Reference Interface

Represents one reference in the project. Including a reference in a project allows you to use any of the public members contained in the reference. Projects may include references to other .NET projects, .NET assemblies, and COM objects.

Namespace:  VSLangProj
Assembly:  VSLangProj (in VSLangProj.dll)

Syntax

'Declaration
<GuidAttribute("35D6FB50-35B6-4C81-B91C-3930B0D95386")> _
Public Interface Reference

[GuidAttribute("35D6FB50-35B6-4C81-B91C-3930B0D95386")]
public interface Reference

[GuidAttribute(L"35D6FB50-35B6-4C81-B91C-3930B0D95386")]
public interface class Reference

[<GuidAttribute("35D6FB50-35B6-4C81-B91C-3930B0D95386")>]
type Reference =  interface end

public interface Reference

The Reference type exposes the following members.

Properties

	Name	Description
	BuildNumber	Gets the build number of the reference. Read-only.
	Collection	Gets the collection containing the object supporting this property or contained within this code construct.
	ContainingProject	Gets the project that the selected item is a part of. Read-only.
	CopyLocal	Determines whether the reference is copied to the local bin path.
	Culture	Gets the culture string of a reference. Read-only.
	Description	Gets a text description of the reference. Read-only.
	DTE	Gets the top-level extensibility object.
	Extender	Gets the requested Extender object if it is available for this object.
	ExtenderCATID	Gets the Extender category ID (CATID) for the object.
	ExtenderNames	Gets a list of available Extenders for the object.
	Identity	Gets the unique identifier of the reference. Read-only.
	MajorVersion	Gets the major version number of the reference. Read-only.
	MinorVersion	Gets the minor version number of the reference. Read-only.
	Name	Gets the name of the object. Read-only.
	Path	Gets the path to the reference file. Read-only.
	PublicKeyToken	Gets the public key token for the referenced assembly.
	RevisionNumber	Gets the revision number of the reference. Read-only.
	SourceProject	Gets a Project object if the reference is a project. Otherwise, it returns Nothing (a nulla null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic) reference). Read-only.
	StrongName	Gets whether the reference is signed with a public/private key pair. Read-only.
	Type	Gets a prjReferenceType value indicating whether the reference is an assembly or a COM component. Read-only.
	Version	Gets the version of the selected reference.

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Methods

	Name	Description
	Remove	Gets the reference from the References object that contains it.

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Remarks

Reference objects are contained in the VSProject object's References collection. There are two types of Reference objects: assemblies (including Visual Studio projects) and COM objects. When a reference is another project, this is called a project-to-project reference and is still considered an assembly reference.

Examples

The following example creates a new project from a template, adds two references, and displays their types.

'Macro Editor
Imports VSLangProj
Sub NewProject()
   Dim newName As String = InputBox("New project name:")
   ' Create a new project in the solution based on an existing
   ' project.
   Dim newProject As Project = DTE.Solution.AddFromTemplate( _
      "C:\TemplatePath\Template.vbproj", _
      "C:\ProjectPath\" & newName, newName)
        
   ' Add a COM reference and display its type.
   Dim vsProject As VSProject = CType(newProject.Object, VSProject)
   Dim newRef As Reference
   newRef = vsProject.References.Add("C:\WINNT\System32\msmask32.ocx")
   MsgBox(GetRefTypeName(newRef))
        
   ' Add an Assembly reference and display its type, "Assembly".
   newRef = vsProject.References.Add("C:\SomeProject\bin\SomeProject.dll")
   MsgBox(GetRefTypeName(newRef))
End Sub

Private Function GetRefTypeName(ByVal ref As Reference) _
   As String
   Dim type As String
   Select Case ref.Type
      Case prjReferenceType.prjReferenceTypeActiveX
         type = "COM"
      Case prjReferenceType.prjReferenceTypeAssembly
         type = "Assembly"
   End Select
   Return type
End Function

The following example creates a short report of a reference's properties.

' Macro Editor
' Create a small report about a reference.
Imports VSLangProj
Function ReportReferences(ByVal aRef As Reference) As String
   Dim report As String = ""
   Dim type As String
   ' Each entry in the ArrayList will contain a label and a value.
   Dim ht As System.Collections.ArrayList = _
      New System.Collections.ArrayList()
   With aRef
      ht.Add(New String() {"Name", .Name})
      ht.Add(New String() {"Description", .Description})
      ht.Add(New String() {"Version", String.Format("{0}.{1}.{2}.{3}", _
         .MajorVersion, .MinorVersion, .BuildNumber, .RevisionNumber)})
      ht.Add(New String() {"Location", .ContainingProject.FullName})
      Select Case .Type
         Case prjReferenceType.prjReferenceTypeActiveX
            type = "COM"
         Case prjReferenceType.prjReferenceTypeAssembly
            type = "Assembly"
      End Select
      ht.Add(New String() {"Type", type})
      ht.Add(New String() {"Culture", .Culture})
   End With
        
   Dim datas() As String
   For Each datas In ht
      report &= datas(0) & ControlChars.Tab & datas(1) & ControlChars.CrLf
   Next
   Return report
End Function

See Also

Reference

VSLangProj Namespace