The Visual Studio 2005 IDE

Figure A-1.The Visual Studio 2005 IDE after launchThe Structure of the Visual Studio 2005 IDE The structure of the VS 2005 IDE consists of various components.. Visual Studio 2005 will cr

The Visual Studio 2005 IDE

2005 IDE is essential for this book, I strongly believe in including a quick walkthrough of it for

reference to benefit beginner-level readers You can go through this appendix to get a refresher

on the essentials of the VS 2005 IDE As you read through this appendix, you’ll notice that the

menus, toolbars, and windows making up the development interface workspace represent the

common UI approach from Microsoft

Covering every aspect of the IDE is beyond the reach of this book Therefore, I’m cussing the frequently used aspects that will matter most while developing reports So, let’s

dis-get started!

Launching the Visual Studio 2005 IDE

First things first, you need to know how to launch the VS 2005 IDE You can start by clicking

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 icon; the VS 2005 IDE will start

If you recall, the first time you launched the IDE, you were asked to select the defaultenvironment settings If you selected Visual C# Development Settings, your IDE should look

similar to Figure A-1

As you can see in Figure A-1, the IDE consists of the menus, toolbars, and various dows As you use different features of IDE, you’ll come across different windows and toolbar

Win-choices

■ Note If you are starting the IDE for the first time, select Visual C# Development Settings when you’re

prompted to select default environment settings

443

A P P E N D I X

Figure A-1.The Visual Studio 2005 IDE after launch

The Structure of the Visual Studio 2005 IDE

The structure of the VS 2005 IDE consists of various components I’ll discuss the three mostimportant ones:

• Menus

• Toolbars

• WindowsWhen you launch the VS 2005 IDE, the default menu structure is composed of the follow-ing seven options (the number varies if your default language is not C#): File, Edit, View, Tools,Window, Community, and Help The physical location of the menu bar is fixed in the top right-hand corner, unless you dock a toolbar adjacent to it (see Figure A-1)

As you create different clients using the IDE, the menu will dynamically change according

to the client selection Like menus, toolbars have a dynamic nature—they also change ing to the choice of the client project you’re developing Additionally, toolbars are not staticlike menus; you can arrange them and add or remove items from them according to your pref-erence and convenience

accord-Finally, you’ll notice several different windows as you go on developing various reports.Some windows are always part of the project, and some are available only in certain situa-tions For example, all projects should have the Solution Explorer window (Figure A-1 shows

a blank Solution Explorer window) As you know, the structure of IDE changes according tothe project; let’s look at the basics of the IDE now

A P P E N D I X ■ T H E V I S U A L S T U D I O 2 0 0 5 I D E

444

8547appAfinal.qxd 8/30/07 4:18 PM Page 444

The Basic IDE Structure

Let’s explore the basics of the IDE structure using a Windows Forms application project Pleaseuse the following steps to create a Windows application project:

keeping it at the default, WindowsApplication1) Click the OK button to finish theprocess Visual Studio 2005 will create a new Windows Forms application project You’llalso notice that a new form with name Form1 is part of the project Your IDE shouldlook similar to Figure A-2

Figure A-2.The VS 2005 IDE after creating the Windows application project

Menus

As you can see, the first launch of the IDE has seven menu choices After we create the

Win-dows Forms project, we get five more choices—12 in total So, what are those five extra menu

options? Well, before we look into them, let’s quickly glance at the default seven menu choices

The File menu consists of choices to manage the various project development activities,like creating a project, opening an existing project, and saving a project

The Edit menu, as the name suggests, has the choices to manage common editingactions, such as Copy, Cut, Paste, and Undo

The View menu has the choices to manage the presentation of various components of theIDE For example, you can hide or unhide a window You can also have the choice to switchbetween the design and the code windows.

