My current solution for renaming the project folder is:
Is there a better way?
This question is related to
visual-studio
directory
projects-and-solutions
TFS users: If you are using source control that requires you to warn it before your rename files/folders then look at this answer instead which covers the extra steps required.
To rename a project's folder, file (.*proj
) and display name in Visual Studio:
.sln
file directly in another editor such as Notepad++ and update the paths there instead. (You may need to check-out the solution first in TFS, etc.)Note: Other suggested solutions that involve removing and then re-adding the project to the solution will break project references.
If you perform these steps then you might also consider renaming the following to match:
Also consider modifying the values of the following assembly attributes:
AssemblyProductAttribute
AssemblyDescriptionAttribute
AssemblyTitleAttribute
In andersjanmyr's answer it's easier to rename the project first.
Also, after those steps are carried out, you might want to rename other references to your old project name.
In project properties, update the Assembly Name and Default Namespace.
This will update the following in the project file...
<RootNamespace>SomeProjectName</RootNamespace>
<AssemblyName>SomeProjectName</AssemblyName>
...and will get rid of the error "Namespace does not correspond to file location, should be: 'SomeProjectName'"
Rename your root namespace (if you have ReSharper right click the Namespace and go Refactor -> Rename).
Change all occurrences of your old project name in AssemblyInfo.cs.
There is another way doing this, using the *.sol, *csproj files.
It will be like this (relative to the *.sol file):
Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "Shani.Commands.Impl", "Shani.Commands.Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl.csproj", "{747CFA4B-FC83-419A-858E-5E2DE2B948EE}"
And just change the first part to the new diretory for example:
Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl.csproj
Of course, don't forget to move the whole project to that directory.
Using Visual Studio 2019, I followed below steps to make the project name change successful:
In andersjanmyr's answer it's easier to rename the project first.
Also, after those steps are carried out, you might want to rename other references to your old project name.
In project properties, update the Assembly Name and Default Namespace.
This will update the following in the project file...
<RootNamespace>SomeProjectName</RootNamespace>
<AssemblyName>SomeProjectName</AssemblyName>
...and will get rid of the error "Namespace does not correspond to file location, should be: 'SomeProjectName'"
Rename your root namespace (if you have ReSharper right click the Namespace and go Refactor -> Rename).
Change all occurrences of your old project name in AssemblyInfo.cs.
What worked for me in Visual Studio 2017:
It said something like "re-adding project". I rebuilt everything and everything was good to go.
I've had to do this lots of times. It's really useful to be able to repurpose an existing project, but be able to rename text in namespaces, files, and folders (including file / directory names).
Using a recursive find and replace starting at the root folder means the rename doesn't break links to projects in the solution files and project references.
To this end, I have created a project to do just this. The application also makes an effort to ignore version control folders such as .git, .svn and the .vs settings file. More information is in the README.
Note: This fix is for Visual Studio 2008, but it should work here.
.sln
file located in the parent folder..sln
file. Click Yes..sln
file has the same name as the folder. It is not required, but it maintains consistency.)Done.
Rename the project in the solution and the project folder
Delete the project from the solution
Add the existing project to the solution (your renamed project)
It works for me. TFS will also track the new project.
We recently uploaded a beta of a free Visual Studio extension which does this stuff for you.
Have a look at Visual Studio Gallery: Gallery Download
I often had the same problem of renaming a project in Visual Studio and editing the folder name, project name, and .sln file in order to accomplish that. I just wrote a VBScript script that accomplishes all that. You have to be careful with the strings you choose for replacing.
You just have to put the .vbs file in the same directory as the .sln file of the solution.
' Script parameters'
Solution = "Rename_Visual_Studio_Project" '.sln'
Project = "Rename_Visual_Studio_Project" '.csproj'
NewProject = "SUCCESS"
Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2
Set objFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
scriptDirr = objFso.GetParentFolderName(wscript.ScriptFullName)
' Rename the all project references in the .sln file'
Set objFile = objFso.OpenTextFile(scriptDirr + "\" + Solution + ".sln", ForReading)
fileText = objFile.ReadAll
newFileText = Replace(fileText, Project, NewProject)
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(scriptDirr + "\" + Solution + ".sln", ForWriting)
objFile.WriteLine(newFileText)
objFile.Close
' Rename the .csproj file'
objFso.MoveFile scriptDirr + "\" + Project + "\" + Project + ".csproj", scriptDirr + "\" + Project + "\" + NewProject + ".csproj"
' Rename the folder of the .csproj file'
objFso.MoveFolder scriptDirr + "\" + Project, scriptDirr + "\" + NewProject
Note: This fix is for Visual Studio 2008, but it should work here.
