Microsoft 9GD00001 manual Navigating the Solution Explorer

116Microsoft Visual Studio 2010: A Beginner’s Guide

VS will update the Solution Name with the same name. In a multiproject solution, this might not make sense. So, first type the project name and then you can provide a name for the solution that is more appropriate. In Figure 5-1, you can see that the project is named ProjectDemo and the solution is named SolutionDemo. VS allows you to put spaces in the names. A consequence of this is that the default namespace for a project will use the project name with spaces translated to underlines; something to be aware of if your coding conventions don’t allow underlines in identifier names.

If you have a very simple project and want all project files in the same folder, uncheck Create Directory For Solution. However, most applications you build will have multiple projects and leaving this box checked makes more sense because it maintains consistency between folder and solution organization. In any case, when an additional project is added to your solution, VS will always put the new project into a separate subfolder.

If you check Add To Source Control, VS will open a window for you to configure source control. Source control is a repository for you to check code into. This is especially useful for teams where each developer can check in his or her code for a common repository of source code for this solution when you create the solution. Click OK to create the solution.

TIP

If you accidentally start a project type that you didn’t intend, select File Close Solution and then delete the solution folders from the file system. VS will often put OS locks on files, so it’s important to close the solution so that you will be able to delete files. The VS Recent Projects list will have an entry with the name of the solution you just deleted, but you can click that entry and VS will recognize that the solution no longer exists, prompting you

to remove the entry from the list. After that, you can start over again and use the same solution/project name you intended, but with the right project type.

Starting a new Console project in VB, you only need to provide a Name parameter, which is the name of the project to create. Once the project is created, the first time you create the project, you’ll receive a window that asks you for Name, Solution Name, Location, Create Directory, and Add To Source Control options that work the same as described for the previous C# example. You’ve accomplished the same task, regardless of language, but in different ways.

Navigating the Solution Explorer

VS creates a new project in the Solution Explorer window, shown in Figure 5-2. While other VS windows provide specialized views into specialized parts of an application, the Solution Explorer window is where you can find all of the artifacts of an application.

One of the first features of the project shown in Figure 5-2 is the hierarchical relationships. You will have only one solution. VB doesn’t show the solution file by default, but you can