Start by confirming that the code (both in Xcode and in Visual Studio for Mac) matches the code in the tutorial. Running the Application. There are three ways to run the app: Press ⌘+Enter. From the Run menu, choose Debug. Click the Play button in the Visual Studio for Mac toolbar (just above the Solution Explorer). Visual Studio for Mac looks like a rebranded Xamarin Studio, acquired by Microsoft recently, which supports.Net development, with C# (and F#?) only. Developer Community for Visual Studio Product family. After version 7.6 All my Xamarin forms project won't reference.NET Portable Subset assemblies, breaking intellisene. I use Visual studio mac and I have been trying templates to get where he is but I can't because none of the mac templates are like this one. I cannot move forward in the course because I am getting different outputs then the person in the video. Visual Studio for the Mac does not support C++ at this time (August 22, 2017). See this MSDN post for more details. How do I get c++ to work on Visual Studio for Mac? Unlike Apple's Boot Camp, Parallels let you run Windows and its applications side by side with the Mac OS at the same time, without restarting your computer. In this guide, you can learn the steps to install Visual Studio on a Mac using Parallels Desktop.

• How To Get C++ On Visual Studio For Mac
• Visual Studio Community Mac Os
• Microsoft Visual Studio C++ 6.0
• How To Get Visual Studio Product Key

Xamarin.Mac allows for the development of fully native Mac apps in C# and .NET using the same macOS APIs that are used when developing in Objective-C or Swift. Because Xamarin.Mac integrates directly with Xcode, the developer can use Xcode's Interface Builder to create an app's user interfaces (or optionally create them directly in C# code).

Additionally, since Xamarin.Mac applications are written in C# and .NET, code can be shared with Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android mobile apps; all while delivering a native experience on each platform.

This article will introduce the key concepts needed to create a Mac app using Xamarin.Mac, Visual Studio for Mac and Xcode's Interface Builder by walking through the process of building a simple Hello, Mac app that counts the number of times a button has been clicked:

The following concepts will be covered:

• Visual Studio for Mac – Introduction to the Visual Studio for Mac and how to create Xamarin.Mac applications with it.
• Anatomy of a Xamarin.Mac Application – What a Xamarin.Mac application consists of.
• Xcode’s Interface Builder – How to use Xcode’s Interface Builder to define an app’s user interface.
• Outlets and Actions – How to use Outlets and Actions to wire up controls in the user interface.
• Deployment/Testing – How to run and test a Xamarin.Mac app.

Requirements

Xamarin.Mac application development requires:

• A Mac computer running macOS High Sierra (10.13) or higher.
• Xcode 9 or higher.
• The latest version of Xamarin.Mac and Visual Studio for Mac.

To run an application built with Xamarin.Mac, you will need:

• A Mac computer running macOS 10.7 or greater.

Warning

The upcoming Xamarin.Mac 4.8 release will only support macOS 10.9 or higher.Previous versions of Xamarin.Mac supported macOS 10.7 or higher, butthese older macOS versions lack sufficient TLS infrastructure to supportTLS 1.2. To target macOS 10.7 or macOS 10.8, use Xamarin.Mac 4.6 orearlier.

Starting a new Xamarin.Mac App in Visual Studio for Mac

As stated above, this guide will walk through the steps to create a Mac app called Hello_Mac that adds a single button and label to the main window. When the button is clicked, the label will display the number of times it has been clicked.

To get started, do the following steps:

1. Start Visual Studio for Mac:

2. Click on the New Project... button to open the New Project dialog box, then select Mac > App > Cocoa App and click the Next button:

3. Enter Hello_Mac for the App Name, and keep everything else as default. Click Next:

4. Confirm the location of the new project on your computer:

5. Click the Create button.

Visual Studio for Mac will create the new Xamarin.Mac app and display the default files that get added to the app's solution:

Visual Studio for Mac uses the same Solution and Project structure as Visual Studio 2019. A solution is a container that can hold one or more projects; projects can include applications, supporting libraries, test applications, etc. The File > New Project template creates a solution and an application project automatically.

Anatomy of a Xamarin.Mac Application

Xamarin.Mac application programming is very similar to working with Xamarin.iOS. iOS uses the CocoaTouch framework, which is a slimmed-down version of Cocoa, used by Mac.

