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How to: Create Custom Text Markers

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Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2015. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

If you want to create a custom text marker to emphasize or organize code, you must take the following steps:

  • Register the new text marker, so that other tools can access it

  • Provide a default implementation and configuration of the text marker

  • Create a service which can be used by other processes to make use of the text marker

    For details on how to apply a text marker to a region of code, see How to: Use Text Markers.

To register a custom marker

  1. Create a registry entry as follows:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\<Version>\Text Editor\External Markers\<MarkerGUID>

    <MarkerGUID>is a GUID used to identify the marker being added

    <Version> is the version of Visual Studio, for example 8.0

    <PackageGUID> is the GUID of the VSPackage implementing the automation object.

    Note

    The root path of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\<Version> can be overridden with an alternate root when the Visual Studio shell is initialized, for more information see, Command-Line Switches.

  2. Create four values under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\<Version>\Text Editor\External Markers\<MarkerGUID>

    • (Default)

    • Service

    • DisplayName

    • Package

    • Default is an optional entry of type REG_SZ. When set, the value of the entry is a string containing some useful identifying information, for example "Custom Text Marker".

    • Service is an entry of type REG_SZ containing the GUID string of the service that provides the custom text marker by proffering IVsTextMarkerTypeProvider. The format is {XXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXXX}.

    • DisplayName is an entry of type REG_SZ containing the resource ID of the name of the custom text marker. The format is #YYYY.

    • Package is entry of type REG_SZ containing the GUID of VSPackage that provides the service listed under Service. The format is {XXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXXX}.

To create a custom text marker

  1. Implement the IVsPackageDefinedTextMarkerType interface.

    Your implementation of this interface defines the behavior and appearance of your custom marker type.

    This interface is called when

    1. A user starts the IDE for the first time.

    2. A user selects the Reset Defaults button under the Fonts and Colors property page in the Environment folder, located on the left pane of the Options dialog box obtained from the Tools menu of the IDE.

  2. Implement the GetTextMarkerType method, specifying which IVsPackageDefinedTextMarkerType implementation should be returned based on the marker type GUID specified in the method call.

    The environment calls this method the first time your custom marker type is created, and specifies a GUID identifying the custom marker type.

To proffer your marker type as a service

  1. Call the QueryService method for SProfferService.

    A pointer to IProfferService is returned.

  2. Call the ProfferService method, specifying the GUID identifying your custom marker type service and providing a pointer to your implementation of the IServiceProvider interface. Your IServiceProvider implementation should return a pointer to your implementation of IVsTextMarkerTypeProvider interface.

    A unique cookie identifying that your service is returned. You can later use this cookie to revoke your custom marker type service by calling the RevokeService method of the IProfferService interface specifying this cookie value.

See Also

Using Text Markers with the Legacy API
How to: Add Standard Text Markers
How to: Implement Error Markers
How to: Use Text Markers