Re: Adding controls to toolbox at install time

OK guys, here's the code for this. Don't say I never gave you nothin ;) 
It's from a console app.

This code adds a toolbar called "MyNew" and some controls that are 
located in a passed in dllPath. Visual Studio really should be closed 
while you do this. There is some strangeness here; the EnvDTE namespace 
isn't as polished as it should be.
----------------------
public static string AddMyNewToolbar(string dllPath)
        {

            // reference: 
http://weblogs.asp.net/savanness/archive/2003/04/10/5352.aspx
            string result = "";
            Type latestDTE = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("VisualStudio.DTE.7.1");
       
            EnvDTE.DTE env = Activator.CreateInstance(latestDTE) as 
EnvDTE.DTE;
            try
            {
                //string dllPath = 
RuntimeEnvironment.GetRuntimeDirectory() + "bin\\MyControls.dll";
#if DEBUG
                Console.WriteLine("DLL Path is: " + dllPath);
#endif
           
                // Prepare to munge the toolbox -- get toolbox window, 
object, and tabs collection
                EnvDTE.Window toolboxWindow = 
env.Windows.Item(EnvDTE.Constants.vsWindowKindToolbox);
                EnvDTE.ToolBox toolbox = 
(EnvDTE.ToolBox)toolboxWindow.Object;
                EnvDTE.ToolBoxTabs toolboxTabs = toolbox.ToolBoxTabs;

                // Careful to check if our tab already exists
                foreach (EnvDTE.ToolBoxTab tab in toolboxTabs)
                {
                    if (tab.Name == "MyNew")
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("Toolbar exists!");
                        return result;
                    }
                }

                // No, so add it
                EnvDTE.ToolBoxTab newtab = toolboxTabs.Add("MyNew");

                // WinBug: gotta show the Properties window, first
                env.ExecuteCommand("View.PropertiesWindow", "");

                // WinBug2: gotta activate the tab and select the first 
item
                newtab.Activate();
                newtab.ToolBoxItems.Item(1).Select();

           
                // Finally: add the controls
                newtab.ToolBoxItems.Add(
                    @"Button",
                    dllPath,
                    
EnvDTE.vsToolBoxItemFormat.vsToolBoxItemFormatDotNETComponent
                    );
               
                Console.WriteLine("Toolbar added successfully.");

// not sure if this line works, caveat emptor
                
env.Application.MainWindow.Close(EnvDTE.vsSaveChanges.vsSaveChangesNo);
            }
            catch(Exception exc)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Add toolbar failed.\r\n\r\n" + 
exc.Message);
                return "Exception: " + exc.Message;
            }

            return result;
        }

Justin Collum wrote:

>Does anyone out there have any experience (read: working code) that adds a
>tab to the IDE toolbox during an app's install? I've found a few samples out
>there but they don't necessarily work. My best effort met with the dreaded
>"Unspecified error."
>
>-- Justin
>
>
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