.sln
file located in the parent folder..sln
file. Click Yes..sln
file has the same name as the folder. It is not required, but it maintains consistency.)Done.
A proven solution for Visual Studio extension for Data Tools for Business Intelligence (SSDT-BI 2013):
It was tested 100% and worked flawlessly in my case.
NOTE: I can't confirm if it works under different project templates and other Visual Studio versions. As always, do backup everything beforehand.
The simpler solution is the following:
There are four needed steps, but seven recommended. At the end of the day though the project is renamed completely. Technically, the folder name for the project doesn’t have to match the project itself, so even that step is optional, but it can be confusing if they don’t match. The same for the assembly and namespace names.
I've had to do this lots of times. It's really useful to be able to repurpose an existing project, but be able to rename text in namespaces, files, and folders (including file / directory names).
Using a recursive find and replace starting at the root folder means the rename doesn't break links to projects in the solution files and project references.
To this end, I have created a project to do just this. The application also makes an effort to ignore version control folders such as .git, .svn and the .vs settings file. More information is in the README.
I was tryng to rename
the folder within the visual studio community 2019 and could not find it.
However, I figured out that while the code is running you can not change the name of the folder
.
The answer is:
rename
name will be there.I did the following:
<Create a backup of the entire folder>
Rename the project from within Visual Studio 2013 (optional/not needed).
Export the project as a template.
Close the solution.
Reopen the solution
Create a project from the saved template and use the name you like.
Delete from the solution explorer the previous project.
At this point I tried to compile the new solution, and to do so, I had to manually copy some resources and headers to the new project folder from the old project folder. Do this until it compiles without errors. Now this new project saved the ".exe" file to the previous folder.*
So ->
Go to Windows Explorer and manually copy the solution file from the old project folder to the new project folder.
Close the solution, and open the solution from within the new project.
Changed the configuration back to (x64) if needed.
Delete the folder of the project with the old name from the folder of the solution.
See item 3 in the linked article.
It worked for me.
A proven solution for Visual Studio extension for Data Tools for Business Intelligence (SSDT-BI 2013):
It was tested 100% and worked flawlessly in my case.
NOTE: I can't confirm if it works under different project templates and other Visual Studio versions. As always, do backup everything beforehand.
Right click project → Properties, and set (name) to the required name.
For those using Visual Studio + Git and wanting to keep the file history (works renaming both projects and/or solutions):
Close Visual Studio
In the .gitignore file, duplicate all ignore paths of the project you want to rename with renamed versions of those paths.
Use the Git move command like this:
git mv <old_folder_name> <new_folder_name>
See documentation for additional options: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-mv
In your .sln file: Find the line defining your project and change the folder name in path. The line should look something like:
Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "<Project name>", "<path-to-project>\<project>.csproj"
Open Visual Studio, and right click on project → Rename
Afterwards, rename the namespaces.
I read that ReSharper has some options for this. But simple find/replace did the job for me.
Remove old .gitignore paths.
There is another way doing this, using the *.sol, *csproj files.
It will be like this (relative to the *.sol file):
Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "Shani.Commands.Impl", "Shani.Commands.Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl.csproj", "{747CFA4B-FC83-419A-858E-5E2DE2B948EE}"
And just change the first part to the new diretory for example:
Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl.csproj
Of course, don't forget to move the whole project to that directory.
I often had the same problem of renaming a project in Visual Studio and editing the folder name, project name, and .sln file in order to accomplish that. I just wrote a VBScript script that accomplishes all that. You have to be careful with the strings you choose for replacing.
You just have to put the .vbs file in the same directory as the .sln file of the solution.
' Script parameters'
Solution = "Rename_Visual_Studio_Project" '.sln'
Project = "Rename_Visual_Studio_Project" '.csproj'
NewProject = "SUCCESS"
Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2
Set objFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
scriptDirr = objFso.GetParentFolderName(wscript.ScriptFullName)
' Rename the all project references in the .sln file'
Set objFile = objFso.OpenTextFile(scriptDirr + "\" + Solution + ".sln", ForReading)
fileText = objFile.ReadAll
newFileText = Replace(fileText, Project, NewProject)
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(scriptDirr + "\" + Solution + ".sln", ForWriting)
objFile.WriteLine(newFileText)
objFile.Close
' Rename the .csproj file'
objFso.MoveFile scriptDirr + "\" + Project + "\" + Project + ".csproj", scriptDirr + "\" + Project + "\" + NewProject + ".csproj"
' Rename the folder of the .csproj file'
objFso.MoveFolder scriptDirr + "\" + Project, scriptDirr + "\" + NewProject
Or simply, copy all the codes, open a new project with the desired name, and paste the code. Run debug and then delete the previous project. Done!
