MetaEdit+ extension for Visual Studio

Source code checked in, #18667

Project Collection Service Accounts — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:52:47 GMT

Upgrade: New Version of LabDefaultTemplate.xaml. To upgrade your build definitions, please visit the following link: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=254563

Source code checked in, #18666

Project Collection Service Accounts — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:51:24 GMT

Checked in by server upgrade

Updated Wiki: InstallingInstructions

stevekmcc — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 08:45:03 GMT

Install Visual Studio 2010

The extension is made for Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and Professional editions. If you don't have either of these, you may download and install the Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate trial version from here.

Note: you may need to install the Visual Studio SDK in addition to your Visual Studio installation for opening and modifying the Graph Browser solution. Please check you Visual Studio version and install the SDK if needed from:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=2680
(If you have the Visual Studio 2010 SP1 installed, install the Visual Studio 2010 SP1 SDK: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=21835)

Install MetaEdit+

Download and install MetaEdit+ 5.0. (Basic plugin functionality will also work with the 4.5 version, but since all instructions and examples are for 5.0, it's best to start with 5.0.)

Install the extension

Download the extension installer (.vsix) file from this site. After downloading double click it to install the extension (re)start Visual Studio and start using the Graph Browser extension.

Updated Wiki: InstallingInstructions

stevekmcc — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 08:44:45 GMT

Install Visual Studio 2010

The extension is made for Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and Professional editions. If you don't have either of these, you may download and install the Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate trial version from here here.

Note: you may need to install the Visual Studio SDK in addition to your Visual Studio installation for opening and modifying the Graph Browser solution. Please check you Visual Studio version and install the SDK if needed from:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=2680
(If you have the Visual Studio 2010 SP1 installed, install the Visual Studio 2010 SP1 SDK: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=21835)

Install MetaEdit+

Download and install MetaEdit+ 5.0. (Basic plugin functionality will also work with the 4.5 version, but since all instructions and examples are for 5.0, it's best to start with 5.0.)

Install the extension

Download the extension installer (.vsix) file from this site. After downloading double click it to install the extension (re)start Visual Studio and start using the Graph Browser extension.

Updated Wiki: GettingStarted

stevekmcc — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 08:39:08 GMT

Getting started

When you have Visual Studio, MetaEdit+ and the extension installed, run Visual Studio. To open the extension click from toolbar View | Other Windows | Graph Browser.

The Graph Browser extension tries to connect to the MetaEdit+ API server at startup. If it doesn't find any available connection, it will offer to launch MetaEdit+, start the API server, and login to the repository. This needs some paths and other parameters, which are stored in a 'default.mer' file that is saved in the root of the Visual Studio Projects folder in users My Documenst folder.

When running the extension for the first time there is no 'default.mer' file. In this case the extension tries to find and suggest the correct paths needed for launching MetaEdit+. It shows them to user who can edit and accept them by clicking 'Open MetaEdit+'. Accepting them will open MetaEdit+. If the plugin doesn't show any models after starting MetaEdit+ and its API, try clicking the 'Update Graph List' icon on the plugin's toolbar.

When running, the extension will show the hierarchy of your models from MetaEdit+. The figure below shows the extension listing the 'Digital watch' example models in Visual Studio.

In MetaEdit+ 5.0, the Digital Watch example has been updated to show the extensions ability to import generated code into a Visual Studio as Visual C# solution. To see this:

Select the top-level graph in the plugin
Choose Edit Graph Properties from the pop-up menu and set the Generation target platform to C#: Windows or C#: API
Press the extensions Run Autobuild toolbar button.

Updated Wiki: InstallingInstructions

stevekmcc — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 08:38:21 GMT

Install Visual Studio 2010

The extension is made for Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and Professional editions. If you don't have neither of them you may download and install the Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate trial version from here here.

