JetBrains .NET Tools Blog

One of the changes introduced with the new settings in ReSharper 6.1 is how importing and exporting of templates and custom patterns are done (Custom Patterns were previously known as Structural Search and Replace).  As part of the unification of settings, Templates and Patterns now fall under the same modus-operandi when it comes to importing and exporting as other settings do. This is very similar to how our IDEA based IDE’s such as IntelliJ, WebStorm et al. work. However, certain legacy functionality is also available depending on what needs to be done.

The de-facto choice

Be it Templates or Patterns, when you want to import or export them, the recommended approach is to use the Manage Options dialog

To export, we merely select Export to File. ReSharper prompts us with a dialog box of what we would like to export:

At this point we can select whether we want Live Templates, Patterns (StructuralSearch*) or both. It is important to note that if you do not have any user defined templates and/or patterns, then these options are not available, i.e., you would not see the LiveTemplates / StructuralSearch checkboxes.

The exported file format is only compatible with ReSharper 6.1 and higher (.DotSettings file).

Importing

When it comes to importing templates and patterns, if these are in .DotSettings format, then it is merely about adding another layer. We select the file to import, and are prompted on what settings we’d like imported:

The benefit of this approach is not only that it keeps all settings centralized, but it also allows us to mount and un-mount related templates.

* StructuralSearch comes from the old name giving to Custom Patterns which was Structural Search and Replace

Exporting Individual Templates

One option that is currently not available using the Manage Options dialog when dealing with the export of templates is to selectively choose which ones we’d like exported. If we want to only export specific templates, we need to use the Template Explorer (previously named Live Templates)

We can then select individual templates and choose the Export button. This is basically the old behavior prior to ReSharper 6.1. The difference however is that the file exported is in the new .DotSettings format. In this regard, there is no difference between this approach and the previous Manage Options one.

Dealing with legacy templates and patterns formats

The Templates Explorer window also has an option to import Templates

Although this allows the newer DotSettings file format, we usually should only use this when trying to import legacy templates (from version 6.0 and lower).

When it comes to Patterns, when trying to import older ones, we can use the Import from R# v6.0- button on the Custom Patterns options page

Summary

With the new settings we’ve hopefully made sharing of Patterns and Templates a little easier. There are still improvements to make but any/all feedback or changes you’d like to see are welcome. Please log them in our issue tracker so that they can be managed better.

One nitpick that I myself and many have had with ReSharper is not being able to have different naming styles for types based on different projects. In my code I normally name classes using CamelCase

and in my test project I use all_lowercase

Unless you add all_lowercase as a valid naming style, you’ll always end up with those squiggly lines under all your tests. And let’s admit it, it’s not a big deal but it’s annoying. #FirstWorldProblem

Say hello to my little layer

With ReSharper 6.1 we introduced the concepts of layers, which open up many new possibilities, including sharing settings on DropBox and or setting company wide standards. What you might not know is that it allows Per Project Settings too! No big deal if you didn’t know, since we currently do not support it via the User Interface so it would be hard to figure it out. However it’s pretty simple to do and I’m going to show you how.

Our goal here is to allow all_lowercase settings for classes in our test project (Tests) and not permit the same in other projects (Project). This is the sample project layout we’re going to be working with

To make this happen, we need to create specific settings for the Tests project and allow the possibility of classes being all_lowercase. That is, the Tests project needs its own DotSettings file.

Since there’s no specific button or option to add Per Project settings in the UI, this is where we need to kind of use a workaround. We need to have a Settings file for the project and then edit the options and save it to this file. There are many ways to create this new settings files. We can copy the solution one and rename it, we can export the current settings, we can mount a new layer and have ReSharper create it for us, etc.

We’re going to use this last method. Why? Because since ReSharper mounts it when it creates the file, it will allow us to edit the settings too.

1. With the Solution open, click on Manage Options under ReSharper

2. Under This Computer, click on the Add Layer icon (on the right) and select Create Settings File

3. Save the file to the Tests project folder, in our case that would be under SolutionDir\Tests and name it (and here’s the important part) Tests.csproj.DotSettings. That is, it should be named with the ProjectName, followed by csproj or vbproj based on the type of project and with the extension DotSettings.

4. Now that we have the settings file mounted, we need to change the required settings, which in our case is to allow classes to have all_lowercase (this obviously works for other settings too). As such, double-click the recently mounted file or right click and click on Edit

5. The Options dialog comes up. We want to edit the naming styles

Modify any other settings you wish at this point and once done, hit Save on the Options dialog.

At this point, we can remove the mounted settings as its not required for it to actually work. We can also leave it in order to easily access the settings for the project in the future. If you do leave it, make sure you uncheck the checkbox so that settings are not applied to the entire solution.