Take a look at the files in the project:

• Main.cs contains the main entry point of the app. When the app is launched, the Main class contains the very first method that is run.
• AppDelegate.cs contains the AppDelegate class that is responsible for listening to events from the operating system.
• Info.plist contains app properties such as the application name, icons, etc.
• Entitlements.plist contains the entitlements for the app and allows access to things such as Sandboxing and iCloud support.
• Main.storyboard defines the user interface (Windows and Menus) for an app and lays out the interconnections between Windows via Segues. Storyboards are XML files that contain the definition of views (user interface elements). This file can be created and maintained by Interface Builder inside of Xcode.
• ViewController.cs is the controller for the main window. Controllers will be covered in detail in another article, but for now, a controller can be thought of the main engine of any particular view.
• ViewController.designer.cs contains plumbing code that helps integrate with the main screen’s user interface.

The following sections, will take a quick look through some of these files. Later, they will be explored in more detail, but it’s a good idea to understand their basics now.

Main.cs

The Main.cs file is very simple. It contains a static Main method which creates a new Xamarin.Mac app instance and passes the name of the class that will handle OS events, which in this case is the AppDelegate class:

AppDelegate.cs

The AppDelegate.cs file contains an AppDelegate class, which is responsible for creating windows and listening to OS events:

This code is probably unfamiliar unless the developer has built an iOS app before, but it’s fairly simple.

The DidFinishLaunching method runs after the app has been instantiated, and it’s responsible for actually creating the app's window and beginning the process of displaying the view in it.

The WillTerminate method will be called when the user or the system has instantiated a shutdown of the app. The developer should use this method to finalize the app before it quits (such as saving user preferences or window size and location).

ViewController.cs

Cocoa (and by derivation, CocoaTouch) uses what’s known as the Model View Controller (MVC) pattern. The ViewController declaration represents the object that controls the actual app window. Generally, for every window created (and for many other things within windows), there is a controller, which is responsible for the window’s lifecycle, such as showing it, adding new views (controls) to it, etc.

The ViewController class is the main window’s controller. The controller is responsible for the life cycle of the main window. This will be examined in detail later, for now take a quick look at it:

ViewController.Designer.cs

The designer file for the Main Window class is initially empty, but it will be automatically populated by Visual Studio for Mac as the user interface is created with Xcode Interface Builder:

Designer files should not be edited directly, as they’re automatically managed by Visual Studio for Mac to provide the plumbing code that allows access to controls that have been added to any window or view in the app.

With the Xamarin.Mac app project created and a basic understanding of its components, switch to Xcode to create the user interface using Interface Builder.

Info.plist

The Info.plist file contains information about the Xamarin.Mac app such as its Name and Bundle Identifier:

It also defines the Storyboard that will be used to display the user interface for the Xamarin.Mac app under the Main Interface dropdown. In example above, Main in the dropdown relates to the Main.storyboard in the project's source tree in the Solution Explorer. It also defines the app's icons by specifying the Asset Catalog that contains them (AppIcon in this case).

Entitlements.plist

The app's Entitlements.plist file controls entitlements that the Xamarin.Mac app has such as Sandboxing and iCloud:

For the Hello World example, no entitlements will be required. The next section shows how to use Xcode's Interface Builder to edit the Main.storyboard file and define the Xamarin.Mac app's UI.

Introduction to Xcode and Interface Builder

As part of Xcode, Apple has created a tool called Interface Builder, which allows a developer to create a user interface visually in a designer. Xamarin.Mac integrates fluently with Interface Builder, allowing UI to be created with the same tools as Objective-C users.

To get started, double-click the Main.storyboard file in the Solution Explorer to open it for editing in Xcode and Interface Builder:

This should launch Xcode and look like this screenshot:

Before starting to design the interface, take a quick overview of Xcode to orient with the main features that will be used.

Note

The developer doesn't have to use Xcode and Interface Builder to create the user interface for a Xamarin.Mac app, the UI can be created directly from C# code but that is beyond the scope of this article. For the sake of simplicity, it will be using Interface Builder to create the user interface throughout the rest of this tutorial.

Components of Xcode

When opening a .storyboard file in Xcode from Visual Studio for Mac, it opens with a Project Navigator on the left, the Interface Hierarchy and Interface Editor in the middle, and a Properties & Utilities section on the right:

The following sections take a look at what each of these Xcode features do and how to use them to create the interface for a Xamarin.Mac app.

Project Navigation

When opening a .storyboard file for editing in Xcode, Visual Studio for Mac creates a Xcode Project File in the background to communicate changes between itself and Xcode. Later, when the developer switches back to Visual Studio for Mac from Xcode, any changes made to this project are synchronized with the Xamarin.Mac project by Visual Studio for Mac.

