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Create Your Own Project Template Using Visual Studio

In this section we will discuss about how to create your own project template using visual studio.

Software Requirement

Before you start reading this tutorial you should make sure that visual studio 2005(or above versions) is installed on your machine.

Prerequisite Knowledge

Before you go ahead, it is required that you should know

What is Visual Studio?
What are the different project types (the knowledge of web based application and windows based application will help).
How to create a project using Visual Studio?

What Is A Visual Studio Project Template?

Visual studio project templates are predefined projects. In the figure below Windows Forms Application, Console Application etc are examples of predefined objects or project templates.

Picture showing the New Project window for selecting teh console application

Click to Enlarge

When you create any project say Console Application type project, some files are added in the project by Visual Studio like program.cs, AssemblyInfo.cs etc.

Picture showing the project structure in the solution explorer of the visual studio

Click to Enlarge

You can create your own project template so that when programmer uses your template then some files are added in the project by Visual Studio when a new project is created. These files are those which you as a template creator can add. It could be any file type or any number of files.

Creation Of A New Project

For this tutorial I have created a console application. Before we create our template we will add some of the files of our choice.

Picture showing the Main function of the console application

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Adding Files

Picture showing adding the class1.cs and class2.cs in the console application type project

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Here 2 files Class1.cs and Class2.cs are added.

Export Template

You need to export this template so that it gets added in Visual Studio installed template. To export click on the File menu and click Export Template… option.

Click to Enlarge

On click of Export Template… a window comes as shown in figure below

Picture showing the first screen of the export template wizard to select the template type

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If you select Project Template option then it means your template comes when you create a new project and if you select Item Template option then it means your template comes when you add a new item in a project.

Select the required option and click Next. A window will come as shown in the figure below.

Note – For further explanation I assume that Project Template option is selected.

Picture showing the second screen of the export template wizard to enter the template name

Click to Enlarge

Template name – The name of the template which appears when Visual Studio installed template window open up.

Template Description – Description comes on the right hand side of New Project window.

Icon Image – The image appears before the template name.

Preview Image- Image appears on the right hand side below the Template Description in New Project window.

Output location – Path where templates are stored (in .zip format).

Automatically import the template into Visual Studio – When you create a new project then the exported template will be shown in New Project window. It is not required to import it explicitly.

Display an explorer window on the output files folder- On click of Finish button a location in windows explorer open up where the template is stored.

Please see the screen shot below for more details.

Picture showing the different parts of the template while creating the new project

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Create a new project

When you create a new project, template project type (which we have added) appears as shown in figure below. Select the project type and click Ok.

Picture showing the custom template in the visual studio installed template

Click to Enlarge

Output

Picture showing the file structure solution explorer of custom type template

Click to Enlarge

Posted By -	Karan Gupta

Posted On -	Friday, April 20, 2012

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