Peek Definition every where in Visual Studio 2015

Visual studio 2015 is great IDE and I love more and more whenever I explore some new features of Visual Studio 2015. In this blog post, We are going to learn about Peek Definition which was available from Visual Studio 2015.It is a great feature with this you can view code without moving to file where this code has been written. Till now this was available only for the C# code but with Visual studio 2015 it is now available with anywhere so now you can have that  available in XAML, CSHTML  and ASPX file too.

Let’s see how it's working on both sides.

Peek definition on C# Code:

You can see the particular code for a class via selecting it and right click and select pick definition or you can use shortcut Alt+F12.



Now once you click on Peek Definition. It will peek definition window like below.

Peek Definition on CSHTML file:

You can also have peek definition now in CSHTML page also just like below.



Hope you like it. Stay tuned for more!.

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Simplified Rename feature in Visual Studio 2015

Visual studio 2015 is a great IDE and I love all the latest features provided in this edition. I have always been a fan of refactoring features and with Visual Studio 2015 they are now more streamlined. In this blog post , we are going to learn about rename refactoring features. So Let’s get started.

We can use this renaming feature when we have found there is a spelling mistake in variable declaration and we want to rename that with correct spelling. This is the just scenario I have explained but there could be much more. So Let’s see how it works.



In above code, you can see that we have made some spelling mistake with employees variable and we want to correct it. So you select that variable and right click and select rename or you can press shortcut Ctrl+ R,Ctrl +R.



Once you click on rename it will open the following dialog.



This dialog contains three options.

1. Include comments – which will replace this word in comments also.
2. Include strings – Which will replace this word in the string which we have defined in double quotes.
3. Preview changes – It will show a preview of changes we are going to make.

Now you can see the highlighted part in above where I’m going to change from employie to employees.



Now once you click on apply it will open a preview dialog like following.



Once you will click on apply it will apply the changes.



That’s it. It’s very easy Hope you like it. Stay tuned for more!!.

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Execute in interactive with visual studio 2015 update 2

There are lots many times we need to play with C# Code and at that time, C# interactive  window might come handy.  Those who don’t know what is C# interactive windows, This is a REPL that allows you to execute the C# code in the separate window. You can enable that window via Views-> Other Windows –> C# Interactive.



Once you click on it will open a window where you can write code and execute it. It will act as the play ground for your C# code.

Execute in Interactive with Visual Studio 2015 Update 2:

Earlier, When you need to use existing code with interactive window, you need manually copy and paste the code. Now with Visual Studio 2015 update 2, you have one menu available “Execute in Interactive”. You can right click your existing code and click on “Execute in Interactive”. It will load your code in C# interactive window.



Once you click it this code will be available to C# interactive window. Even you have a short cut for this also. Ctrl + E, Ctrl + E.

So it’s very useful. Hope you like it. Stay tuned for more!.

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Solution: gulp is not recognized as internal or external command- Visual Studio

Recently, After Upgrading to the newer version of Gulp, I was getting this error.  After doing lots of  finding online and in my system I was able to figure out that Modules like Gulp does not installed to the path. So when you try to run it from the command line it was showing below error.

gulp is not recognized as internal or external command

How to solve : gulp is not recognized as internal or external command

To solve this error we just need to create a new environment variable and set the NPM modules path there.

To create an environment variable,  Right click My Computer/ This Pc and click on properties.  It will open following windows.



Go to Advance System Settings and it will open system properties windows like below.



Click on Environment Variables it will open an environment and system variables windows like below.



Click on new System variable and put NODE_PATH in system variable name and %AppData%\npm\node_modules into the variable value like below.



Click on Ok. That’s it. Now run again the command for gulp and it will work. It’s very easy. Stay tuned for more!!.

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Visual Studio code 1.0 Released

Microsoft has released visual studio code on 1.0 version 14th April 2016. Those who have not used Visual Studio code, Visual studio code a is cross platform open source editor from Microsoft. It supports the variety of languages and you can do almost everything that you can do in an IDE. It also provides support for the debugging few languages.

In blog of Visual Studio Code, Microsoft says

Since our initial launch one year ago, 2 million developers have installed VS Code,” the Visual Studio Code team revealed. “Today, we’re excited to report that more than 500,000 developers actively use VS Code each month.