The Project Navigation section allows the developer to navigate between all of the files that make up this shim Xcode project. Typically, they will only be interested in the .storyboard files in this list such as Main.storyboard.

Interface Hierarchy

The Interface Hierarchy section allows the developer to easily access several key properties of the user interface such as its Placeholders and main Window. This section can be used to access the individual elements (views) that make up the user interface and to adjust the way they are nested by dragging them around within the hierarchy.

Interface Editor

The Interface Editor section provides the surface on which the user interface is graphically laid out. Drag elements from the Library section of the Properties & Utilities section to create the design. As user interface elements (views) are added to the design surface, they will be added to the Interface Hierarchy section in the order that they appear in the Interface Editor.

Properties & Utilities

The Properties & Utilities section is divided into two main sections, Properties (also called Inspectors) and the Library:

Initially this section is almost empty, however if the developer selects an element in the Interface Editor or Interface Hierarchy, the Properties section will be populated with information about the given element and properties that they can adjust.

Within the Properties section, there are eight different Inspector Tabs, as shown in the following illustration:

Properties & Utility Types

From left-to-right, these tabs are:

• File Inspector – The File Inspector shows file information, such as the file name and location of the Xib file that is being edited.
• Quick Help – The Quick Help tab provides contextual help based on what is selected in Xcode.
• Identity Inspector – The Identity Inspector provides information about the selected control/view.
• Attributes Inspector – The Attributes Inspector allows the developer to customize various attributes of the selected control/view.
• Size Inspector – The Size Inspector allows the developer to control the size and resizing behavior of the selected control/view.
• Connections Inspector – The Connections Inspector shows the Outlet and Action connections of the selected controls. Outlets and Actions will be discussed in detail below.
• Bindings Inspector – The Bindings Inspector allows the developer to configure controls so that their values are automatically bound to data models.
• View Effects Inspector – The View Effects Inspector allows the developer to specify effects on the controls, such as animations.

Use the Library section to find controls and objects to place into the designer to graphically build the user interface:

Creating the Interface

With the basics of the Xcode IDE and Interface Builder covered, the developer can create the user interface for the main view.

Follow these steps to use Interface Builder:

1. In Xcode, drag a Push Button from the Library Section:

2. Drop the button onto the View (under the Window Controller) in the Interface Editor:

3. Click on the Title property in the Attribute Inspector and change the button's title to Click Me:

4. Drag a Label from the Library Section:

5. Drop the label onto the Window beside the button in the Interface Editor:

6. Grab the right handle on the label and drag it until it is near the edge of the window:

7. Select the Button just added in the Interface Editor, and click the Constraints Editor icon at the bottom of the window:

8. At the top of the editor, click the Red I-Beams at the top and left. As the window is resized, this will keep the button in the same location at the top left corner of the screen.

9. Next, check the Height and Width boxes and use the default sizes. This keeps the button at the same size when the window resizes.

10. Click the Add 4 Constraints button to add the constraints and close the editor.

11. Select the label and click the Constraints Editor icon again:

12. By clicking Red I-Beams at the top, right and left of the Constraints Editor, tells the label to be stuck to its given X and Y locations and to grow and shrink as the window is resized in the running application.

13. Again, check the Height box and use the default size, then click the Add 4 Constraints button to add the constraints and close the editor.

14. Save the changes to the user interface.

While resizing and moving controls around, notice that Interface Builder gives helpful snap hints that are based on macOS Human Interface Guidelines. These guidelines will help the developer to create high quality apps that will have a familiar look and feel for Mac users.

Look in the Interface Hierarchy section to see how the layout and hierarchy of the elements that make up the user interface are shown:

From here the developer can select items to edit or drag to reorder UI elements if needed. For example, if a UI element was being covered by another element, they could drag it to the bottom of the list to make it the top-most item on the window.

With the user interface created, the developer will need to expose the UI items so that Xamarin.Mac can access and interact with them in C# code. The next section, Outlets and Actions, shows how to do this.

Outlets and Actions

So what are Outlets and Actions? In traditional .NET user interface programming, a control in the user interface is automatically exposed as a property when it’s added. Things work differently in Mac, simply adding a control to a view doesn’t make it accessible to code. The developer must explicitly expose the UI element to code. In order do this, Apple provides two options:

• Outlets – Outlets are analogous to properties. If the developer wires up a control to an Outlet, it’s exposed to the code via a property, so they can do things like attach event handlers, call methods on it, etc.
• Actions – Actions are analogous to the command pattern in WPF. For example, when an Action is performed on a control, say a button click, the control will automatically call a method in the code. Actions are powerful and convenient because the developer can wire up many controls to the same Action.

