VSTemplate element (Visual Studio Templates)

Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

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Contains all the metadata about the project template, item template, or starter kit.

Syntax

<VSTemplate Type="TemplateType" Version="x.x.x">
    <TemplateData>    </TemplateData>
    <TemplateContent>    </TemplateContent>
    ...
</VSTemplate>

Attributes and elements

The following sections describe attributes, child elements, and parent elements.

Attributes

Attribute Description
Type Identifies the template as a project template or an item template. This attribute can have a value of Project or Item.
Version Specifies a version number for the template. Templates in Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Studio 2012 have a Version attribute value of 3.0.0.

Child elements

Element Description
TemplateData Required element.

Specifies data that categorizes the template, and defines how it displays in the New Project or Add New Item dialog box.
TemplateContent Required element.

Specifies the contents of the template.
WizardExtension Optional element.
WizardData Optional element.

Parent elements

None.

Remarks

The VSTemplate element is the root element of .vstemplate files.

Example

The following example shows the metadata for a project template for a Visual C# application.

<VSTemplate Type="Project" Version="3.0.0"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/vstemplate/2005">
    <TemplateData>
        <Name>My template</Name>
        <Description>A basic starter kit</Description>
        <Icon>TemplateIcon.ico</Icon>
        <ProjectType>CSharp</ProjectType>
    </TemplateData>
    <TemplateContent>
        <Project File="MyStarterKit.csproj">
            <ProjectItem>Form1.cs</ProjectItem>
            <ProjectItem>Form1.Designer.cs</ProjectItem>
            <ProjectItem>Program.cs</ProjectItem>
            <ProjectItem>Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs</ProjectItem>
            <ProjectItem>Properties\Resources.resx</ProjectItem>
            <ProjectItem>Properties\Resources.Designer.cs</ProjectItem>
            <ProjectItem>Properties\Settings.settings</ProjectItem>
            <ProjectItem>Properties\Settings.Designer.cs</ProjectItem>
        </Project>
    </TemplateContent>
</VSTemplate>

See also