Image source: Visual Studio code blog.

There is some important milestone that Visual studio code is received like following.

• Visual studio code is now fully localizable and supports 9 languages
• Visual studio supports extensions and community has built more than 1000 extensions in such a sort span
• It now supports syntax highlighting and few more features for more than 100 languages.
• It got more than 300+ pull request on Github.

It will be interesting to see how Visual Studio Code move ahead. I have used it for many times and I am quite happy with it.

You can find more information about it at the following link.

https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs
https://www.thurrott.com/dev/66355/microsoft-delivers-visual-studio-code-1-0

If you have not used it then I recommend you to download this and try it from the following location.
https://code.visualstudio.com/Download

That’s it. Hope you like it. Stay tuned for more!

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Visual Studio 15 Next version of visual studio is available now

With Build 2016 event, Microsoft has announced the preview of next version of Visual Studio called Visual Studio 15. You can download the next version of VS from below link.

https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/visual-studio-next-downloads-vs

There are two options available for there on above link for download. One is normal Installed which is traditional installer contains all the functionality of earlier version of visual studio.

The second option contains a new lightweight installer which a brand new install from the Microsoft focusing on making visual studio installation faster and-and less impactful. The smallest installation of the Visual studio is now under 500 MB and includes support for more than 20 languages. You can optionally add additional features like desktop development using  Windows forms and WPF.

‘

P.S. This is a preview still Microsoft is working on that so you will not see lots of new features and its in preview so you should never use it for production.

There are some new features announced like Open Folder, Improvements of the debugger and few other stuff. You can see the complete list of features in release note at the following link.

https://www.visualstudio.com/news/vs15-preview-vs

On the same page, you can see the list of new features. That’s it. Hope you like it. Stay tuned for more!.

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Visual Studio 2015 update 2 is available for download now

Visual studio 2015 is a great IDE and I love that more and more. As we all know that visual studio update 1 was released few months ago, Yesterday at build conference Microsoft has announced  Visual studio 2015 update 2.

From where I can download Visual Studio 2015 update 2:

You can download Visual studio 2015 update 2 different editions from the following links.

Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition:
Web installer : https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=532606&clcid=0x409
ISO  File: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=615448&clcid=0x409

Visual Studio 2015 Professional Edition:
Web Installer: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=615435&clcid=0x409
ISO File:https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=615436&clcid=0x409

Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise Edition:
Web Installer : https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=615437&clcid=0x409
ISO File: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=615436&clcid=0x409

Also, You can download visual studio update 2 only without whole editor from the following link.
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/visualstudio/2016/03/30/visual-studio-15-preview/


There are lots functionalities new features provided for new updates. You can find a complete list of features the following link.

https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/news/vs2015-update2-vs.aspx

I am going to post about some new features in visual studio update 2 in forthcoming blog posts. Hope you like it and Stay tuned for more!.

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Which visual studio themes you use? Interesting Survey

I have been using Visual studio since 2003 version and it's been decade and still my favorite editor. With visual studio 2010 they have introduced blue theme and With Visual Studio 2012 they also introduced a black theme. Lots of people are using lots of different themes. Some people like black themes and some does not. I had always argument with my friends about visual studio themes. So I thought it will be a good idea to get survey about themes and so what I have done is to put a survey on my blog. As you know this blog is technical blog so most of my readers will be developers. So far I have got a interesting data so I thought it will be a good idea to write a blog post and share those data with you.

So till now I have got total 124 votes for my survey  and here is the result of the survey till now.



From, the above survey I get following fact.

1. Lots of people like black themes out of 124 votes I got 49 for black themes. So black theme is most the popular one.
2. To my surprise light theme comes second which I thought will be a third place but I got 39 votes for that.

This survey is still open for the five days. So if you are new to this blog and still not cast your votes then its right time to do.

Where I can get customize Color themes:

If you need more customized colour  themes than I request you to visit http://studiostyl.es/. It got thousand of customized colour themes.

Visual Studio Theme editor extension:

If you need more option than this three themes and then you should also try visual studio color theme editor extension. It's available from visual studio 2010. Here is the links for different visual studio versions color theme editor extensions.

