AutoFindReplace
Download this extension from the VS Marketplace.
This CharityWare Visual Studio extension will automatically find and replace specified text within specified files when a solution is opened.
The intention is to eliminate repetitive manual code modifications that a developer may find neccessary for certain Visual Studio solutions.
With this extension installed Visual Studio will automatically perform a find/replace action on specified file(s) within a specified project upon opening a named solution.
If you like this free extension, please give it a review.
See the change log for road map and release history. Bugs can be logged here.
Example
The following options settings:
For the following solution:
Result in the following outcome when opened:
Who Is This Extension For ?
Any developer using the Visual Studio IDE (any language, any file type) who currently needs to keep repeatedly making the same manual code change(s) to the same file(s) because:
- It is not possible for the change(s) to be persisted indefinately in the developer's source control repository, for any reason
and / or
- It is not possible for the change(s) to be persisted durably in the developer's local file system, for any reason
Use-Cases
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Your source-control system freakishly doesn't retained a file's modifications, and so every time you open a new branch of your solution you need to manually and repeatedly make the same changes to address this. This was the real-life problem I experienced that inspired me to create this extension.
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Every time you open a new branch of your solution you open one or more files and manually and repeatedly comment out particular lines of code (e.g. you change 'debugger;' to '//debugger;').
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You and a colleague or contributor constantly commit changes that revert the other's previous commit. As a result whenever you open the solution you manually and repeatedly edit the same file (e.g. you change 'Author: Joe Public' to 'Author: Jane Doe').
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You have an app.config (or web.config) file, and every time you open a new branch of your solution you need to manually and repeatedly change the connection string from a shared server to localhost, alter a password, change a URL or port number that your app accesses.
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You have a Master Page, and every time you open a new branch of your solution you manually and repeatedly change the page header to contain a phrase such as "Local Work-In-Progress" to aid user interpretation of any screen shots you produce.
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Many more. If you have a use-case you would like listed here, just let me know via a review on the VS Gallery.
Features
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Modifications can be limited to files under source control only. This is the default setting, but can be overridden to allow non-source controlled files to be modified.
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Modified files will not remain open in the IDE Editor by default, but this can be changed to keep files open.
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Define multiple rules for the same file, or for different files in multiple projects / solutions.
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Each rule for finding and replacing text can be enabled or disabled individually, allowing a rule to be temporarily ineffective without having to delete the rule.
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Text searching on a case-insensitive or case-sensitive basis, defined at individual rule level.
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Rules can have free-text comments added, for your own notes as to why you need the rule.
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Each rule has a plain-English auto-generated summary explanation.
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If a solution is opened whose name matches a rule, user is shown a summary of any modifications made. This summary can be surpressed if no modifications were made.
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Incomplete rules (e.g. without a file name) can be specified, and will simply be ignored when specified the solution is opened.
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Rules can be exported (JSON or CSV format) to clipboard, for sharing amongst colleagues or across different PCs.
Contribute
Contributions to this project are welcome by raising an Issue or submitting a Pull Request.
A zip file containing the sample JoePublic.Sln (used for sample screen shots) has been made available here.
The rules specified in the example screen shots above can be implemented locally by setting the 'applyTestRules' property of RulesHelper.cs to 'true'.
License
Credits
The following authors / articles deserve special mention for their help whilst creating this extension:
