list of combinable extensions and I gradually add more and more extensions to it. Right now the list is: aspx.designer.cs, aspx.vb, xaml.vb, aspx.cs, Designer.cs, xaml.cs, svc.cs, ascx.cs, master.cs, c, cpp, h, hpp, h [Design], inl, vb [Design], vb, cs [Design], cs, aspx, xaml, xml, resX, settings, js, svc, ascx, master. I was afraid that allowing all extensions to be combinable could lead to some unforeseen consequences. Still, I couldn’t find a single case when combining arbitrary extensions is bad. So, I’m making all extensions combinable now by default and I have a mechanism to block undesired extensions from combining if needed.

Each tab title is now matched with title splitting regular expression. Tabs that have the same group name are combined. Default title splitting regex matches Name as all symbols before first dot and matches Ext as first dot and all subsequent symbols. Customizing splitting regex allows different grouping options. Let’s see some examples:

1. Grouping all extensions (default):

2. Explicit list of combinable extensions (xaml and xaml.cs):

3. Additional grouping by part of a name and an extension (_i.h and _c.h):

(?<Name>.+?)(?<Ext>(_i\.h|_c\.h))$|(?<Name>.+?)(?<Ext>\..+)

4. Exclude extension (cs) from grouping:

[^.]+\.(cs)$|(?<Name>.+?)(?<Ext>\..+)

5. Additional grouping by (xaml) extension:

6. Hide dot from extensions:

7. Additional grouping by title prefix (Window):

Opening corresponding file follows rules of customized title grouping.

I’ve added the ability to conveniently open corresponding files. For example, having stdafx.h opened you can now quickly open stdafx.cpp and vice versa. It works for all combinable extensions that Tabs Studio supports.

Open corresponding file command was added to the top of the tab’s context menu:

There could be multiple corresponding files to select from:

TabsStudio.Connect.OpenCorrespondingFile Visual Studio command was also added to be available for keyboard binding. This command looks for all available corresponding files relevant to the currently selected tab and opens first one from the list. If all corresponding files are already opened, OpenCorrespondingFile activates next extension as NextTabExtension command does. Having standard h/cpp pair this behavior allows you to hit OpenCorrespondingFile shortcut and get to a corresponding file no matter if it is currently opened or not.

There was a problem downloading Tabs Studio installer using Internet Explorer – IE changed vsi extension to zip. It is fixed now.

Visual Studio supports horizontal and vertical tab groups and Tabs Studio now backs it up too. When you have two or more tabs open, use Visual Studio’s Window menu to create a new group:

You can have as much groups as you want, but you can’t mix horizontal and vertical groups:

IsGroupSelected property is added to all Tabs Studio controls to style inactive group. Default style sets text opacity for not selected group to 60%.

To move tabs between groups use Move to Next/Previous Tab Group tab context menu commands:

I’ve added Save command to document tab’s context menu, Floating and Dockable commands to non document tab’s context menu, Close All Documents command to both context menus.

Notice that I used hard drive icon for Save command instead of traditional floppy disk icon.

After I wrote that Ctrl+Tab not always switches to previously selected tab it became obvious that I need to add special command for this functionality. I called it TabsStudio.Connect.PreviouslySelectedTab. Recommended shortcut – Ctrl+’ (if your keyboard layout has ‘ key above Tab key like mine does).