Note: you may need to install the Visual Studio SDK in addition to your Visual Studio installation for opening and modifying the Graph Browser solution. Please check you Visual Studio version and install the SDK if needed from:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=2680
(If you have the Visual Studio 2010 SP1 installed, install the Visual Studio 2010 SP1 SDK: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=21835)

Install MetaEdit+

Download and install MetaEdit+ 5.0. (Basic plugin functionality will also work with the 4.5 version, but since all instructions and examples are for 5.0, it's best to start with 5.0.)

Install the extension

Download the extension installer (.vsix) file from this site. After downloading double click it to install the extension (re)start Visual Studio and start using the Graph Browser extension.

Source code checked in, #12569

OlliMCC — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 11:21:27 GMT

Solution: * Fix: Debug build was making Release GraphBrowser project: * New: minimal ClassDiagram Graph.cs: * Fix: Removed runGenerated / CompileAndExecute - was causing error, as runGenerated is no longer written - may need to add back to prevent non-Autobuild generators building and executing an already open solution * Optimization: don't update info of graphs found in cache - ResetCaches() replaces ResetTypeNameTable() * Correction: do not import and execute if generation is unsuccessful - Generator breakpoint is deemed unsuccessful to avoid importing partially generated results * Correction: 4.5 was ignoring generator name and always running Autobuild - Currently only called with Autobuild * Refactoring: made statics and constructor private * Documentation: corrected field comments GraphBrowser.xaml.cs: * Refactoring: ResetCaches() replaced ResetTypeNameTable() IniParser.cs: * Refactoring: removed unused key field and old parameter comments Launcher.cs: * Refactoring: made Settings private MEAPI.cs * Documentation: added comment for AllowSetForegroundWindow() MEDialog.cs * Refactoring: note return values from property and graph creation dialogs - currently unused SelectionWindow.xaml: * Correction: dialog window is no longer forced on top of all other apps SelectionWindow.xaml.cs: * Documentation: added method docs or made them private Settings.cs: * Correction: actually cache settings singleton * Documentation: made CalculateValues() private SettingsWindow.xaml.cs: * Documentation: added method docs or made them private source.extension.vsixmanifest: * New: Version 1.0.2 * Documentation: improved description and URLs

Source code checked in, #12052

OlliMCC — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:38:35 GMT

Manager.ab parsing moved from GraphHandler to SettingsWindow. IniHandler accepts "=" in value. Graph.cs: merged runAutobuild into runGenerator. Renamed removeIniFile() to readAndRemoveIniFile(). Added AllowSetForegroundWindow method to MEAPI.cs.

Updated Wiki: Home

OlliMCC — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 07:24:45 GMT

Project Description
Visual Studio extension for integrating MetaEdit+ and Visual Studio. This extension allows you to browse MetaEdit+ models and use the main MetaEdit+ functions from Visual Studio. It can also automatically import into Visual Studio the source code generated from MetaEdit+.

The integration between MetaEdit+ models and Visual Studio includes:

One-click access to your MetaEdit+ repository from Visual Studio
Live tree view in Visual Studio of all your MetaEdit+ models
Double-click to open and edit MetaEdit+ models from Visual Studio
Autobuild: generate code from MetaEdit+ models, import into a Visual Studio solution, build and run
Trace and debug on both the code and model levels simultaneously

Watch a video (5min) demonstrating the use of the MetaEdit+ extension for Visual Studio.

See installation instructions, getting started and the plugin guide for details. See the plugin guide for developers and the source code for extending the plugin further.

Updated Wiki: Home

OlliMCC — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 07:24:35 GMT

One-click access to your MetaEdit+ repository from Visual Studio
Live tree view in Visual Studio of all your MetaEdit+ models
Double-click to open and edit MetaEdit+ models from Visual Studio
Autobuild: generate code from MetaEdit+ models, import into a Visual Studio solution, build and run
Trace and debug on both the code and model levels simultaneously

Updated Wiki: Home

OlliMCC — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 07:21:10 GMT

One-click access to your MetaEdit+ repository from Visual Studio
Live tree view in Visual Studio of all your MetaEdit+ models
Double-click to open and edit MetaEdit+ models from Visual Studio
Autobuild: generate code from MetaEdit+ models, import into a Visual Studio solution, build and run
Trace and debug on both the code and model levels simultaneously

Watch a video (5min) demonstrating the use of the MetaEdit+ extension for Visual Studio.

