How do I programmatically list all projects in a solution?

Question

How do I programmatically list all of the projects in a solution? I'll take a script, command-line, or API calls.

score 73 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 27 '10 at 08:49

73

Here's a PowerShell script that retrieves project details from a .sln file:

Get-Content 'Foo.sln' |
  Select-String 'Project\(' |
    ForEach-Object {
      $projectParts = $_ -Split '[,=]' | ForEach-Object { $_.Trim('[ "{}]') };
      New-Object PSObject -Property @{
        Name = $projectParts[1];
        File = $projectParts[2];
        Guid = $projectParts[3]
      }
    }

answered Sep 27 '10 at 08:49

brianpeiris

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3

I know this is old, but it is beautiful. Saved me a bunch of time. – ncooper09 Mar 20 '17 at 15:14
5

If you need to, you can filter out solution folders by adding an additional Select-String between lines 2 and 3 as follows: `Select-String "{2150E333-8FDC-42A3-9474-1A3956D46DE8}" -NotMatch |` – alastairs Apr 26 '17 at 21:52

score 20 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 22 '14 at 18:33

20

    var Content = File.ReadAllText(SlnPath);
    Regex projReg = new Regex(
        "Project\\(\"\\{[\\w-]*\\}\"\\) = \"([\\w _]*.*)\", \"(.*\\.(cs|vcx|vb)proj)\""
        , RegexOptions.Compiled);
    var matches = projReg.Matches(Content).Cast<Match>();
    var Projects = matches.Select(x => x.Groups[2].Value).ToList();
    for (int i = 0; i < Projects.Count; ++i)
    {
        if (!Path.IsPathRooted(Projects[i]))
            Projects[i] = Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(SlnPath),
                Projects[i]);
        Projects[i] = Path.GetFullPath(Projects[i]);
    }

Edit: Amended the regex to include the ".*" as per the comment by Kumar Vaibhav

edited Apr 22 '14 at 18:33

Daniel James Bryars

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answered Feb 08 '13 at 12:22

watbywbarif

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The above works but there is a little problem. If your projects are named like "AB.CD" - I mean when the '.' is there then the regex would not recognize those. The following little change would make it work - Regex projReg = new Regex( "Project\$\"\\{[\\w-]*\\}\"\$ = \"([\\w _]*.*)\", \"(.*\\.(cs|vcx|vb)proj)\"" , RegexOptions.Compiled); – Kumar Vaibhav Jul 10 '13 at 10:27
Can anyone explain why you need `IsPathRooted` here? Not sure why a project would ever be rooted, because I've never seen such a solution file. – Bartleby Nov 07 '22 at 19:04

score 13 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 01 '18 at 16:42

The trick is to choose the right MsBuild.dll. Under VS2017 it is indeed "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\amd64\Microsoft.Build.dll" (Dont use the standard Msbuild ddl in references. Browse to this path)

c#:

var solutionFile =    
SolutionFile.Parse(@"c:\NuGetApp1\NuGetApp1.sln");//your solution full path name
var projectsInSolution = solutionFile.ProjectsInOrder;
foreach(var project in projectsInSolution)
{
   switch (project.ProjectType)
   {
      case SolutionProjectType.KnownToBeMSBuildFormat:
     {
         break;
     }
     case SolutionProjectType.SolutionFolder:
     {
         break;
     }
  }
}

powershell:

Add-Type -Path (${env:ProgramFiles(x86)} + '\Microsoft Visual 
Studio\2017\Professional\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\amd64\Microsoft.Build.dll')

$slnPath = 'c:\NuGetApp1\NuGetApp1.sln'
$slnFile = [Microsoft.Build.Construction.SolutionFile]::Parse($slnPath)
$pjcts = $slnFile.ProjectsInOrder

foreach ($item in $pjcts)
{

    switch($item.ProjectType)
    {
        'KnownToBeMSBuildFormat'{Write-Host Project  : $item.ProjectName}
        'SolutionFolder'{Write-Host Solution Folder : $item.ProjectName}
    }
}

score 12 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 29 '19 at 21:52

12

You can use the EnvDTE.Solution.Projects object to programmatically get access to the projects in a solution.

One gotcha though is that if you have any SolutionFolders in your solution, any projects in these folders are not shown in the above collection.

