Visual Studio macro to hide/show the Output window after a build…

I do not like the behaviors allowed in Visual Studio regarding showing the Errors List and Output window during a build. So, I finally created a macro to get the exact behavior I want.. And, I love it!

Step #1:

First off, you need to turn off two options in Visual Studio settings, under Projects and Solutions | General.

Un-check the following:

• Always show Error List if build finishes with errors
• Show Output window when build starts

The script does the following:

1. When a build starts it (optionally) shows the Output window (line #9).
2. When an individual project is finished compiling, notify the user (line #22) and (optionally) stop building any further projects (line #25).
3. When the entire build has finished and one or more projects failed, display the Output window (line #35). If there were no failures, show and then hide the Output window (line #38) and notify the user.

Note: When the build finishes successfully, the reason I show and then hide the Output window, is because it may already be open and I want to be sure I close it. So far, I haven’t found an easy way to close the Output window, when it may or may not have focus in the Visual Studio IDE. As it is, I only rarely see it flicker open then closed. If you have any ideas, please let me know at kody@bricksoft.com!

Read the comments in the code below for details on how its done!

   1:      Private BuildFailed As Boolean = False

   2:   

   3:      ' The build has started. Could be one or more projects or the whole solution.

   4:      Private Sub BuildEvents_OnBuildBegin() Handles BuildEvents.OnBuildBegin

   5:          ' Reset the global flag.

   6:          BuildFailed = False

   7:   

   8:          ' Optionally, show the Output window.

   9:          'DTE.ExecuteCommand("View.Output")

  10:      End Sub

  11:   

  12:      ' The current project has finished building.

  13:      Private Sub BuildEvents_OnBuildProjConfigDone(ByVal Project As String, _

  14:              ByVal ProjectConfig As String, ByVal Platform As String, _

  15:              ByVal SolutionConfig As String, ByVal Success As Boolean) _

  16:              Handles BuildEvents.OnBuildProjConfigDone

  17:          If (Not Success) Then

  18:              ' Set the global flag.

  19:              BuildFailed = True

  20:   

  21:              ' Notify the user the build failed.

  22:              NotifySuccess(False)

  23:   

  24:              ' Optionally, you can cancel any further project builds.

  25:              'DTE.ExecuteCommand("Build.Cancel")

  26:          End If

  27:      End Sub

  28:   

  29:      ' The build is finished. Show or hide the Output window based on 

  30:      ' whether it was successful or not.

  31:      Private Sub BuildEvents_OnBuildDone(ByVal Scope As EnvDTE.vsBuildScope, _

  32:              ByVal Action As EnvDTE.vsBuildAction) Handles BuildEvents.OnBuildDone

  33:          If BuildFailed Then

  34:              ' Show the output window.

  35:              DTE.ExecuteCommand("View.Output")

  36:          Else

  37:              ' The build succeeded, so hide the Output window.

  38:              DTE.ExecuteCommand("View.Output")

  39:              DTE.ExecuteCommand("Window.CloseToolWindow")

  40:   

  41:              ' Notify the user the build finished successfully.

  42:              NotifySuccess(True)

  43:          End If

  44:      End Sub

  45:   

  46:      Private Sub NotifySuccess(ByVal Success As Boolean)

  47:          If Success Then

  48:              'Beep()

  49:              'Threading.Thread.Sleep(250)

  50:              'Beep()

  51:          Else

  52:              'Beep()

  53:              'Threading.Thread.Sleep(250)

  54:              'Beep()

  55:              'Threading.Thread.Sleep(250)

  56:              'Beep()

  57:              'Threading.Thread.Sleep(250)

  58:              'Beep()

  59:          End If

  60:      End Sub