Save Visual Studio extended assembly reference properties in C# projects

Question

Using the following site I was able to add custom properties to assembly references in a C# project: https://lehmamic.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/extending-cs-file-properties-in-a-vspackage/.

This blog page also explains how extended properties on file items can be saved in the csproj file. However, I would like to save changes made to custom properties on references instead of files. How can I retrieve the 'IVsBuildPropertyStorage' for a particular 'VSLangProj.Reference' instance?

VSLangProj.Reference reference = ...;
IVsBuildPropertyStorage buildPropertyStorage = ?????
buildPropertyStorage.SetItemAttribute(....);

Answer 1

Hi TomW,

I try to write a function, which is based on this sample, maybe it can help you:

       private void GetProjectReferences(Project project)  
        {  
            var vsProject = project.Object as VSLangProj.VSProject;  
            var references = vsProject.References as VSLangProj.References;  

            string uniqueName = project.UniqueName;  
            IVsSolution solution = (IVsSolution)Package.GetGlobalService(typeof(SVsSolution));  
            IVsHierarchy hierarchy;  
            solution.GetProjectOfUniqueName(uniqueName, out hierarchy);  
            IVsBuildPropertyStorage buildPropertyStorage = hierarchy as IVsBuildPropertyStorage;  

            for (int i= 0; i < references.Count; i++)  
            {  
                var reference = references.Item(i);  

                if (buildPropertyStorage != null && reference.Name == "ClassLibrary1")  
                {  
                    uint itemId;  
                    string fullPath = reference.Path;  
                    hierarchy.ParseCanonicalName(fullPath, out itemId);  
                    buildPropertyStorage.SetItemAttribute(itemId, "MyAttribute", "MyValue");  
                    break;  
                }  
            }  
        }  

Best Regards, Dylan

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