The most often used choice in the Tools menu is Options, though you also have otherselections that allow you to perform activities such as customizing the IDE, working with add-ins, and accessing macros

The Window menu gives you the facility to manage the various windows in the IDE.The Community and Help menus are there to help you with your development efforts.The Help menu connects to the online help, to make you more productive Developers canalso interact with others in the community by discussing issues or asking for the help usingthe Community menu

Please go through the official Microsoft help documents to learn more details about each

of the menu choices

■ Note Menu choices change dynamically based on the design-time and run-time mode of IDE

The five extra menu choices are specific to the Window Forms project The Projectmenu choice has the options to manage the project; if you were building a web site instead

of a Windows Forms application, this menu would be Website (see Figure A-3) The Buildmenu is used to make builds of the project, and Debug lets you run through the debuggingprocess Please see Figure A-3 for the differences in menus between the web site and theWindows Forms projects

Figure A-3.Menu choices for web site and Windows Forms projects

Toolbars

Toolbars provide shortcut methods to perform tasks For example, if you don’t want to clickthe File menu and then click the Save option, you can do the same task by simply clicking thetoolbar icon with a picture of a little blue floppy disk

When it comes to using the IDE, we all have our own ways You might like to work withthe keyboard best, or you might prefer to use the mouse to the max Using the toolbars,though, is the most common method to do various tasks during both design time and runtime Almost all common development tasks have a toolbar choice available to improve theuser experience

Toolbars are not static in position like the menus The most common place for toolbars isimmediately under the menu choices, but they can be moved to positions along the right, left,

A P P E N D I X ■ T H E V I S U A L S T U D I O 2 0 0 5 I D E

446

8547appAfinal.qxd 8/30/07 4:18 PM Page 446

or bottom edges of the IDE Toolbars can also float Figure A-3 shows the default position of

the standard toolbar

How you want to place your toolbars is purely your choice Feel free to adjust them insidethe IDE to suit your preference Toolbars change dynamically based on the mode of the IDE,

that is, whether you are working in design-time or run-time mode Please consult with

Micro-soft help for more information on the toolbars Please see Figure A-4 for a typical look of the

IDE with various toolbars available to streamline the development process

Figure A-4:Three more toolbars in addition to the standard toolbar

Windows

The Visual Studio 2005 IDE consists of many windows All windows have specific roles to play:

some are active and helpful while in design-time; others are available only in run-time mode

Covering every window available in the IDE is beyond the reach of this book Therefore, I’ll

discuss the three most common and important ones here:

inside each window in detail, let’s look at the generic characteristics that are common to all

the windows The look of a window generally differs because of its content; for example, the

contents of the Toolbox Window are different than the content of the Properties window What

is common among the windows is they way they blend into the IDE

Let me ask you a question here: do you think that windows have a fixed position insidethe IDE? I’m sure your answer is, “No.”

Like toolbars, windows can be placed according to your individual preference Forinstance, you can shuffle the position of the Solution Explorer and the Toolbox windows If

you want, you can keep the windows floating or auto-hide them, which means you hide the

content of the window and just display the window icon Figure A-5 shows various options for

windows’ positions and points out the auto-hide option

At times, you need more space to work with on the IDE’s design surface In such tions, auto-hide is a handy feature If you auto-hide a window, as soon as you move the mouse

situa-over the window’s icon, the window becomes visible again

Figure A-5.A window’s position and auto-hide options

■ Note You can use the View menu choice to set up commonly used windows For example, if you’vehidden the Properties window, you can make it visible by clicking the View menu and selecting the Proper-ties menu option

In addition to hiding a window and making it visible, you can keep a window’s positionfloating or dock it I always like to see the Toolbox window on the left-hand side of the IDE,

so I dock it there Docking a window is simple: You just drag the window by holding theblue title area As you drag, you will see a guideline to dock either on the left, right, top, orthe bottom position A guideline showing all four directions allows you to show the window

as a tab choice inside the IDE designer Figure A-6 shows docking in action

Figure A-6.Docking a window

A P P E N D I X ■ T H E V I S U A L S T U D I O 2 0 0 5 I D E

448

8547appAfinal.qxd 8/30/07 4:18 PM Page 448

Solution Explorer

Solution Explorer is the location for all the information to manage the solution and one or

more associated projects; you can manage individual projects and their related files here If

you take a look Figure A-7, you’ll notice that the solution WindowsApplicaton1 is presented in

the tree structure format The hierarchy of the information trails from the solution to the

proj-ects and ends with the individual files Often, the individual files are further separated by

putting them inside the folders

Have you noticed the different icons in the tree structure? I’m sure you have Theseimages help you to identity each file type and section You can click on the plus (+) and

minus (–) symbols in Solution Explorer to hide or expand any section

Figure A-7.Solution Explorer

As you can see, the top section of the Solution Explorer window has six icons Considerthem as six different commands that you can perform from within this window; they all have

important roles to play As you can see in Figure A-7, the first command helps you to probe theproperty of any selected file The second command is to show all the files; this means to show