In Xcode, Outlets and Actions are added directly in code via Control-dragging. More specifically, this means that to create an Outlet or Action, the developer will choose a control element to add an Outlet or Action to, hold down the Control key on the keyboard, and drag that control directly into the code.

For Xamarin.Mac developers, this means that the developer will drag into the Objective-C stub files that correspond to the C# file where they want to create the Outlet or Action. Visual Studio for Mac created a file called ViewController.h as part of the shim Xcode Project it generated to use Interface Builder:

This stub .h file mirrors the ViewController.designer.cs that is automatically added to a Xamarin.Mac project when a new NSWindow is created. This file will be used to synchronize the changes made by Interface Builder and is where the Outlets and Actions are created so that UI elements are exposed to C# code.

Adding an Outlet

With a basic understanding of what Outlets and Actions are, create an Outlet to expose the Label created to our C# code.

Do the following:

1. In Xcode at the far right top-hand corner of the screen, click the Double Circle button to open the Assistant Editor:

2. The Xcode will switch to a split-view mode with the Interface Editor on one side and a Code Editor on the other.

3. Notice that Xcode has automatically picked the ViewController.m file in the Code Editor, which is incorrect. From the discussion on what Outlets and Actions are above, the developer will need to have the ViewController.h selected.

4. At the top of the Code Editor click on the Automatic Link and select the ViewController.h file:

5. Xcode should now have the correct file selected:

6. The last step was very important!: if you didn't have the correct file selected, you won't be able to create Outlets and Actions, or they will be exposed to the wrong class in C#!

7. In the Interface Editor, hold down the Control key on the keyboard and click-drag the label created above onto the code editor just below the @interface ViewController : NSViewController {} code:

8. A dialog box will be displayed. Leave the Connection set to Outlet and enter ClickedLabel for the Name:

9. Click the Connect button to create the Outlet:

10. Save the changes to the file.

Adding an Action

Next, expose the button to C# code. Just like the Label above, the developer could wire the button up to an Outlet. Since we only want to respond to the button being clicked, use an Action instead.

Do the following:

1. Ensure that Xcode is still in the Assistant Editor and the ViewController.h file is visible in the Code Editor.

2. In the Interface Editor, hold down the Control key on the keyboard and click-drag the button created above onto the code editor just below the @property (assign) IBOutlet NSTextField *ClickedLabel; code:

3. Change the Connection type to Action:

4. Enter ClickedButton as the Name:

5. Click the Connect button to create Action:

6. Save the changes to the file.

With the user interface wired-up and exposed to C# code, switch back to Visual Studio for Mac and let it synchronize the changes made in Xcode and Interface Builder.

Note

It probably took a long time to create the user interface and Outlets and Actions for this first app, and it may seem like a lot of work, but a lot of new concepts were introduced and a lot of time was spent covering new ground. After practicing for a while and working with Interface Builder, this interface and all its Outlets and Actions can be created in just a minute or two.

Synchronizing Changes with Xcode

When the developer switches back to Visual Studio for Mac from Xcode, any changes that they have made in Xcode will automatically be synchronized with the Xamarin.Mac project.

Select the ViewController.designer.cs in the Solution Explorer to see how the Outlet and Action have been wired up in the C# code:

Notice how the two definitions in the ViewController.designer.cs file:

How To Get C++ On Visual Studio For Mac

Line up with the definitions in the ViewController.h file in Xcode:

Visual Studio for Mac listens for changes to the .h file, and then automatically synchronizes those changes in the respective .designer.cs file to expose them to the app. Notice that ViewController.designer.cs is a partial class, so that Visual Studio for Mac doesn't have to modify ViewController.cs which would overwrite any changes that the developer has made to the class.

Normally, the developer will never need to open the ViewController.designer.cs, it was presented here for educational purposes only.

Note

In most situations, Visual Studio for Mac will automatically see any changes made in Xcode and sync them to the Xamarin.Mac project. In the off occurrence that synchronization doesn't automatically happen, switch back to Xcode and then back to Visual Studio for Mac again. This will normally kick off a synchronization cycle.

Writing the Code

With the user interface created and its UI elements exposed to code via Outlets and Actions, we are finally ready to write the code to bring the program to life.

