use PowerShell to save file in Visual Studio

Question

Using Powershell from Package Manager Console I can open and close file:

$DTE.ExecuteCommand(“File.OpenFile”, $file)
$DTE.ExecuteCommand(“File.Close”)

But when I try to save it:

$DTE.ExecuteCommand(“File.Save”, $file)

or

$DTE.ExecuteCommand(“File.Save”)

I get error:

PM> $DTE.ExecuteCommand(“File.Save”) Command "File.Save" is not valid. At line:1 char:1 + $DTE.ExecuteCommand(“File.Save”) + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : OperationStopped: (:) [], COMException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException

How I can save it?

Actually I want to save it in other encoding:

See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5406172/utf-8-without-bom — Sergey Vlasov, Nov 12 '18 at 05:47
@SergeyVlasov, yes I do it manually in VS, I just want to automate this — Alexan, Nov 12 '18 at 12:31
The answers from the link above mention Fix File Encoding and editorconfig that remove the need to do it manually. — Sergey Vlasov, Nov 12 '18 at 17:18
[Advanced Save Options missing in Visual Studio 2017](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41832068/advanced-save-options-missing-in-visual-studio-2017) — Alexan, Nov 12 '18 at 17:46
@SergeyVlasov, I added Advanced Save Option, but anyway I should choose encoding for each file separately. — Alexan, Nov 17 '18 at 21:20

dee-see · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-12T16:12:48.363

2

You can save the file with

$DTE.ExecuteCommand("File.SaveSelectedItems")

There is also

$DTE.ExecuteCommand("File.SaveAll")

If you're doing this only to change the file's encoding however, I would suggest simply running the following PowerShell code that doesn't require $DTE and Visual Studio at all.

$content = Get-Content -Path $file -Encoding String
Set-Content -Value $content -Path $file -Encoding UTF8

edited Nov 12 '18 at 16:12

answered Nov 12 '18 at 00:12

dee-see

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yes, it works. But how I can Save As... and choose encoding? I tried to use this PowerShell code (in your answer second part), but it didn't work for me, because I need UTF-8 without signature. But VS works fine if I do it manually. – Alexan Nov 12 '18 at 00:31
I coudln't find a way to open the encoding menu through `ExecuteCommand`, however for a PowerShell solution you can see this other SO question https://stackoverflow.com/q/5596982/446515 – dee-see Nov 12 '18 at 16:15
got list of commands by `$DTE.Commands File`, this command `File.SaveSelectedItemsAs` exists, but 'IsAvalable = false'. The same with 'File.AdvancedSaveOptions` – Alexan Nov 18 '18 at 19:29

use PowerShell to save file in Visual Studio

1 Answers1