Bin and Obj folders in the tree, which are hidden by default (see Figure A-8)

Next in line is the Refresh command; you can click this button to refresh the SolutionExplorer window As you add or remove files from Solution Explorer, the VS 2005 IDE automat-

ically refreshes the window content to its most current status

The next three buttons on the Toolbar help you to quickly access various aspects ofselected files From the left to the right, they display the code window, the designer associated

with the file, and the class diagram

Figure A-8.Solution Explorer (showing all files)

Toolbox

As you can see in Figure A-2, the Toolbox window is docked on the left side of the IDE Like theSolution Explorer window, this window is also often used by developers; it contains variouselements that you can add to the project

The content of this window depends on the type of project In Figure A-9, you have dard Windows Forms controls If the project is a web site, then the content will reflect thatproject selection

stan-The elements are separated into different tabs, such as Common Controls, Containers,and Data You can also create your own tab to host third-party or custom controls

A P P E N D I X ■ T H E V I S U A L S T U D I O 2 0 0 5 I D E

450

8547appAfinal.qxd 8/30/07 4:18 PM Page 450

Figure A-9.The Toolbox window

Properties

The third window that I’d like to discuss in this section is Properties As you can see in

Figure A-2, the Properties window is docked on the right side of the IDE with the Solution

Explorer window You can use the Properties window to access the individual characteristics

related to specific elements of the project; the element could be a form, file, class, or control

As Figure A-10 shows, all associated properties of Form1 are displayed as content in thiswindow You can set the properties’ values inside the window

You can view properties according to their categories or sort them alphabetically InFigure A-10, properties are alphabetically sorted Which is better, sorting by category or sort-

ing alphabetically? Well, that choice is different from developer to developer I personally like

the alphabetically sorted view But if you like to see all the appearance-related properties, such

as color and fonts, together, the categorized view is best for you

Figure A-10.The Properties window

The first two buttons in the Properties window toolbar are used to toggle between thecategorized and alphabetically sorted views The next two buttons on the toolbar are used totoggle between viewing properties or events (the lightening bolt icon) The events view is simi-lar to the properties view in that you can sort events either alphabetically or by group The lastbutton on the toolbar displays the property pages associated with the currently selected item

If the item does not have property pages, this button will be disabled

■ Note The Properties window is smart If you select an item that has no event, the events button will bedisabled

The bottom of the Properties window has a section for the description of the currentlyselected property In Figure A-10, the text property is described You can hide the descriptionpane if you want to use the space occupied by it by right-clicking anywhere in the window andunchecking the description setting

You can change properties in one of the two ways Certain properties can be changed byclicking on the property name For example, the enabled property has a true/false value If youclick this property, you will toggle the value to either true or false Some properties, like text,you can simply select and type in the value

A P P E N D I X ■ T H E V I S U A L S T U D I O 2 0 0 5 I D E

452

8547appAfinal.qxd 8/30/07 4:18 PM Page 452

Working Space

All right, you have seen the important windows that are used to manage the solution, work

with properties, and access project elements Now, what about the actual work itself? I mean

to say, where do you design your form and write code?

Well, as Figure A-11 shows, all available space in the IDE aside from the windows is actualworkspace for you to manage project content You’ll notice in Figure A-11 that we have three

open tabs: one is the form designer; another has code behind it, and the third is the Start Page

tab, which is the welcome page of the Visual Studio 2005 IDE

Figure A-11.Working space

So, as you go on working with the project, if you open new files, they will be added to thisworking space as tabs You can switch to a new tab by clicking the downward facing arrow icon

next to the “X” sign (see Figure A-11)

■ Note An asterisk (*) will appear on a tab to indicate that the contents of the tab (either the form or the

code) have changed and are not yet saved

Other Windows Within the IDE

In addition to all the windows we discussed so far, the IDE contains a few other useful windows.Many things in the IDE are contextual; they differ depending on the current mode That means

certain windows are only meaningful in design-time mode and others in run-time mode

For example, as Figure A-12 shows, if your code results in some error, the error will appear

in the Error List window Another example is the Output window, which will show the most

recent output of the last performed action of the IDE