How to add bunch of external tools into Visual Studio IDE using Powershell command? - powershell

Question

I'm able to add third party tools by manually using External Tools - which is available in the Visual Studio IDE. But my requirement is, need to add more tools by executing powershell script. Is this possible?

Answer 1

Yes, you could use StudioShell to work with Visual Studio's DTE object. See here and here for some examples.

Answer 2

You could also do this using an exported xml file, or just create on in your powershell script like what is done here
Basic jist of it:
param($installPath, $toolsPath, $package, $project)
# Determine fully qualified path to a temp file
$fileName = [System.IO.Path]::GetTempPath() + [System.Guid]::NewGuid().ToString() + ".vssettings";
# Create User Settings file:
'<UserSettings>
<ApplicationIdentity version="9.0"/>
<ToolsOptions/>
<Category name="Environment_Group" RegisteredName="Environment_Group">
<Category name="Environment_ExternalTools" Category="{E8FAE9E8-FBA2-4474-B134-AB0FFCFB291D}" Package="{DA9FB551-C724-11d0-AE1F-00A0C90FFFC3}" RegisteredName="Environment_ExternalTools" PackageName="Visual Studio Environment Package">
<PropertyValue name="Launch Powershell.Command">powershell.exe</PropertyValue>
<PropertyValue name="Launch Powershell.Arguments">"& ''$(ProjectDir)\Myscript.ps1''"</PropertyValue>
<PropertyValue name="Launch Powershell.InitialDirectory">"$(ProjectDir)"</PropertyValue>
<PropertyValue name="Launch Powershell.SourceKeyName"/>
<PropertyValue name="Launch Powershell.UseOutputWindow">true</PropertyValue>
<PropertyValue name="Launch Powershell.PromptForArguments">false</PropertyValue>
<PropertyValue name="Launch Powershell.CloseOnExit">true</PropertyValue>
<PropertyValue name="Launch Powershell.IsGUIapp">false</PropertyValue>
<PropertyValue name="Launch Powershell.SaveAllDocs">true</PropertyValue>
<PropertyValue name="Launch Powershell.UseTaskList">false</PropertyValue>
<PropertyValue name="Launch Powershell.Unicode">false</PropertyValue>
<PropertyValue name="Launch Powershell.Package">{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}</PropertyValue>
<PropertyValue name="Launch Powershell.NameID">0</PropertyValue>
<PropertyValue name="ToolNames">Launch Powershell</PropertyValue>
</Category>
</Category>
</UserSettings>' >> $fileName
# Perform the import of the custom tool
$project.DTE.ExecuteCommand("Tools.ImportandExportSettings", "/import:""$fileName""");
"--Remove file"
Remove-Item -path $fileName
NOTE: In order to utilize the Visual Studio DTE, you need to use a third party extension such as PSCX (PowerShell Community Extension)