_DTE Interface

The top-level object in the Visual Studio automation object model. Refer to _DTE for this functionality. Do not instantiate from this class.

Namespace:  EnvDTE
Assembly:  EnvDTE (in EnvDTE.dll)

Syntax

'Declaration
<GuidAttribute("04A72314-32E9-48E2-9B87-A63603454F3E")> _
Public Interface _DTE
[GuidAttribute("04A72314-32E9-48E2-9B87-A63603454F3E")]
public interface _DTE
[GuidAttribute(L"04A72314-32E9-48E2-9B87-A63603454F3E")]
public interface class _DTE
[<GuidAttribute("04A72314-32E9-48E2-9B87-A63603454F3E")>]
type _DTE =  interface end
public interface _DTE

The _DTE type exposes the following members.

Properties

  Name Description
Public property ActiveDocument Gets the active document.
Public property ActiveSolutionProjects Gets an array of currently selected projects.
Public property ActiveWindow Returns the currently active window, or the top-most window if no others are active.
Public property AddIns Gets the AddIns collection, which contains all currently available Add-ins.
Public property Application Infrastructure. Microsoft Internal Use Only.
Public property CommandBars Gets a reference to the development environment's command bars.
Public property CommandLineArguments Gets a string representing the command line arguments.
Public property Commands Returns the Commands collection.
Public property ContextAttributes Gets a ContextAttributes collection which allows automation clients to add new attributes to the current selected items in the Dynamic Help window and provide contextual help for the additional attributes.
Public property Debugger Gets the debugger objects.
Public property DisplayMode Gets the display mode, either MDI or Tabbed Documents.
Public property Documents Gets the collection of open documents in the development environment.
Public property DTE Gets the top-level extensibility object.
Public property Edition Gets a description of the edition of the environment.
Public property Events Gets a reference to the Events object.
Public property FileName Infrastructure. Microsoft Internal Use Only.
Public property Find Gets the Find object that represents global text find operations.
Public property FullName Gets the full path and name of the object's file.
Public property Globals Gets the Globals object that contains Add-in values that may be saved in the solution (.sln) file, the project file, or in the user's profile data.
Public property IsOpenFile Infrastructure. Microsoft Internal Use Only.
Public property ItemOperations Gets the ItemOperations object.
Public property LocaleID Gets the ID of the locale in which the development environment is running.
Public property Macros Gets the Macros object.
Public property MacrosIDE Gets the root of the Macros IDE's automation model.
Public property MainWindow Gets a Window object representing the main development environment window.
Public property Mode Gets the mode of the development environment, either debug or design.
Public property Name Sets or gets the name of the _DTE object.
Public property ObjectExtenders Gets the ObjectExtenders object.
Public property Properties Returns a Properties collection representing all available categories and subcategories contained in the Options dialog box on the Tools menu.
Public property RegistryRoot Gets a string with the path to the root of the Visual Studio registry settings.
Public property SelectedItems Gets a collection containing the items currently selected in the environment.
Public property Solution Gets the Solution object that represents all open projects in the current instance of the environment and allows access to the build objects.
Public property SourceControl Gets a SourceControl object that allows you to manipulate the source code control state of the file behind the object.
Public property StatusBar Gets the StatusBar object, representing the status bar on the main development environment window.
Public property SuppressUI Gets or sets whether UI should be displayed during the execution of automation code.
Public property UndoContext Gets the global UndoContext object.
Public property UserControl Sets or gets a value indicating whether the environment was launched by a user or by automation.
Public property Version Gets the host application's version number.
Public property WindowConfigurations Gets the WindowConfigurations collection, representing all available window configurations.
Public property Windows Gets a Windows collection containing the windows that display in the object.

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Methods

  Name Description
Public method ExecuteCommand Executes the specified command.
Public method GetObject Gets an interface or object that is late-bound to the DTE object and can be accessed by name at run time.
Public method LaunchWizard Runs a wizard with the supplied parameters.
Public method OpenFile Infrastructure. Microsoft Internal Use Only.
Public method Quit Closes the environment.
Public method SatelliteDllPath Returns the computed path to the satellite DLL when given the installation directory for an Add-in or wizard and the file name of the DLL containing localized resources.

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Remarks

The _DTE object is provided by the OnConnection method that you implement when you create an add-in. The _DTE object is the Application object in Visual Basic.

To access project-specific properties such as VBProjects or CSharpProjects, use the syntax DTE.GetObject("VBProjects").

For details about referencing the EnvDTE namespace and the _DTE object, see How to: Get References to the DTE and DTE2 Objects.

Examples

Sub DTEExample()
  Dim objTextDoc As TextDocument
  Dim objEP As EditPoint
  
  'Create a new text document.
  DTE.ItemOperations.NewFile("General\Text File")
  'Get a handle to the new document.
  Set objTextDoc = DTE.ActiveDocument.Object("TextDocument")
  Set objEP = objTextDoc.StartPoint.CreateEditPoint
  'Create an EditPoint and add some text.
  objEP.Insert "A test sentence."
End Sub

See Also

Reference

EnvDTE Namespace

Other Resources

Referencing Automation Assemblies and the DTE2 Object