Project query API concepts

In Visual Studio, projects are collections of files that are compiled together into an executable or some other form of output, and solutions are collections of projects. Projects and solutions are represented in the filesystem by project files and solution files, respectively. For more information, see What are solutions and projects in Visual Studio?.

The project system sits between a project or solution file on disk (for example, .csproj and .vbproj) and various Visual Studio features including, but not limited to, the Solution Explorer, designers, the debugger, language services, build and deployment. Project systems are a part of Visual Studio components to help users work with and maintain projects, run builds to produce results, and to test output, and almost all interaction that occurs with files contained in a project file happens through the project system. You can find more information on project systems here.

The goal of the project query API is to enable extensions to retrieve data about projects and solutions and make changes.

Some examples of what you might do with a project query:

  • Enumerate the source files in a project
  • Check which NuGet packages are referenced by a project
  • Find all projects that have a given set of capabilities
  • Add new files to a project
  • Modify the properties of a project

A project query is a series of clauses that reference various items. Please see the Project Query Overview for more information and for examples of project queries for common tasks.

Project Query Item Types

There are many different items you can reference in your project queries. Some items have children or child collections that can also be referenced. For example, a WorkSpace contains a collection of Projects, each of which contains a collection of Files.

Term Description
WorkSpace The top level workspace of the API to provide the entry point.
PropertiesAvailableStatus The entry point to check whether a property value is available in the result.
QueryableSpace.Projects All projects in the workspace.
QueryableSpace.Solutions All solutions in the workspace.
Solution Represents a solution in Visual Studio.
Project Represents most projects in Visual Studio, but solution folders are represented differently in VisualStudio.Extensibility.
SolutionFolder Represents a solution folder, which is a virtual folder to group projects and files inside a Visual Studio solution.
Folder Represents a folder contained by a project.
File Represents a file contained by a project or a solution folder.
ExternalFile Represents external files referenced by a project, which isn't yet supported by C++ projects.
Property Represents dynamic set (weak name/type) of properties of a project, a configuration, or a file.
RuleName Represents the set of Rules in a project configuration.
ProjectReference Represents project-to-project references, including shared project references.
PackageReference Represents a package reference in a project configuration, typically a NuGet package reference.
AssemblyReference Represents a referenced assembly in a project configuration.
ConfigurationDimensionDefinition Represents values to declare project configurations.
ProjectConfiguration Represents a project configuration.
ConfigurationDimension Represents values of each dimension of a single project configuration.
OutputGroup Represents one collection of project output.
Output Represents one item inside a single output group.
LaunchProfile Represents launch profiles defined in a project.
PropertyPage Represents property pages shown for the project.
Startup Projects Represents the defined startup projects in the solution.

Project Query Clause Types

Clauses in your project query determine what kind of items should be returned in the output, which collection they should come from, which properties they should have, and whether the returned items should be mutable. Clauses are also used to limit and filter the output.

Term Description
With Requests value of a property/collection to be returned from the query.
WithRequired Requests value of a property/collection must be returned from the query.
Where Requests the query result to be filtered based on a predicate.
Get Gets child items instead in the query result.
QueryAsync Executes a query and retrieves the result as IAsyncEnumerable.
AsQueryable Starts a query from a previous retrieved object.
QueryFrom Starts a query from a collection of previous retrieved objects.
AsUpdatable Starts to update object from a query result.
ExecuteAsync Executes an update query.

Project Query Filtering Types

Filtering types facilitate the refinement and focus of query results. Please note that certain filtering types listed below may not be available for every query item.

Term Description
ConfigurationsByName Filters the query results to a specific configuration name.
FilesByPath Filters the query results to a specific file path.
OutputGroupsByName Filters the query results to a specific output group name.
ProjectsByCapabilities Filters the query to specific project capabilities.
ProjectsByPath Filters the query results to a specific project path.
ProjectsByProjectGuid Filters the query results to a specific project guid.
RuleResultsByRuleName Filters the query to a specific rule name.
Skip Executes a query result to a limited number of items by skipping.

Project Query Action Types

Actions in your project query determine what modifications are made to the project system. Note each query item types has their own actions available to them. Below is a simple list of action queries.

Term Description
AddAssemblyReference Represents the operation to add an assembly reference to a project.
AddConfigurationDimensionValue Adds a new value to a configuration dimension (e.g. Configuration or Platform).
AddFiles Represents the operation to add an existing file to the project.
AddLaunchProfile Represents the operation to add a new launch profile to a project.
AddPackageReference Represents the operation to add a package reference to a project.
AddProjectReference Represents the operation to add a project to project reference to a project.
AddProject Represents the operation to add a project to a solution or a solution folder.
AddProjectReferenceByPath Represents the operation to add a project to project reference to a project's path.
AddSolutionConfiguration Represents the operation to add a solution configuration.
Build Represents the operation to build a solution.
Clean Represents the operation to clean a solution.
ConfigurationDimensionValue Represents the operation to set a configuration's dimension value.
CreateFile Represents the operation to create a new file in a project.
CreateFolder Represents the operation to create a folder in a project.
CreateSolutionFolder Represents the operation to add a solution folder to a solution or an existing solution folder.
Debug Represents the operation to debug a solution.
DeleteConfigurationDimensionValue Deletes a value from the configuration dimension (e.g. Configuration or Platform).
Delete Represents the operation to delete a Project.
DeleteSolutionConfiguration Represents the operation to remove a solution configuration.
Deploy Represents the operation to deploy a solution.
DuplicateLaunchProfile Represents the operation to duplicate an existing launch profile.
Exclude Represents the operation to exclude a project.
Rebuild Represents the operation to rebuild a solution.
ReloadProject Represents the operation to reload a project.
RemoveLaunchProfile Represents the operation to remove a launch profile from a project.
RenameFile Represents the operation to rename a file in a project.
RenameFolder Represents the operation to rename a folder in a project.
RenameSolutionFolder Represents the operation to rename a solution folder.
RenameProject Represents the operation to rename a project.
Run Represents the operation to run a solution.
RunCustomTool Represents the operation to run a custom tool.
Save Represents the operation to save a project.
SetPropertyValue Represents the operation to set a property value.
SetCopyToLocal Represents the operation of setting the value of CopyToLocal for a project reference.
SetBuildProperty Represents the operation of setting the value of a project configuration build property.
SetEvaluatedUIPropertyValue Represents the operation to set the evaluated value of a user-visible property.
SetLaunchProfilePropertyValue Represents the operation of setting the value of a property exposed through the launch profile.
SetPackageReferenceVersion Represents the operation to rename a solution folder.
SetSolutionFolderName Represents the operation to set a solution folder name.
SetStartupProjects Represents the operation to set a startup project.
SetUnevaluatedUIPropertyValue Represents the operation to set the unevaluated value of a user-visible property.
UnloadProject Represents the operation to unload a project.
WaitIntellisenseReady Represents the operation to wait project or solution intellisense operation progress to be ready.

Project Query Updates Types

These queries support the monitoring of updates made to query results.

Term Description
TrackUpdatesAsync Represents the operation to track changes to a query.

To see some examples of project queries for common tasks, see the Project Query Overview

For a sample extension that uses the project query API, see Project Query Sample