how to copy entire Visual C# solution?

[BobLewiston]

Is there any way to copy an entire Visual C# solution in such a way that it works? If you just copy it and rename it, it gives an error message that it's been renamed and therefore it refuses to work.

[tlhintoq]

I copy mine all the time. I do backups after every 'break through' or accomplishment. No problem.

What are you renaming? I just rename the containing folder.
If you are renaming the project itself do it from inside Visual Studio so it can update all its references.

[BobLewiston]

tlhintoq:

I'm copying the entire contents of the solution folder to another folder of the same name, which sounds to me like what you're doing, but it's not working for me.

If you will bear with a newbie, could you please tell me EXACTLY what you're doing? Humor me and, if need be, go into more detail than might otherwise seem warranted.

For instance, I don't even know this much:
* How might I save an entire solution under a new name from within VC#?
* How might I rename a project from within VC#?

Any help you can give me would be appreciated. Thanks.

[tlhintoq]

I'm guessing by the rest of your questions that you have created a "base" or "skeleton" solution that you want to use as the starting point for future solutions. It probably already has many features and functions you use all the time, so why create them from scratch over and over?

Copying the solution folder is straightforward:
In Windows Explorer just copy/paste the folder.
Rename the folder from "Copy of GenericSolutionSkeleton" to something more meaningful like "MyNextProjectsName"

Once you have a new folder DON'T start renaming files in the folder.
The project inside is still names "skeleton" or whatever, but that's okay.
Open the solution in Visual Studio.
Rename the solution and projects from within the Solution Explorer palette of Visual Studio. TIP: Right-Click is your friend here.

[flapdash]

Hi-
I have found the following method to work very well for duplicating a solution...and it's about the simplest approach when compared to other approaches I have seen.
This is useful when you want the duplicate solution to become a totally separate entity...when you want to use the original solution as a "template" or starting point for a new solution.
For example, I wanted to develop a TCP app that communicates with an embedded machine. But first I needed to make sure my basic TCP stuff was working. So I created a "TCP Chat" solution. Once that solution reached a stable stage, I wanted to "fork" it off and use it as a starting point for my ultimate solution which would connect to my embedded device.
In this case, my "TCP Chat" solution then remains stable, useful all by itself, and it can be used as a starting point for any other apps I want to create which utilize TCP.
Here's how I went about duplicating a C# solution...to make it easier, let's call solution #1 "silver" and solution #2 "gold":

1--
Windows Explorer: copy and paste "silver"...you will get "Copy of silver". Rename this new folder "gold".

2--
Inside the "gold" folder, open the silver.sln.

3--
Inside Visual Studio...in the Solution Explorer, right-click the Solution Properties and choose "Rename". Rename it "gold". Save the solution (it will be saved as "gold.sln").

4--
Inside Visual Studio...in the Solution Explorer, right-click the Project Properties and choose "Rename". Rename it "gold". Do this for all of your projects inside the solution.

5--
Under each project, you will typically have items like "Properties", "References", "Forms", etc. For easier discussion, let's talk about "Resources.resx". At this point, you will notice that, if you click on /Properties/Resources.resx in the Solution Explorer, the "Full Path" property will show "...\gold\silver\Properties\Resources.resx" ... it still has the old "silver" in the path name. This is because we just copied-and-pasted without VStudio knowing about it, back in Step (1). What a pain it would be to update the "Full Path" property for each and every item! Now, here's my trick to make things a little easier...

6--
Close VStudio (you should have saved "gold.sln" from Step (3) above, so VStudio should just close with no prompts.

7--
Open .../gold/gold.sln using a **text editor**. Now, just change the folder names inside gold.sln to match your new copied solution. For example, inside gold.sln, you should see a "Project" section...change the paths in this section. For this example, it would look something like this:

Project ... = "gold", "silver\gold.csproj"

(it still has the old reference to "silver")...now change the above to something like:

Project ... = "gold", "gold\gold.csproj"

Now, save gold.sln.

8--
In Windows Explorer, now rename the "gold/silver" folder to "gold/gold".

9--
Now when you open gold.sln (with VStudio), the "Full Path" properties for the items are all updated properly to ".../gold/gold/...". For example, Resources.resx Full Path is now "...\gold\gold\Properties\Resources.resx". So, VStudio did the monotonous work for us.

Anyway, it is unfortunate that there is no super-simple way to duplicate and "fork" solutions like this...but the above was the simplest I could come up with.

[mcleary]

That was a great response by flapdash. In addition to this, (unless I missed something), I had to go to the visual studio Project->gold Properties and change the Assembly name. This creates the dll in the correct name. I also found something in Build->Configuration Manager with the old name still, but I'm not sure if it made any difference since I never saw a problem caused by this (fixed it).

[ronholmj]

Not quite a direct answer to your question, but what about

1- create original solution
2- open second instance of VS and create new solution
3- drag & drop or copy & paste [forms, class files, etc.] from one solution to the other (you can use the solution explorer as a source and destination)

As I said, not exactly what you were asking but the results are similar, and I think the process is simpler (because all the project properties already refer to the new project). Agree with flapdash that a great addition to VS would be a "clone project" option.