For this sample app, every time the first button is clicked, the label will be updated to show how many times the button has been clicked. To accomplish this, open the ViewController.cs file for editing by double-clicking it in the Solution Explorer:

First, create a class-level variable in the ViewController class to track the number of clicks that have happened. Edit the class definition and make it look like the following:

Next, in the same class (ViewController), override the ViewDidLoad method and add some code to set the initial message for the label:

Use ViewDidLoad, instead of another method such as Initialize, because ViewDidLoad is called after the OShas loaded and instantiated the user interface from the .storyboard file. If the developer tried to access the label control before the .storyboard file has been fully loaded and instantiated, they would get a NullReferenceException error because the label control would not exist yet.

Next, add the code to respond to the user clicking the button. Add the following partial method to the ViewController class:

This code attaches to the Action created in Xcode and Interface Builder and will be called any time the user clicks the button.

Testing the Application

It’s time to build and run the app to make sure it runs as expected. The developer can build and run all in one step, or they can build it without running it.

Whenever an app is built, the developer can choose what kind of build they want:

• Debug – A debug build is compiled into an .app (application) file with a bunch of extra metadata that allows the developer to debug what’s happening while the app is running.
• Release – A release build also creates an .app file, but it doesn’t include debug information, so it’s smaller and executes faster.

The developer can select the type of build from the Configuration Selector at the upper left-hand corner of the Visual Studio for Mac screen:

Building the Application

In the case of this example, we just want a debug build, so ensure that Debug is selected. Build the app first by either pressing ⌘B, or from the Build menu, choose Build All.

If there weren't any errors, a Build Succeeded message will be displayed in Visual Studio for Mac's status bar. If there were errors, review the project and make sure that the steps above have been followed correctly. Start by confirming that the code (both in Xcode and in Visual Studio for Mac) matches the code in the tutorial.

Running the Application

There are three ways to run the app:

• Press ⌘+Enter.
• From the Run menu, choose Debug.
• Click the Play button in the Visual Studio for Mac toolbar (just above the Solution Explorer).

The app will build (if it hasn’t been built already), start in debug mode and display its main interface window:

If the button is clicked a few times, the label should be updated with the count:

Where to Next

With the basics of working with a Xamarin.Mac application down, take a look at the following documents to get a deeper understanding:

• Introduction to Storyboards - This article provides an introduction to working with Storyboards in a Xamarin.Mac app. It covers creating and maintaining the app's UI using storyboards and Xcode's Interface Builder.
• Windows - This article covers working with Windows and Panels in a Xamarin.Mac application. It covers creating and maintaining Windows and Panels in Xcode and Interface builder, loading Windows and Panels from .xib files, using Windows and responding to Windows in C# code.
• Dialogs - This article covers working with Dialogs and Modal Windows in a Xamarin.Mac application. It covers creating and maintaining Modal Windows in Xcode and Interface builder, working with standard dialogs, displaying and responding to Windows in C# code.
• Alerts - This article covers working with Alerts in a Xamarin.Mac application. It covers creating and displaying Alerts from C# code and responding to Alerts.
• Menus - Menus are used in various parts of a Mac application's user interface; from the application's main menu at the top of the screen to pop up and contextual menus that can appear anywhere in a window. Menus are an integral part of a Mac application's user experience. This article covers working with Cocoa Menus in a Xamarin.Mac application.
• Toolbars - This article covers working with Toolbars in a Xamarin.Mac application. It covers creating and maintaining. Toolbars in Xcode and Interface builder, how to expose the Toolbar Items to code using Outlets and Actions, enabling and disabling Toolbar Items and finally responding to Toolbar Items in C# code.
• Table Views - This article covers working with Table Views in a Xamarin.Mac application. It covers creating and maintaining Table Views in Xcode and Interface builder, how to expose the Table View Items to code using Outlets and Actions, populating Table Items and finally responding to Table View Items in C# code.
• Outline Views - This article covers working with Outline Views in a Xamarin.Mac application. It covers creating and maintaining Outline Views in Xcode and Interface builder, how to expose the Outline View Items to code using Outlets and Actions, populating Outline Items and finally responding to Outline View Items in C# code.
• Source Lists - This article covers working with Source Lists in a Xamarin.Mac application. It covers creating and maintaining Source Lists in Xcode and Interface builder, how to expose the Source Lists Items to code using Outlets and Actions, populating Source List Items and finally responding to Source List Items in C# code.
• Collection Views - This article covers working with Collection Views in a Xamarin.Mac application. It covers creating and maintaining Collection Views in Xcode and Interface builder, how to expose the Collection View elements to code using Outlets and Actions, populating Collection Views and finally responding to Collection Views in C# code.
• Working with Images - This article covers working with Images and Icons in a Xamarin.Mac application. It covers creating and maintaining the images needed to create an app's Icon and using Images in both C# code and Xcode's Interface Builder.

