第 23 页

your JavaScript file.

Javascript

// JavaScript file in current folder

/// < reference path="Toolbox.js" / >

// JavaScript file in parent folder

/// < reference path="../Toolbox.js" / >

// JavaScript file in a path relative to the root folder of the site

/// < reference path="~/Scripts/Toolbox.js" / >

// JavaScript file embedded in Assembly

/// < reference name="Ajax.js" path="System.Web.Extensions, … " / >

// Web Service file

/// < reference path="MyService.asmx" / >

// Standard Page

/// < reference path="Default.aspx" / >

A few restrictions exist on how far references directives will work. First,

references directives that refer to a path outside of the current project are

ignored. Second, references directives are not recursively evaluated so only those

in the file currently being edited are used to help build the context. References

directives inside other files in the context are not used.

intellisense oPtions

Visual Studio 2010 sets up a number of default options for your experience with IntelliSense, but

you can change many of these in the Options dialog if they don’t suit your own way of doing things.

Some of these items are specific to individual languages.

intellisense options .

131

General options

The first options to look at are in the

Environment section under the Keyboard group.

Every command available in Visual Studio has a

very specific entry in the keyboard mapping list

(see the Options dialog shown in Figure 7-17,

accessible via Tools .

Options).

You can override the predefined keyboard

shortcuts or add additional ones. The

commands for the IntelliSense features are

shown in Table 7-1.

table 7-1: IntelliSense commands

fiGure 7-17

coMMand naMe default shortcut coMMand descriPtion

Edit.QuickInfo Ctrl+K, Ctrl+I Displays the Quick Info information

about the selected item

Edit.CompleteWord Ctrl+Space Attempts to complete a word if there

is a single match, or displays a list to

choose from if multiple items match

Edit.ToggleConsumeFirst

CompletionMode

Ctrl+Alt+Space Toggles IntelliSense between

suggestion and completion modes

Edit.ParameterInfo Ctrl+Shift+Space Displays the information about the

parameter list in a function call

Edit.InsertSnippet Ctrl+K, Ctrl+X Invokes the Code Snippet dialog,

from which you can select a code

snippet to insert code automatically

(see the next chapter)

Edit.GenerateMethodStub Ctrl+K,Ctrl+M Generates the full method stub from

a template

Edit.ImplementAbstract

ClassStubs

None Generates the abstract class

definitions from a stub

Edit.ImplementInterfaceStubs

Explicitly

None Generates the explicit implementation

of an interface for a class definition

Edit.ImplementInterfaceStubs

Implicitly

None Generates the implicit implementation

of an interface for a class definition

132 .

chaPter 7 inTelliSenSe And bookmArkS

Use the techniques discussed in Chapter 3 to add additional keyboard shortcuts to any of these

commands.

statement completion

You can control how IntelliSense works on a

global language scale (see Figure 7-18) or per

individual language. In the General tab of the

language group in the Options dialog, you

want to change the Statement Completion

options to control how member lists should

be displayed, if at all.

c#-specific options

Besides the general IDE and language options

for IntelliSense, some languages, such as C#,

provide an additional IntelliSense tab in their

own sets of options. Displayed in Figure 7-19, the IntelliSense for C# can be further customized to

fine-tune how the IntelliSense features should be invoked and used.

First, you can turn off completion lists so they do not appear automatically, as discussed earlier in

this chapter. Some developers prefer this because the member lists don’t get in the way of their code

listings. If the completion list is not to be automatically displayed, but instead only shown when you

manually invoke it, you can choose what is

to be included in the lists in addition to the

normal entries, including keywords and code

snippet shortcuts.

To select an entry in a member list, you

can use any of the characters shown in the

Selection In Completion List section, or

optionally after the spacebar is pressed.