I've written an article including a code sample on how to get all projects regardless of any solutionfolders

edited Aug 29 '19 at 21:52

PatrickR

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answered Apr 02 '11 at 14:01

Scott Mackay

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This can only be used in a VS extension, so it useless for anybody who wants a stand alone tool for reading source projects in a solution. – Alex Aug 09 '16 at 09:27
You can get a reference to a [running instance of VS](https://github.com/wwwlicious/VSAutomate/blob/master/VSAutomate/Ide.cs#L25) or you can access `$dte` from the package manager console. If you dont have VS running at all then you need an alternative solution. The new MSBuild packages now contain classes for parsing solution and project files but these are still pre-RTM – Scott Mackay Aug 09 '16 at 12:23
updated link: https://wwwlicious.com/envdte-getting-all-projects-html/ – PatrickR Aug 29 '19 at 18:57

score 9 · Answer 5 · edited Sep 17 '18 at 14:44

9

Currently you can use Package Manager Console in VS to obtain that info. Use powershell Get-Project command

Get-Project -All

edited Sep 17 '18 at 14:44

Crono

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answered Dec 12 '15 at 18:09

cezarypiatek

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Which **Visual Studio** _**`version`**_ ? – Kiquenet Dec 21 '15 at 07:50

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 03 '22 at 13:07

6

from powershelll and in the solution's folder write

dotnet sln list

answered Mar 03 '22 at 13:07

Iakobos Karakizas

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default locale · Answer 7 · 2010-09-27T08:24:59.817

5

just read the list from *.sln file. There are "Project"-"EndProject" sections.
Here is an article from MSDN.

edited Sep 27 '10 at 08:24

answered Sep 27 '10 at 08:14

default locale

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@Kiquenet I'm afraid I didn't understand your comment – default locale Oct 02 '15 at 10:56
not any **Parser C# class** for read _sln files_ ? Similar like ***http://stackoverflow.com/questions/707107/parsing-visual-studio-solution-files*** **http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1243022/parsing-tnsnames-ora-in-visual-c-sharp-2008** – Kiquenet Oct 02 '15 at 15:05

score 3 · Answer 8 · edited Jan 19 '18 at 14:56

3

There's a really elegant solution here: Parsing Visual Studio Solution files

The answer by John Leidegren involves wrapping the internal Microsoft.Build.Construction.SolutionParser class.

edited Jan 19 '18 at 14:56

akjoshi

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answered Feb 28 '13 at 02:39

Dylan Berry

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score 3 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 27 '10 at 08:20

3

If you write your program as Visual Studio Add-in you can access the EnvDTE to find out all the projects within the currently opened solution.

answered Sep 27 '10 at 08:20

Oliver

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score 3 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 07 '16 at 05:14

Since Visual Studio 2013 the Microsoft.Build.dll provides a SolutionFile object with some very handy functions.

Here's an example of using the v14.0 version to list the relative path of all the projects in the order they appear in the solution.

Add-Type -Path (${env:ProgramFiles(x86)} + '\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\MSBuild\v14.0\Microsoft.Build.dll')
$solutionFile = '<FULL PATH TO SOLUTION FILE>'
$solution = [Microsoft.Build.Construction.SolutionFile] $solutionFile
($solution.ProjectsInOrder | Where-Object {$_.ProjectType -eq 'KnownToBeMSBuildFormat'}).RelativePath

There are plenty of other properties on the project object (ProjectName, AbsolutePath, configurations etc) that may be of use. In the above example I used the ProjectType to filter out Solution Folders.

For VS2017, it is under VS2017 ```"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\amd64\Microsoft.Build.dll" ``` And annoying, but for sqlprojs files, project type is Unknown ```[SolutionProjectType]::Unknown``` — demokritos, Aug 14 '17 at 09:37

score 2 · Answer 11 · answered Nov 13 '19 at 17:52

I know that this is maybe already answered question, but I would like to share my approach of reading sln file. Also during run time I am determining if project is Test project or not

function ReadSolutionFile($solutionName)
{
    $startTime = (Get-Date).Millisecond
    Write-Host "---------------Read Start---------------" 
    $solutionProjects = @()

    dotnet  sln "$solutionName.sln" list | ForEach-Object{     
        if($_  -Match ".csproj" )
        {
            #$projData = ($projectString -split '\\')

            $proj = New-Object PSObject -Property @{

                Project = [string]$_;
                IsTestProject =   If ([string]$_ -Match "test") {$True} Else {$False}  
            }

            $solutionProjects += $proj

        }
    }

    Write-Host "---------------Read finish---------------" 
    $solutionProjects

    $finishTime = (Get-Date).Millisecond
    Write-Host "Script run time: $($finishTime-$startTime) mil" 
}

Hope this will be helpfull.