The Mac Samples Gallery contains ready-to-use code examples to help learn Xamarin.Mac.

One complete Xamarin.Mac app that includes many of the features a user would expect to find in a typical Mac application is the SourceWriter Sample App. SourceWriter is a simple source code editor that provides support for code completion and simple syntax highlighting.

The SourceWriter code has been fully commented and, where available, links have been provided from key technologies or methods to relevant information in the Xamarin.Mac documentation.

Summary

This article covered the basics of a standard Xamarin.Mac app. It covered creating a new app in Visual Studio for Mac, designing the user interface in Xcode and Interface Builder, exposing UI elements to C# code using Outlets and Actions, adding code to work with the UI elements and finally, building and testing a Xamarin.Mac app.

Related Links

Are you new to Visual Studio and working with C++? Then you’ve come to the right place. Whether you’re a student writing one of your first programs or a seasoned C++ developer with years of experience, you’ll find Visual Studio to be a powerful environment for C++ development. Visual Studio is an IDE packed with features, from code browsing, colorization and navigation, to autocompletion of symbols, a built-in compiler and build system, a top of the line debugger, and built-in testing and code analysis tools. We have you covered from beginning to end, from code inception to continuous integration management, but of course this means there is a lot to learn. This blog post breaks down the basics to get you started. You will get only a small glimpse of the powerful tools that Visual Studio provides, but if you want to learn more, you should click the links throughout this post.

This blog post goes over the following concepts:

Setting Up Visual Studio

Visual Studio crossed the 20-year mark with the release of Visual Studio 2017. There are many versions of the product out there, but in general, you should always pick the latest one. This will allow you to use the latest and greatest features, including the most up-to-date compiler. You’ll also benefit from recent bug fixes and performance improvements.

Visual Studio is available in three different editions: Community, Professional, and Enterprise. The Community Edition is completely free of charge for small businesses, open source projects, academic research, and classroom learning environments. If you don’t qualify for the Community License, you can purchase the Professional Edition instead. If you work for a large enterprise or simply want the best Visual Studio has to offer, then you should consider the Enterprise Edition. You can compare the offerings on the Visual Studio website if you are unsure. This guide is applicable to all editions.

Once you have downloaded the installer, run it. Visual Studio allows you to choose what workloads you want to install, choosing only the components you want, and nothing you don’t. The following workloads are under the C++ umbrella:

There are a variety of other workloads for other languages such as C#, and other platforms such as Microsoft Azure (for your cloud needs). The workloads you install are not permanent, and you can always change these options by opening the installer and selecting Modify.

For this guide, please install the Desktop development with C++ workload.

Once you have made your selection and clicked Install, Visual Studio will begin the installation process. Once it is complete, Visual Studio is all set up and ready to go!

Now let’s look at an actual project. For this next section, if at any time, you cannot find some feature or command that you are looking for, you can search for it via Quick Launch, the search box at the upper right of the IDE (or press Ctrl+Q to get there fast).

Opening Projects or Folders of Code

If you open the demo project folder in Windows File Explorer, you will find a variety of different files in addition to some source code. Generally, code organized by Visual Studio appears as a Solution, which contains a collection of Projects. When a codebase is organized this way, it includes a .sln file (which configures the solution) as well as .vcxproj files (which configure each project); these files help define things like include paths, compiler settings, and how the projects are connected.

Visual Studio also supports an Open Folder mode as of Visual Studio 2017 which does away with .sln and .vcxproj files and allows you as the user to configure your own environment independently. This approach is ideal for cross-platform projects that will be run from a variety of different IDEs or editors. Better yet, if you are a CMake user, as of Visual Studio 2017 there is a built-in CMake experience. This guide will not go over Open Folder or CMake, but you are encouraged to check out the relevant blog posts linked in this paragraph for more information.

To open demoApplication, double click the .sln file, or from Visual Studio go to File > Open > Project/Solution… and navigate to the appropriate solution.

Once you have opened the project, a view of the content in the project will appear in the Solution Explorer, pictured below:
New projects can be also created by going to File > New > Project… and selecting the template that is appropriate. Console applications are under Visual C++ > Win32.

