With tangible's T4 Editor FREE EDITION you can author your own Code Generator via Text-Templates (TT-Files) with IntelliSense, Syntax-Highlighting, Automatic T4 Transform on Build.
Using the modeling tool you can envision and model your project and later generate from it.
Nice but crashes VS when T4 is huge. Also no integration with Visual Studio colors or other extensions (e.g. Quick Find extension in the Productivity Power Tools - using both prevents searching in T4 files).
Does not support incremental search that is in the latest addon releases from Microsoft.
I imagine this is a good editor. But I never got to find out. I opened it up and was very happy to see that my T4 template now had syntax highlighting.
But then I pressed ctrl + f and the search box did not appear. Somehow, the customizations done make it so that the search box does not appear when you try to search. (Note, I have the latest releases from Microsoft of the productivity tools that support incremental search) Since searching my code is a must for me, I am now uninstalling this tool.
As a side note, it also changed the encoding of my file. That makes it so compares in source control are totally broken/messed up. I had to do a get latest (and lost my un-committed work) to fix the problem.
Excellent tool. I love the "transform on build feature" and full intellisense in pro edition. Also good to see the open with thing is fixed now. BTW cool diagramming and gallery
When it works, it is great. Won't install correctly in most instances of VS. After install, it occassionally disappears from the "Open With" chooser....
I had pro version installed. However intellisense feature does not pick up automatically. For assembly which are not in GAC the interllisense does not work. However if i give template the absolutely path to that assembly. Then intellisense will work.
Any idea?
Hello Yugang,
The first question is simple. To have intellisense for DLLs in GAC you must use the asssembly name not the DLL to load it. E.g. <#@ assembly name="myassemblyname" #> do not include dll and make sure your dll name is set correctly in your project. Also please make sure your classes are surounded by a namespace in the dll.
Second question: When you see error compiling transformation this comes from VS T4 Engine not from the editor. I assueme the DLL was not there because the project was not build. Build variables are supported.
If any more questions please send mail to support AT tangible.de
Thanks
Tim
Hi there, I once installed tangible T4 editor for VS2010, but because of some reason I uninstalled it. In theory at least. No I tried to install the package again, but I'm stucked in a trobule:
In VS2010 I don't see the extension installed. When I start the installer it says, that earlier version is installed, I have to to remove that through Add/Remove programs. I see the package there, but when I try uninstall it, it says the installer package has some problems. I suppose the problem is, I don't have the earlier version of the installer (2011. April version) because it was deleted from temporary internet files. I tried to reach the earlier version on the internet, but I was not successfull.
Can you please help me, how can I solve the above problem and install the new version?!
If some of you has the previous version of the installer, please send that to me (bcsaba at dravanet dot hu) , maybe that is the solution. But certainly any other option is welcome.
Thank you in advance.
Br,
Csaba
Hi there,
just a short update on the new version we released a few days back. It now also adds T4 Editor to your Experimental Hive - so you can use T4 Editor also when authoring an own DSL with the VS SDK. Be sure to also add references to your DSL DLLs to get intellisense there.
We also recommend to use the template gallery to download the FileTemplateHelper that allows you to generate multiple output files. With support for includes and nested includes you can do virtually anthing with your dsl.
Today we updated the C# and VB intellisense and also added support for C and C++ language output. We now go these languages inout support list for output language highlighting:
T4 Syntax Highlighting for C#, VB.NET, C++, C, Java, PHP, SQL, MSIL, Python, Batch Files, PASCAL, PowerShell, IL, JSCRIPT, VBSCRIPT, CSS in output text code and T4 Code Sections in C# or VB.NET
Today we added a new feature available for Pro-Edition users that allows you to set if a T4 file should be transformed on build. See the properties window on the file to enable it.
Hi there,
we recently got a few installation issues reported from users having XP SP3 or Vista SP1.
We just released a new build that should adress many of your issues.
Hi,
This is a great product. However, for some reason, VS has reverted to using the XML editor for my TT files.
I uninstalled and reinstalled both the VS2010 and VS2008 versions, and now my tt files come up with no color/syntax highlight/intellisense. And the editor does not show in the Extension Manager.
1) How do I install/use both versions on my PC as we have some projects that are still in VS 2008?
2) How do I change the default editor for tt/t4 files when the tangible editor does not appear in the "Open with..." dialog in VS?
3) How do I restore the color/syntax highlight/intellisense to my T4 editing experience? :-)
4) I tried to add comments to the website when uninstalling, but it tells me to activate javascript and resubmit. JS is active, but I cannot figure out how to submit uninstall comments. Just a FYI.
Thanks,
Graeme
Not sure if this is exactly right, but for VS 2010:
1. Go to: C:\Documents and Settings\{your user name}\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Extensions\tangible engineering\tangible T4 Editor\1.0\ItemTemplates\CSharp\tangible T4 Editor\1033
2. Copy all the zip files to: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\1033
3. Restart Visual Studio 2010. If you use VB, then change the paths above accordingly.
Hi there,
in Visual Studio you can turn on automatic version checks for all your addins. Just go to the Extension Manager and check there under the "Updates" region.
Another way to do it is to right click in the T4 Editor Pane and select "Insert Code from Gallery" from the Context menu and then press the button to download newest templates. That will tell you in addition of gettting the coolest T4 Templates also if you are our of date. If it says nothing all is ok.
Last way to do it is to check the date on the files on your disk e.g C:\Program Files (x86)\tangible engineering\tangible T4 editor plus modeling tools 2010 and the date mentioned here in the portal under "LAST UPDATED". If they do not match you are out of date.