Visual Studio 2010:
https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/20cd93a2-c435-4d00-a797-499f16402378

Visual Studio 2012:
https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/366ad100-0003-4c9a-81a8-337d4e7ace05

Visual Studio 2013:
https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/9e08e5d3-6eb4-4e73-a045-6ea2a5cbdabe

Visual Studio 2015:
https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/6f4b51b6-5c6b-4a81-9cb5-f2daa560430b

Once you install you will get lots of default color theme choice as well you can customize your theme and save it.

Which color theme I'm using:

Now it's time to write about my personal preferences. It totally depends on the lighting condition where I am using visual studio. If there a lots of light I prefer to use light theme while if it is dark then I like to have dark visual studio theme.

Hope you like it. Stay tuned for more. Still this survey is open for next five days. Please do vote for your favorite themes.

Update on 1st October 2015

Here is the latest update for the survey, the survey are closed now and here is the final result.

Here are the some statistics

Survey period : 1 Month
Total votes so far: 149
Winner : Black

Clearly Black themes are more popular!.

Thank you all who participated on survey!!. Keep reading my blog and participate in this kind of survey

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Video - Custom Layout in Visual Studio 2015

Recently Microsoft has launched Visual Studio 2015 with loads of features. I have created a video for a feature called custom layouts in Visual Studio 2015. Followings are link for Youtube and Vimeo

Youtube- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ4LDZU7c_s
Vimeo- https://vimeo.com/134507008



If you  don't want to watch video then I have already written a blog post. Following is a link for that.

Custom Windows Layout in Visual studio 2015

Hope you like it. Stay tuned for more!.

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Double quotes not working with Visual Studio

Recently, In one of the development machine with Windows 7, I was having strange problem with Visual Studio 2013, When I type double quote first time it was not there and then after once again type I type then it was there. I was wondering what is going on. After digging into little deep, We figure out it was due to language settings and that is creating problem. After fixing languages I was able to fix this issue. I thought it will be good idea to write a blog post about it. So other can be benefits also.

So problem I was having is I have to type double quotes two times. To fix that problem first thing you need to do is Goto  control panel-> region and language options. There you need to go to Keyboard tab. In windows 8.1 Go to search and search for language preferences.

Once you go to language preferences select English US Keyboard. Set that as default.
Now once you are done with your control panel settings. It’s time to make settings changes in Visual Studio. To Change the settings in visual studio go to Tools –> Options –> Environment Settings –> International Settings.

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Visual Studio 2015 Github tools

I love open source and that’s why I’m making all the source code of my blog post on Github. Now with Visual studio 2015 RC Microsoft and Github released a GitHub tools for visual studio. So now you can directly interact with your Github repositories from team explorer itself. Working with Github never be easy now.

Once you install, Github tools for Visual studio with visual studio 2015 installation. It will be available on Team explorer like below.

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Quick tip- How to change menu bar letter style in visual studio 2013 and 2015

When Microsoft has introduced, Visual Studio 2012 with Upper case menu, There were so many reactions from the developers. So with Visual Studio 2013 Microsoft has provided that settings to Turn of capital letters for menu. I have just came to know that accidentally. You can find that settings in Tools->Options-General settings.



Once you check it. Upper case will turn off like below.



That’s it. Hope you like it. Stay tuned for more!.

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Shared project in Visual Studio 2015

Shared project is new feature that was added in Visual Studio 2013 update 2 but in visual studio 2015 it is coming by default. In this post we are going to learn about Shared Project and how it is different from class library.

Shared project in Visual Studio 2015:

Shared project is a new feature that is introduced with Visual Studio 2013 update 2 and it’s comes by default with Visual Studio 2015. So with shared project you can share your common code with any number of applications. You can use that in another project via adding project reference. So let’s see how we can use Shared project in multiple application.

To understand how Shared project works, I have create a blank solution like following.

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Intellisense for Bower and NPM in Visual Studio 2015

CodeProject
Microsoft has recently launched the Visual Studio 2015 Preview with ASP.NET 5(vNext) and it’s got ton of features. In this blog post we are going to learn about Intellisense feature for Bower and NPM.