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Jun 24 '16 at 22:20

1

If you need to do this on a non Windows machine, you can use the following Bash command:

grep "Project(" NameOfYourSolution.sln | cut -d'"' -f4

answered Jun 24 '16 at 22:20

Casey

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MattMS · Answer 13 · 2020-08-20T15:01:20.793

To expand on the answer by @brianpeiris:

Function Global:Get-ProjectInSolution {
    [CmdletBinding()] param (
        [Parameter()][string]$Solution
    )
    $SolutionPath = Join-Path (Get-Location) $Solution
    $SolutionFile = Get-Item $SolutionPath
    $SolutionFolder = $SolutionFile.Directory.FullName

    Get-Content $Solution |
        Select-String 'Project\(' |
        ForEach-Object {
            $projectParts = $_ -Split '[,=]' | ForEach-Object { $_.Trim('[ "{}]') }
            [PSCustomObject]@{
                File = $projectParts[2]
                Guid = $projectParts[3]
                Name = $projectParts[1]
            }
        } |
        Where-Object File -match "csproj$" |
        ForEach-Object {
            Add-Member -InputObject $_ -NotePropertyName FullName -NotePropertyValue (Join-Path $SolutionFolder $_.File) -PassThru
        }
}

This filters to only .csproj files and adds the full path of each based on the File field and the path containing the sln file.

Use Get-ProjectInSolution MySolution.sln | Select-Object FullName to get each of the full file paths.

The reason I wanted the full path was to be able to access the packages.config files beside each project file and then get the packages from all of them:

Get-ProjectInSolution MySolution.sln |
    %{Join-Path ($_.FullName | Split-Path) packages.config} |
    %{select-xml "//package[@id]" $_ | %{$_.Node.GetAttribute("id")}} |
    select -unique

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Mar 15 '22 at 21:50

Here is a modified approach I used to look at the problem from a Solution-first stance:

Function Get-ProjectReferences ($rootFolder) {
    $ns = @{ defaultNamespace = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" }
    $solutionFilesWithContent = Get-ChildItem $rootFolder -Filter *.sln -Recurse |
    ForEach-Object {
        New-Object PSObject -Property @{
            SolutionFile    = $_;
            SolutionContent = Get-Content $_;
        }
    }
    $projectFilesWithContent = Get-ChildItem $rootFolder -Filter *.csproj -Recurse |
    ForEach-Object {
        New-Object PSObject -Property @{
            ProjectFile    = $_;
            ProjectContent = [xml](Get-Content $_);
        }  
    }

    $solutionFilesWithContent | ForEach-Object {
        $solutionFileWithContent = $_
        $projectsInSolutionStrings = $solutionFileWithContent.SolutionContent | Select-String 'Project\('
        $projectsInSolution = $projectsInSolutionStrings |
        ForEach-Object {
            $projectParts = $_ -Split '[,=]' | ForEach-Object { $_.Trim('[ "{}]') };
            if ($projectParts[2].Contains(".csproj")) {
                New-Object PSObject -Property @{
                    Name = $projectParts[1];
                    File = $projectParts[2];
                    Guid = $projectParts[3];
                }                    
            }
        }

        $projectsInSolution | ForEach-Object {
            $projectFileSearchName = $_.Name + ".csproj"
            $projectInSolutionFile = $projectFilesWithContent | Where-Object { $_.ProjectFile.Name -eq $projectFileSearchName } | Select-Object -First 1
            if (($null -eq $projectInSolutionFile) -and ($null -eq $projectInSolutionFile.ProjectContent)) {
                Write-Host "Project was null"
            }
            else {
                $projectInSolutionName = $projectInSolutionFile.ProjectFile | Select-Object -ExpandProperty BaseName
                $projectReferences = $projectInSolutionFile.ProjectContent | Select-Xml '//defaultNamespace:ProjectReference/defaultNamespace:Name' -Namespace $ns | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Node | Select-Object -ExpandProperty "#text"
                $projectTarget = $projectInSolutionFile.ProjectContent | Select-Xml "//defaultNamespace:TargetFrameworkVersion" -Namespace $ns | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Node | Select-Object -ExpandProperty "#text"
        
                $projectReferences | ForEach-Object {
                    $projectFileName = $_ + ".csproj"
                    $referenceProjectFile = $projectFilesWithContent | Where-Object { $_.ProjectFile.Name -eq $projectFileName } | Select-Object -First 1
                    if ($null -eq $referenceProjectFile) {
                        $referenceProjectTarget = "Unknown"
                    }
                    else {
                        $referenceProjectTarget = $referenceProjectFile.ProjectContent | Select-Xml "//defaultNamespace:TargetFrameworkVersion" -Namespace $ns | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Node | Select-Object -ExpandProperty "#text"                    
                    }
                    "[" + $solutionFileWithContent.SolutionFile.Name + "] -> [" + $projectInSolutionName + " " + $projectTarget + "] -> [" + $_ + " " + $referenceProjectTarget + "]"
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Get-ProjectReferences "C:\src\repos\MyRepo" | Out-File "C:\src\repos\FrameworkDependencyAnalysis\FrameworkDependencyAnalysis.txt"

In this case I was focused on .NET Framework, because my department has a large inventory of .NET Framework projects still targeting 4.5.* and we're starting an effort to move them to 4.8. — Thomas Parikka, Mar 18 '22 at 15:57

How do I programmatically list all projects in a solution?

14 Answers14

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