[Recommendation: If you decide to leave the settings mounted, mount these under Solution Shared or Solution Personal as opposed to This Computer so that you don’t end up with a long list of different settings files]

As soon as we hit Save, the new settings automatically are picked up by ReSharper and take effect. We can now see that the naming style no longer appears incorrect under the Tests project

and if we try and use the same style in the actual Project we do get the warning

The UI will come

Once you do this once, you can pretty much copy the same file over to your different projects and rename it to match the project name. In one of the next versions of ReSharper we will provide a more intuitive UI (or should we say we’ll provide an actual UI) for this. For now however, I think this minor hack will make a few people happy!

This post is about ReSharper 6.1. For other features in ReSharper 6 (both 6.0 and 6.1), please see previous posts introducing ReSharper 6:

• ReSharper 6 EAP is Open; Details on JavaScript Support
• CSS Support in ReSharper 6
• ReSharper 6 Bundles Decompiler, Free Standalone Tool to Follow
• ReSharper 6 Enhances Suggestions with Explanations
• ReSharper 6 Introduces support for JavaScript Unit Testing with QUnit
• ReSharper 6 Enhances Razor Support
• File Header Macros in ReSharper 6
• ReSharper 6.1 EAP Opens: Much more than a bugfix
• ReSharper Settings in 6.1
• Async CTP Support in ReSharper 6.1

EAP Warning: This post is based on ReSharper 6.1 Early Access Program and some things such as screenshots and minor details might vary from the time this has been written to the time of release.

In a previous post on ReSharper 6.1 Settings, we introduced the concept of layers and covered a few scenarios when it comes to sharing of settings across solutions. In this post we’re going to cover a few more, namely: syncing settings over DropBox and providing a global setting for all projects across a company.

Syncing with DropBox

As developers we often end up working on multiple machines, whether it is that we own a desktop and laptop, or two desktops, one at work and one at home, or any other combination of scenarios, we have the need to alternate between machines. With the new layers settings in ReSharper 6.1, sharing the same settings in these cases has now become quite easy.

The idea is simple: add a new Global Layer and host the file in a DropBox folder (I’m using DropBox, but obviously you can use any other mechanism that syncs files remotely). In order to do this, we first need to export the current settings to that new file and then mount it.

1. Click ReSharper | Manage Options…

2. Select the Global Settings and click on Export to File. It will prompt for a filename. The idea is to place this file in a Dropbox folder. Select everything from the following screen except Housekeeping

It is important to note that only items that currently have non-default values will be displayed in this window. For instance, under PattersnAndTemplates, we’d see an entry of StructuredSearch if we were to have some custom patterns in the current context, as shown below

3. Select Add Layer | Existing File and select the file created in the previous step.

[Note: This screen will most likely be updated in a future release to combine the “ReSharper Global Settings” under the group header as this is a default layer that cannot be removed and therefore cannot intervene in normal operation such as priority]

We now have to repeat step 3 for each of our machines. Once we do that, the settings will automatically be loaded every time DropBox syncs.

Providing Company-Wide Settings

It should be pretty apparent that providing company-wide settings across all projects is pretty much the same as sharing via DropBox. We just need to provide a file. If we want to provide solution company-wide settings, we’d add the layer to the solution group. This would allow an alternative way of sharing settings which wouldn’t require the file to be checked in to source control.

Other operations to perform with Settings

Settings can be imported, exported, activated and deactivated (marking the checkbox or unchecking) at any point. We can also Copy To button to copy settings from one layer to another layer, making it also easy for sharing. In essence you can do pretty much anything you like now.

Why so many layers?

You might be thinking, if I could setup my settings to read from a specific file, why would I want more layers or the ability to order them in priority?. The idea with layers is that each one can add one or more configuration settings. This means that for instance a company could have a layer where only code formatting settings are defined, another layer where templates are defined and so on and so forth. When we export settings to a file as shown in two, we define which settings we want exported. We do not have to select them all like we did previously. We could for instance only choose to export Templates, and mount a layer where only these are defined. ReSharper can understand that there are different options in different layers and provides us access to them all. We don’t have to worry about this. The only thing we might need to take into account is if one layer overrides another one’s settings. That’s where the Move Up / Move Down comes in, allowing us to specify the priority.

Summary

The layers provide a lot of flexibility when it comes to sharing settings, either between two machines, a team or company-wide. Use them, abuse them. Give us your feedback.

This post is about ReSharper 6.1. For other features in ReSharper 6 (both 6.0 and 6.1), please see previous posts introducing ReSharper 6:

• ReSharper 6 EAP is Open; Details on JavaScript Support
• CSS Support in ReSharper 6
• ReSharper 6 Bundles Decompiler, Free Standalone Tool to Follow
• ReSharper 6 Enhances Suggestions with Explanations
• ReSharper 6 Introduces support for JavaScript Unit Testing with QUnit
• ReSharper 6 Enhances Razor Support
• File Header Macros in ReSharper 6
• ReSharper 6.1 EAP Opens: Much more than a bugfix

EAP Warning: This post is based on ReSharper 6.1 Early Access Program and some things such as screenshots and minor details might vary from the time this has been written to the time of release.