Finally, as mentioned previously, Visual

Studio automatically highlights the member

in a list that was last used. You can turn this

feature off for C# or just clear the history.

extended intellisense

In addition to the basic aspects of IntelliSense, Visual Studio 2010 also implements extended IDE

functionality that falls into the IntelliSense feature set. These features are discussed in detail in

other chapters in this book, as referenced in the following discussion, but this section provides a

quick summary of what’s included in IntelliSense.

fiGure 7-18

fiGure 7-19

Bookmarks and the Bookmark Window .

133

code snippets

Code snippets are sections of code that can be

automatically generated and pasted into your

own code, including associated references

and using statements, with variable phrases

marked for easy replacement. To invoke the

Code Snippets dialog, press Ctrl+K, Ctrl+X.

Navigate the hierarchy of snippet folders

(shown in Figure 7-20) until you find the one

you need. If you know the shortcut for the

snippet, you can simply type it and press Tab,

and Visual Studio invokes the snippet without

displaying the dialog. In Chapter 8, you see

just how powerful code snippets are.

xMl comments

XML comments are described in Chapter 12 as a way of providing automated documentation

for your projects and solutions. However, another advantage of using XML commenting in

your program code is that Visual Studio can use it in its IntelliSense engine to display tooltips

and parameter information beyond the simple variable-type information you see in normal

user-defined classes.

adding your own intellisense

You can also add your own IntelliSense schemas, normally useful for XML and HTML editing, by

creating a correctly formatted XML file and installing it into the Common7\Packages\schemas\

xml subfolder inside your Visual Studio installation directory (the default location is C:\Program

Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0). An example of this would be extending IntelliSense

support for the XML editor to include your own schema definitions. The creation of such a schema

file is beyond the scope of this book, but you can find schema files on the Internet by searching for

“IntelliSense schema in Visual Studio.”

bookMarks and the bookMark window

Bookmarks in Visual Studio 2010 enable you to mark

places in your code modules so you can easily return to

them later. They are represented by indicators in the left

margin of the code, as shown in Figure 7-21.

To toggle between bookmarked and not bookmarked

on a line, use the shortcut Ctrl+K, Ctrl+K.

Alternatively, you can use the Edit . Bookmarks .

fiGure 7-21

Toggle Bookmark menu command to do the

same thing.

fiGure 7-20

134 . chaPter 7 inTelliSenSe And bookmArkS

Figure 7 - 21 shows a section of the code editor window with two bookmarks set. The top bookmark

is in its normal state, represented by a shaded blue rectangle. The lower bookmark has been

disabled and is represented by a solid white rectangle. Disabling a bookmark enables you to keep it

for later use while excluding it from the normal bookmark - navigation functions.

To enable or disable a bookmark use the Edit . Bookmarks . Enable Bookmark toggle menu

command. Use the same command to re - enable the bookmark. This seems counterintuitive because

you actually want to disable an active bookmark, but for some reason the menu item isn ’ t updated

based on the cursor context.

Along with the ability to add and remove bookmarks, Visual Studio provides a Bookmarks tool

window, shown in Figure 7 - 22. You can display this tool window by pressing Ctrl+K, Ctrl+W or via

the View Bookmark Window menu item. By default, this window is docked to the bottom of the

IDE and shares space with other tool windows, such as the Task List and Find Results windows.

Remember that toggle means just that. If you use this command on a line

already bookmarked, it removes the bookmark.

You may want to set up a shortcut for disabling and enabling bookmarks if

you plan on using them a lot in your code management. To do so, access the

Keyboard Options page in the Environment group in Options and look for

Edit.EnableBookmark .

fiGure 7 - 22

Figure 7 - 22 illustrates some useful features of bookmarks in Visual Studio 2010. The fi rst feature is

the ability it gives you to create folders that can logically group the bookmarks. In the example list,

notice that a folder named Old Bookmarks contains a bookmark named Bookmark3.

To create a folder of bookmarks, click the New Folder icon in the toolbar along the top of the

Bookmarks window (it ’ s the second button from the left). This creates an empty folder (using a

summary .

