Viewing Classes and Their Members
Class View is available on the View menu, and displays the symbols used in your applications. Class View contains two panes: an upper Objects pane and a lower Members pane. The Objects pane contains an expandable tree of symbols whose top-level nodes represent projects. To expand a node selected in the tree, click its plus () sign or press the plus () key on the keypad.
Icons identify hierarchical structures employed within your projects, such as namespaces, types, interfaces, enums, and classes. You can expand these structures to list their members. Properties, methods, events, variables, constants, and other contained items are listed in the Members pane.
In Class View, you can move to where a symbol is defined, referenced, or called. If a symbol is not defined within your projects, its declaration is displayed in the Object Browser. Help is available on .NET Framework classes and COM components.
To search on a symbol displayed in Class View and show search results in the Find Symbol Results window, right-click on the symbol and select Find All References from the shortcut menu.
Adding Code through Class View
When you right-click on a project node in Class View, the shortcut menu that opens includes an Add submenu. Some development languages place commands on this Add submenu to insert code into your project. These insertions can include classes, modules, interfaces, methods, variables, or events.
For example, the Add submenu in Class View for an MFC project provides commands to display the Add Class Dialog Box and Add Resource Dialog Box. The exact commands and wizards available on the Add submenu depend upon your programming language and the type of project selected.
For details about a specific Add wizard, click its Help button.
For a list of Visual C++ Add wizards, see Adding Functionality with Code Wizards.
Managing Projects in Class View
Class View displays the symbol hierarchy within your projects. This project-oriented view differs from the list of all available components found in the Object Browser, and from the physical, file-oriented view of your solution provided in Solution Explorer.
When you select a symbol in Class View, the corresponding project and file(s) are also selected in Solution Explorer. All of the commands that are normally available for the symbol in Solution Explorer are also available from within Class View. For example, build commands such as Build, Rebuild, Deploy, and Project Dependencies are available. You can also specify a StartUp Project and initiate debugging in Class View.
Note
You do not need to compile a project to view its symbols in Class View. As you modify the symbols for a project, Class View dynamically refreshes its symbol hierarchy.
If your project is stored under source code control, each Class View symbol displays a signal icon indicating the status of the file where the symbol is defined. Common source code control commands, such as Check Out, Check In, and Get Latest Version are also available on the symbol's shortcut menu.
The following topics provide further guidance on building, debugging, and deploying applications.
Building in Visual Studio
Building projects.How to: Prepare and Manage Builds
Illustrations of icons used by Class View and descriptions of what they mean.Debugging
Debugging projectsHow to: Debug Code in the Editor
Procedures for tracking errors in code.Windows Installer Deployment Tasks
Deploying projects
Visual C++ Considerations
Visual C++ provides real-time symbol information for Class View, Object Browser, and IntelliSense through .ncb files. An .ncb file is automatically created for each solution from the source files in its projects.