Launch in another window

See installation instructions, getting started and the plugin guide for details. See the plugin guide for developers and the source code for extending the plugin further.

Source code checked in, #11303

OlliMCC — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:11:22 GMT

Updated Wiki: Home

stevekmcc — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:21:15 GMT

One-click access to your MetaEdit+ repository from Visual Studio
Live tree view in Visual Studio of all your MetaEdit+ models
Double-click to open and edit MetaEdit+ models from Visual Studio
Autobuild: generate code from MetaEdit+ models, import into a Visual Studio solution, build and run
Trace and debug on both the code and model levels simultaneously

Updated Wiki: AdvancedInstructions

OlliMCC — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:50:53 GMT

Plugin functions

This is a usage guide page for functions of the MetaEdit+ extension for Visual Studio.

Commands

The extension provides commands that may be used from buttons in the views toolbar or by selecting a graph from the tree and clicking the mouse right button.

Run Autobuild runs the generator named "Autobuild" for the selected graph. If no graph is selected, no action is taken.

Select Generator to Run allows you to select and run a specific generator for the selected graph. If no graph is selected, no action is taken. Since a graph may have more than one generator the extension retrieves all available generators from MetaEdit+ and shows them in a list dialog for selection. Depending on the selected generator this command may start several automated steps, like produce the code, importing it to Visual Studio and running the generated solution. See below for further information.

Open Graph in !MetaEdit+ opens the same graph in MetaEdit+ that is selected in the tree view. If no graph is selected, no action is taken. This way user gets to edit the graphs quickly in MetaEdit+.

Update Graph List updates the treeview. Before asking the graphs from MetaEdit+, it tests the API connection and tries to launch MetaEdit+ as in the extension startup. This command is useful for both updating the graph list and initializing the whole treeview if the extension was started without API connection.

Open Settings opens a dialog that contains the MetaEdit+ launch parameters. The parameters are saved in 'default.mer' file in the Visual Studio Projects folder and are read when launching MetaEdit+ or when initalizing the settings dialog. The dialog provides a three step verifier for each text field. green when content is correct, yellow if the entry could not be verified, or red when entry is not correct.

Create a new Graph will open a MetaEdit+ dialog for creating a new graph. If no graph is selected, a dialog opens to ask which type of graph will be created. If graph is selected the dialog will automatically have the same type as the selected graph.

Show/hide graph type toggles the graph typename on or off.

In the popup menu (mouse right click) there is a command that is not shown in the view toolbar. This command is only for MetaEdit+ 5.0 version.

Edit Graph Properties opens graph properties dialog in MetaEdit+ and lets user to edit the graph's properties. This function always depends on selected graph so the command is shown in the popup menu only when there is a selection in the tree view.

Updated Release: Visual Studio extension for MetaEdit+ (helmi 15, 2012)

OlliMCC — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:43:47 GMT

Downlad the Visual Studio extension for MetaEdit+ from Visual Studio Gallery.

Released: Visual Studio extension for MetaEdit+ (Feb 15, 2012)

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:43:47 GMT

Downlad the Visual Studio extension for MetaEdit+ from Visual Studio Gallery.

Created Release: Visual Studio extension for MetaEdit+ (helmi 15, 2012)

OlliMCC — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:43:05 GMT

Downlad the http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/f02b71f0-4b83-44bc-a06b-57bd966ac3f4 Visual Studio extension for MetaEdit+ from Visual Studio Gallery.