Building the Application

Visual Studio is closely integrated with the Visual C++ compiler, which makes it easy to build and debug your C++ applications. Near the top of the IDE inside the standard toolbar, there are dropdowns where you can change your build configuration and architecture. You can also easily add more configurations, as needed. For this exercise, you can leave the default settings of Debug and x86.
Attempt to build the application by going to Build > Build Solution (or alternatively by pressing F7). The build will fail, since the code contains an error.
The Output Window is a valuable tool while you are building; it provides information about the status of the build.

Fixing compiler errors

You should see an error in the Error List at the bottom of the screen when you attempt to build. With this error, you not only get the location of the problem and a description, but if you double-click the line, you will be brought to the specific location in the code. This makes it easy to quickly navigate to problem areas.

Double-click on the error after building, and fix the offending line of code.

Code Editing & Navigation

This section provides a glimpse of what is possible in Visual Studio. To learn more about this area please visit the C++ Code Editing and Navigation in Visual Studio blog post.

Intellisense

One of the most useful features for helping you write code quickly in Visual Studio is IntelliSense, which is a context-aware code completion tool. As you type, Visual Studio will suggest classes, methods, objects, code snippets, and more symbols that make sense in relation to what you have typed so far and where you have typed it. You can scroll up and down the suggestions with the arrow keys, and complete symbols with Tab.

In the main function try adding a call to the farewell function to the mySorter object. You should see IntelliSense pop up with all the possible functions available from the sorter class.

Go To

To efficiently write and understand code, easy code navigation is essential. By using the Go To feature (Ctrl+T) you can quickly get to where you need to go, without taking your hands off the keyboard. When you open the dialog, you can filter your results by clicking on the desired button, or by starting your query with a specific token. For example, you can go to a specific file by opening the Go To dialog and typing “f ”. Another common way to access this dialog is by going to a specific line number; you can do this by opening the menu traditionally and using the “:” token, or by pressing Ctrl+G. Try using Go To to navigate around the demo project.

Use the Go To menu (Ctrl+T) to open the file sorter.h by typing “f sorter.h”.
Use the Ctrl+Gshortcut to go to line 23 to change the private member “name” to your name.

Peek/Go to Definition

Sometimes it can be challenging to find out where a function or object is defined in your codebase. This problem is easily solved in Visual Studio, where you can easily peek into definitions. Try this in the demo project by selecting the function you want to look at, and pressing Alt+F12, or selecting it from the right-click menu. This will bring up a preview of the file where the function is defined, where you can quickly make small edits. Press Esc to close the preview window. You can also go directly to the definition by pressing only F12.

Use Peek Definition on the printVector function by selecting the function and pressing Alt+F12.

Add a dash between the numbers in the vector when they are printed.

Rename

You can also use Visual Studio to refactor existing code. In the demo project, there is a function that has an unhelpful name. Rather than going to each file to change the name of each occurrence manually, choose one of the functions and press Ctrl+R, Ctrl+R or right-click it and choose Rename. This will bring up a menu where you can choose what you want to rename it to, and then preview the changes before they are committed.

Use Rename (Ctrl+R, Ctrl+R) to change the method “SILLY_SALUTATION_FUNCTION” to something more useful, such as “greeting”.

Debugging and Diagnosing Issues

Once you can successfully build your application and write code easily, the next step is often debugging the application. Debugging can be a complex process, and Visual Studio provides many powerful tools to help along the way. The most commonly used debugging tool is the breakpoint, so let’s start with that. If you click on the bar to the left of your code, a red circle should appear. If you click the circle, the breakpoint will be removed.
When a breakpoint is set and the program reaches that point of execution, it will stop, allowing you to inspect variables and the current state of the program.

Place a breakpoint on line 33 of demoApplication.cpp by clicking the bar to the left of the line numbers.

Click the red circle again to remove the breakpoint.
To begin debugging, you can either press the green arrow at the top of the IDE or press F5. Once the program has stopped on the breakpoint, there are many things you can do to help you diagnose problems. One of the best ways to find problems is to understand the current state of the program, versus what it should be. This can be easily achieved by using the Autos Window, which lists recently used variables and their values. You can also hover your mouse over a variable to see what the current value is.

Do the following:

1. Place a breakpoint on line 14of the main function.
2. Click the green arrow at the top of the IDE or press F5 to begin debugging.
3. Find out what the value of testInt is before it is initialized by hovering over the value in the code.
4. Look at the value of testIntin the Autos window.
5. Press the green arrow or F5 again to stop debugging.