135

default name of Folder1, followed by Folder2, and so on) with the name of the folder in focus so

that you can make it more relevant. You can move bookmarks into the folder by selecting their

entries in the list and dragging them into the desired folder. Note that you cannot create a hierarchy

of folders, but it’s unlikely that you’ll want to. Bookmarks can be renamed in the same way as

folders, and for permanent bookmarks renaming can be more useful than accepting the default

names of Bookmark1, Bookmark2, and so forth. Folders are not only a convenient way of grouping

bookmarks; they also provide an easy way for you to enable or disable a number of bookmarks in

one go, simply by using the checkbox beside the folder name.

To navigate directly to a bookmark, double-click its entry in the Bookmarks tool window.

Alternatively, if you want to cycle through all of the enabled bookmarks defined in the project, use

the Previous Bookmark (Ctrl+K, Ctrl+P) and Next Bookmark (Ctrl+K, Ctrl+N) commands. You can

restrict this navigation to only the bookmarks in a particular folder by first selecting a bookmark in

the folder and then using the Previous Bookmark in Folder (Ctrl+Shift+K, Ctrl+Shift+P) and Next

Bookmark in Folder (Ctrl+Shift+K, Ctrl+Shift+N) commands.

The last two icons in the Bookmarks window are Toggle All Bookmarks, which can be used to

disable (or re-enable) all of the bookmarks defined in a project, and Delete, which can be used

to delete a folder or bookmark from the list.

Deleting a folder also removes all the bookmarks contained in the folder. Visual

Studio provides a confirmation dialog to safeguard against accidental loss of

bookmarks. Deleting a bookmark is the same as toggling it off.

Bookmarks can also be controlled via the Bookmarks submenu, which is found in the Edit main

menu. In Visual Studio 2010, bookmarks are also retained between sessions, making permanent

bookmarks a much more viable option for managing your code organization.

Task lists are customized versions of bookmarks that are displayed in their own tool windows. The

only connection that still exists between the two is that there is an Add Task List Shortcut command

still in the Bookmarks menu. Be aware that this does not add the shortcut to the Bookmarks

window but instead to the Shortcuts list in the Task List window.

suMMary

IntelliSense functionality extends beyond the main code window. Various other windows,

such as the Command and Immediate tool windows, can harness the power of IntelliSense

through statement and parameter completion. Any keywords, or even variables and objects,

known in the current context during a debugging session can be accessed through the IntelliSense

member lists.

IntelliSense in all its forms enhances the Visual Studio experience beyond most other tools available

to you. Constantly monitoring your keystrokes to give you visual feedback or automatic code

136 .

chaPter 7 inTelliSenSe And bookmArkS

completion and generation, IntelliSense enables you to be extremely effective at writing code quickly

and correctly the first time. In the next chapter you dive into the details behind code snippets, a

powerful addition to IntelliSense.

In this chapter you’ve also seen how you can set and navigate between bookmarks in your code.

Becoming familiar with using the associated keystrokes will help you improve your coding

efficiency.

8 8

Code snippets and refactoring

what’s in this chaPter?

.

Using code snippets

.

Creating your own code snippets

.

Refactoring code

One of the advantages of using an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) over a plain

text editor is that it’s designed to help you be more productive and efficient by enabling you to

write code faster. Two of Visual Studio 2010’s most powerful features that help increase your

productivity are its support for code snippets and the refactoring tools that it provides.

Code snippets are small chunks of code that can be inserted into an application’s code base

and then customized to meet the application’s specific requirements. They do not generate

full-blown applications or whole files, unlike project and item templates. Instead, code

snippets are used to insert frequently used code structures or obscure program code blocks

that are not easy to remember. In the first part of this chapter you see how using code snippets

can improve your coding efficiency enormously.

This chapter also focuses on Visual Studio 2010’s refactoring tools — refactoring being the

process of reworking code to improve it without changing its functionality. This might entail

simplifying a method, extracting a commonly used code pattern, or even optimizing a section