What is Bower and NPM:

 

Bower: Bower is a package manager for JavaScript libraries that allow you to define, version and retrieve your dependencies. It works on top of NPM. You can find more about that at following link.

http://bower.io/
https://egghead.io/lessons/bower-introduction-and-setup

NPM: NPM stands for Node Package Manager- It’s a kind of package manager for the installing node.js packages just like NuGet packages.  You can find more information about following location.

https://docs.nodejitsu.com/articles/getting-started/npm/what-is-npm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Npm_(software)

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Continuous Integration with visualstudio.com,Unit Test(Test Driven Development) and TFS

CodeProject
Before some time I have written a blog post about Continuous integration with visualstudio.com and TFS and It goes quite a good number visits and lots of people are asking for unit test integration with continuous integration too. Today one of colleague also asked for the same. I thought it will be good idea to write a Blog post about it.

In this blog post we are going to create a new MVC application with a Test Project so that we can run tests and configure unit test with continuous integration. So Let’s first create a new application in visual studio.com.

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Colorized tooltip in visual studio 2015

Visual studio 2015 provides lots of new features and Colorized tooltip is one of the features that I really like. As we all know that Visual studio supports automatic collapse of various language constructs like classes, methods.  When you mouse hover it automatically show hidden code presented in that portion.

In earlier version of Visual Studio that tooltip was shown with hidden code but it was in plain text. Now this tooltip is colorized with syntax highlighting so your hidden code is more readable.It’s look like below.



Hope you like it. Stay tuned for more. I’m going to post lot more blog post about new Visual Studio 2015 features.

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Custom Windows Layout in Visual studio 2015

Visual studio 2015 preview has been released by Microsoft before some days. So I recently got installed in my machine. It contains a bunch of new features and we are going to explore it one by one. Custom layout windows in visual studio 2015 is a one of the nice features in list. In this blog post we are going to learn about custom windows layout in Visual studio 2015.

As we all use different kind of devices like laptop, desktop and some times we choose our visual studio layouts based on screen size and resolution of monitors.   We generally moved items like solution explorer, Team explorer and toolbox based on space available and resolutions of devices. Personally When I work on desktop where I have 22 Inch monitor I used to prefer my solution explorer and other windows open while when I work on laptop which got 15 inch screen all the windows will be in collapse mode.  In this kind of scenario this features comes quite handy.

Let’s see how its works. Here’s is my laptop layout where I like all the windows in collapse mode and I will open windows as I need them.

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Continuous integration with visualstudio.com and TFS

CodeProject
As a developer, we all are using some kind of source control provider to maintain versions of our source code.  But another aspects of source control to is to make sure that code committed in source code repositories are  perfect and it will not break the build of particular software. That’s why Continuous integration is very much popular this days.

What is Continuous Integration:

As per wikipedia

Continuous integration (CI) is the practice, in software engineering, of merging all developer working copies with a shared mainline several times a day. It was first named and proposed by Grady Booch in his method, who did not advocate integrating several times a day.

In simple words, when developers checks in or commit code to source code repository a build of software will automatically triggers to check whether current check-in/commit of code breaks code or not.

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Visual Studio 2013, Team Explorer and BitBucket

With Visual Studio 2013, Microsoft started supporting Git directly with Team Explorer  and I have written a blog post how we can use git with team explorer and github called Visual Studio 2013, Team Explorer and GitHub. This post gained lots of popularity and also get lots of email about writing a blog post for using Git With BitBucket.org which is similar kind of source code hosting service like GitHub.com. So this post is all about it.

In this post I’m going to use a sample console application where we will put some code and then publish it to BitBucket Git Repository.  In this post I’m going to slightly take different approach then previous post but still you can do same way also previous post also.

In this post first we are going to create repository in BitBucket and then clone it on local. So here people will also get to know how we can create and clone a repository in local.

How to create repository in BitBucket:

If you don’t have account in BitBucket.Org then you need to create a account in BitBucket. You can create account from the following link.

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How to change a profile picture in Visual Studio 2013

With Visual Studio 2013, Microsoft has provided synchronized settings in visual studio 2013 with live account. So all you need to do is to login into your live account and then it will automatically sync the settings of Visual Studio 2013 in different machine. Recently one of the reader of blog has asked me question How I can change the Profile Pic on Visual Studio. So I thought it will be good Idea to write a blog post about it.

Here’s how you can change profile picture of Visual Studio live/outlook account. One you done with sign in with visual studio it will load default image with your firstname first character and last name character like below.



Now to change the account picture or profile picture click on name load a popup like following.

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