When you have sufficiently understood the current state of the program, you can press the green arrow button or press F5 again to have the program run until the next breakpoint. You can also step the program one line at a time if needed by using the arrows at the top.
Step Over(F10) will run through whatever is on the current line, and suspend execution after the function returns. Step Into(F11) will follow the function call of the next line, allowing you to see what is happening inside that function. At any time, you can step out (Shift+F11), which will place the program just after it has completed the current functional scope. Once you are finished debugging you can run the program to its completion, or press the red square (or Shift+F5) at the top of the IDE to stop the debugging session.

Use a combination of these to explore the demo project and see if you can fix the logical bug in the sort algorithm (Hint: it is in the sort algorithm itself).

There are many more tools within Visual Studio that can help you profile and debug your applications. Check out the C++ Debugging and Diagnostics blog post to learn more.

Testing

Visual Studio has a built-in test framework to help you unit test your projects, ensuring that the code you write is working as expected. To test the demo project, which is a native console application, you can add a Native Unit Test Project to the solution.

Add a test project to the demo. This is done by going to File > New > Project then selecting Visual C++ > Test > Native Unit Test Project. Make sure to choose the Add to solution option in the Solution dropdown. You can also simply right-click your solution name in the Solution Explorer and choose Add > New Project to accomplish the same task.
Once you have added a unit test, you can open the .cpp file and see the basic testing skeleton in the template, and begin to add tests.

Add a test method, making sure that it will pass. Try the following code:
TEST_METHOD(TestMethod1)
{
Assert::AreEqual(1,1);
}
Once you have added a test, you can run the test by going to Test > Run > All Tests in the menu at the top of the IDE. Once you have run the tests, you will see the results in the Test Explorer window.

Visual Studio Community Mac Os

Run your test by going to Test > Run > All Tests. Try adding another test that will fail, and running the tests again.
If you would like to find out more information about unit testing, including how to connect your test project to your code under test, and check the code coverage of your unit tests, check out the C++ Unit Testing in Visual Studio blog post.

Working with A Team

It is very common these days to be working on a project with a team, and Visual Studio makes collaboration with others easy! You can easily create new source control repositories using Git or Team Foundation Server to manage your codebase. To create a new repo for a project, click the Add to Source Control button at the bottom of the screen, and add the opened project to the source control system of your choice.
Once you do that, a local repository will be made for your project. From here you can make commits, or push your changes to a remote Git service such as GitHub. This is all managed in the Team Explorer window.

Try adding the demo project to source control, and pushing it to GitHub. This is done by pressing the Add to source control button, and then pushing to a remote repository inside the Team Explorer.

You can also very easily clone from source control from the Team Explorer window. Choose Projects > New Repository, and then follow the prompts to clone the project. From here, all you must do is paste in the URL, and the project will be cloned.
To learn more about working on a project as a team in Visual Studio, check out the Visual Studio for Teams of C++ Developers blog post.

Other Topics

There are many other useful things Visual Studio can do. So many things, in fact, it is hard to cover it all in one guide. Follow the links below to find out more on how to get the most out of Visual Studio.

Code Analysis

Visual Studio by default catches a lot of code issues, but its Code Analysis tool can often uncover hard-to-find issues that would normally be missed. Common errors that are reported include buffer overflows, uninitialized memory, null pointer dereferences, and memory and resource leaks. This functionality is built into the IDE, and can easily be used to help you write better code. Try it out by going to the Analyze menu and choosing Run Code Analysis > On Solution. Learn more about Code Analysis as well as the C++ Core Guidelines Checkers in the announcement blog post.

Library Acquisition

Library acquisition in C++ can be challenging. While Visual Studio has support for NuGet package management, more recently a new tool called vcpkg was launched. Vcpkg is an open source tool maintained by Microsoft that simplifies acquiring and building open source libraries, with over 200 currently supported. This tool, while separate from Visual Studio itself, is a valuable companion for any C++ developer on Windows. Check out the announcement blog post for details.

Conclusion

Microsoft Visual Studio C++ 6.0

We hope that this guide has allowed you to get up to speed with Visual Studio quickly, and that you have learned some of the core functionality. This should be enough to get you started, but there are still many more features that could not be covered in this guide. The Visual C++ Blog is a very useful resource to find out more about not only the product overall, but also what we are currently working on and changing. You can find the comprehensive product documentation on docs.microsoft.com as well. Now get out there and build something amazing!

How To Get Visual Studio Product Key

We are constantly trying to improve, so if you have any feedback or suggestions for us, please feel free to reach out to us anytime! We can be reached via email at visualcpp at microsoft.com and you can provide feedback via Help > Report A Problem in the product, or via Developer Community.