This is a first in a series of posts about some of the new options available in terms of settings with ReSharper 6.1.

One of ReSharper’s pain points has always been settings, specially when it comes to managing them across projects and/or teams. With ReSharper 6.0 we started to make changes to build in support for a new way to manage settings, but unfortunately due to time constraints, we could not get it done in time for the 6.0 release. It has however made it into the 6.1.

Unified Settings Storage

An important change is that all settings have been unified into a single storage mechanism. This means that when you load or save settings, they apply to everything, from code style to templates, patterns and naming conventions. This should make it easier than before where different things were stored in different places.

Settings for every scenario

Everyone has their own style and methodology of working. Some like to name their properties in a certain way, others don’t like to be explicit about their privates. Some use underscores, others don’t. Some like the var suggestions. Others despise it. We are all different.

When it comes to working together, we have to make compromises and settle in a series of settings and ways in which to work. One day, hopefully, we won’t have this limitation and it will be transparent to us, but until then we need to find a way to not only cope with it but define it.

This scenario is very apparent when working on a team, but even as a solo developer, we can still require different settings based on different factors. We can be working on private projects that follow our own standards or be part of an open source team that follows the standards for the OSS project.

We hope with ReSharper’s new settings we can try and accommodate different scenarios. Let’s cover a few of the simpler ones.

Single developer and same settings for all solutions

If you are a solo developer or like to have the same settings across every single solution, then you won’t notice much difference in how you save your settings. You access the settings using the regular ReSharper | Options dialog and once done you press the Save button

These are also known as ReSharper Global Settings and are stored in

%AppData%\JetBrains\ReSharper\vAny\GlobalSettingsStorage.DotSettings

making them easily accessible for backup and restore as well as persistence during upgrades.

Different private settings on different solutions

Sometimes we’d like to have different settings based on different solutions, even if we are not necessarily sharing these settings with a team. We’ve made this scenario quite simple too. Once again we open up the ReSharper | Options dialog and make the required changes. This time however, instead of clicking on the Save button, we click on Save To and select  %SolutionName% Solution  – Private where %SolutionName% varies based on the active solution

This will create a file called %SolutionName%.SLN.DotSettings.user in the solution folder (in our case ConsoleApplication2.SLN.DotSettings.user) which holds the settings for this particular project. It is important to note that this file should not be checked in to source control as each user would have their own specific settings and thus one would override the other. We recommend that this file be added to the list of files to ignore by the VCS (i.e. add to .gitignore).

Shared team settings

The next step is to have a series of settings shared across the team. As you can guess from the previous screenshot, this is merely just choosing the next option down when saving settings:

which will create a a %SolutionName%.SLN.DotSettings file in the solution folder. This file should be checked in to source control.

These cover some of the simple scenarios when it comes to settings. However, sometimes it is not that simple. Often we want to have the best of both worlds. For instance, we might like to have team settings and tweak them a little bit to our own use. That’s where ReSharper’s smart settings come in.

Combining Settings: Layers

Settings in ReSharper are like onions, they have layers, and these layers, combined with what we call internally “smart savings”, provide more flexibility when it comes to tweaking settings.

Say for instance we are using some shared settings from a team settings file checked in with the project, yet there are certain settings we’d like to change privately that only affects us. How would we do this?

Quite simple. We modify the settings we want tweaked and then save it as Solution Private. ReSharper realizes that there are different values for a setting and the layering kicks in which one layer override another one. The actual order of the layering is:

Private Settings currently override Solution Shared, which in turn override Global settings. As such, by tweaking the settings to our individual needs (only those required), we can override specific team settings.

[Note: Some have mentioned that this wouldn’t enforce team settings. True, it does not, and we believe in discipline versus constraint.]

Managing Options

You might have noticed that in the ReSharper menu, as well as the Options dialog there is a new entry / button labeled “Manage Options” and “Manage…” respectively. These provide access to managing the different settings layers easily as well as importing/exporting and resetting.

When clicking on them, we’re displayed the following dialog:

The dialog box lists all the different layers currently available. Out of the box, ReSharper ships with the three we’ve already discussed: Global, Private and Shared with Team. Each of these are appropriately placed in the correct Group, which also happens to be three. From this dialog box we can edit each of these as well as import and export settings.

To edit specific settings, we merely select the one we’re interested in and click on the Edit… button on the top-left corner. This opens up the regular Options dialog box for us, with a minor difference. It now displays the name of the layer we are editing:

This difference is also apparent in that the Save To Button is no longer present, as when clicking Save we will automatically save the layer we are editing. When we edit the settings, only those of that specific layer are updated. Everything else stays intact.

Summary

The new ReSharper settings is hopefully designed in a way which allows to not only ease the pain of sharing settings, but provide for a variety of options and maximum flexibility. In the next parts we’ll cover how to add additional layers (including storing settings on Dropbox for instance), re-order, as well as importing and exporting of old and new settings.