Updated Wiki: ExtendingThePluginGuide

OlliMCC — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:51:09 GMT

How the extension works

This page contains information about how the extension works, and how to modify or extend it for your own use. The source code is available from here.

Launching the extension

When the extension starts it will search for an existing open API connection to MetaEdit+. If it finds one, it will ask for all the graphs in all opened projects in MetaEdit+ and show them in the view. If the extension doesn’t find an API connection it will look in the directory of the Visual Studio Projects folder a settings file, ‘default.mer’, that contains MetaEdit+ launch parameters. If it finds the settings file, the extension asks the user's permission to launch MetaEdit+, log in, open projects and start the API server in MetaEdit+.

When using the extension for first time there is no settings file and no open API connection to MetaEdit+. In this case the extension tries to calculate the values that are needed for launching MetaEdit+ and shows them in a dialog to user. When the user has checked and edited them if needed, MetaEdit+ can be launched by clicking the ‘Open MetaEdit+’ button. The launch parameters are also saved in the ‘default.mer’ file in the Visual Studio Projects folder, and will be read when the extension is next launched without an API connection.

Below you can see a state diagram showing the extension initialization process.

The generation and import process

The generation and import process contains stages in which the extension writes a plugin.ini file for MetaEdit+, a generator for the selected graph is run in MetaEdit+, the generated Visual Studio solution (if any) is imported in Visual Studio, opened, built and launched in Visual Studio automatically. Let's look next at the individual states in more detail. You may also test these by running the 'Digital Watch' example available in MetaEdit+.

In the first stage a plugin.ini file for MetaEdit+ is written in the MetaEdit+ working directory. Once the user has chosen to run a generator the file is created. The plugin.ini file contains information from the application (Visual Studio in this case) that calls MetaEdit+. It also contains the Visual Studio projects folder path in which the MetaEdit+ generator is supposed to generate the source code files. Below you can see an example of the plugin.ini file content.

  IDE=visualstudio
  workspace=C:\user\Documents and settings\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\

The file and its content allow the generator in MetaEdit+ to see that it is being used from another program. The generator can thus change its behaviour, e.g. instead of compiling and opening generated code itself, it can just generate the source code and project resource files that are needed for importing and building the solution in Visual Studio. The extension removes the plugin.ini file at the end of the process.

After MetaEdit+ has generated the source code files, the extension looks for a Visual Studio solution with the same name as the graph selected in the plugin tree view. If a solution is found, it is imported into Visual Studio and opened. After that the solution is built and run, so the user can go straight to seeing the generated program running.

The solution import automates otherwise manual actions like choosing to create a new solution from the File menu and going through the wizard to create a new project. While these actions could be left for the user, the extension aims to automate integration between code generated from MetaEdit+ and Visual Studio. To provide this automation the MetaEdit+ generator creates Visual Studio solution resource files that are needed for opening the solution in Visual Studio, and the Visual Studio extension provides the solution import, build and launch commands.

Writing your own generator

The most common scenario for the extension is for the generated source code to end up in an Visual Studio solution and be compiled and run from there. To do that, the extension and generator must work together, following this interface:

Name the generator 'Autobuild'
Read the Visual Studio project directory from the plugin.ini file created by the extension
Generate the source files under that directory
Generate an Visual Studio solution and project file in the directories, with the same name as the graph, and referring to the generated source code

Extending the extension

You can easily modify the extension to add extra functions that you'd like, or to change the existing behaviour. MetaEdit+ commands, for example commit and abandon or editing the graphs programmatically, are available via the API similarly to the commands that are used in this plugin. For more information, see the API section in the MetaEdit+ manual and the source code of this plugin.

Released: Graph browser extension for Visual Studio (Feb 01, 2012)

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:18:52 GMT

Beta release of MetaEdit+ extension tool for Visual Studio.

Updated Release: Graph browser extension for Visual Studio (helmi 01, 2012)

OlliMCC — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:18:52 GMT

Beta release of MetaEdit+ extension tool for Visual Studio.