It worked for me!
I have written a small tool that automates all these steps. It also supports Subversion for now.
Information about current releases can be found at Visual Studio Project Renamer Infos.
The latest releases can now be downloaded from the Visual Studio Project Renamer Download Page.
Feedback is much appreciated.
Rename the project in the solution and the project folder
Delete the project from the solution
Add the existing project to the solution (your renamed project)
It works for me. TFS will also track the new project.
Similar issues arise when a new project has to be created, and you want a different project folder name than the project name.
When you create a new project, it gets stored at
./path/to/pro/ject/YourProject/YourProject.**proj
Let's assume you wanted to have it directly in the ject
folder:
./path/to/pro/ject/YourProject.**proj
My workaround to accomplish this is to create the project with the last part of the path as its name, so that it doesn't create an additional directory:
./path/to/pro/ject/ject.**proj
When you now rename the project from within Visual Studio, you achieve the goal without having to leave Visual Studio:
./path/to/pro/ject/YourProject.**proj
The downside of this approach is that you have to adjust the default namespace and the name of the Output binary as well, and that you have to update namespaces in all files that are included within the project template.
This is straightforward in Visual Studio 2015 (possibly works in older versions)
.sln
file in Notepad, and change the path to the csproj, i.e., fu\bar.csproj
→ bar\bar.csproj
.Similar issues arise when a new project has to be created, and you want a different project folder name than the project name.
When you create a new project, it gets stored at
./path/to/pro/ject/YourProject/YourProject.**proj
Let's assume you wanted to have it directly in the ject
folder:
./path/to/pro/ject/YourProject.**proj
My workaround to accomplish this is to create the project with the last part of the path as its name, so that it doesn't create an additional directory:
./path/to/pro/ject/ject.**proj
When you now rename the project from within Visual Studio, you achieve the goal without having to leave Visual Studio:
./path/to/pro/ject/YourProject.**proj
The downside of this approach is that you have to adjust the default namespace and the name of the Output binary as well, and that you have to update namespaces in all files that are included within the project template.
There's a simpler approach which was tested in Visual Studio 2013 Update 1 and applicable for TFS-connected projects:
Go to the .sln file, right click, open with Notepad++ (or any editor; Notepad++ is the fastest), find the path, change it.
I use Visual Studio 2013 and TFS 2013.
I did it like this:
I have written a small tool that automates all these steps. It also supports Subversion for now.
Information about current releases can be found at Visual Studio Project Renamer Infos.
The latest releases can now be downloaded from the Visual Studio Project Renamer Download Page.
Feedback is much appreciated.
We recently uploaded a beta of a free Visual Studio extension which does this stuff for you.
Have a look at Visual Studio Gallery: Gallery Download
See item 3 in the linked article.
It worked for me.
There is another way doing this, using the *.sol, *csproj files.
It will be like this (relative to the *.sol file):
Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "Shani.Commands.Impl", "Shani.Commands.Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl.csproj", "{747CFA4B-FC83-419A-858E-5E2DE2B948EE}"
And just change the first part to the new diretory for example:
Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl.csproj
Of course, don't forget to move the whole project to that directory.
When using TFS, step 2 is actually to rename the folder in source control and then get the latest before reopening the solution.
I just had to do this myself (using Visual Studio 2010). As some folks have answered, the simplest step seems to be:
Open .sln in a text editor, and in the following line change <FolderName> to your new folder name Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "Ricky", "\.csproj", "{021CC6B0-8CFB-4194-A103-C19AF869D965}"
I was tryng to rename
the folder within the visual studio community 2019 and could not find it.
However, I figured out that while the code is running you can not change the name of the folder
.
The answer is:
rename
name will be there.Well, I did it my way
Man, have I struggled with this. Unfortunately there isn't a one click solution in Visual Studio, but if you're running Visual Studio 2012 and your project is under source control with Team Foundation Server, here is how I got it to work, while keeping the source history:
(Make sure you read @mjv's comment below, as he notes that you can skip step 5-10)
The above guide worked for me. If it doesn't work for you, try and delete your local solution completely, and remove the folder mapping in your workspace. Restart Visual Studio just in case. Make sure you actually deleted the whole solution from your computer. Now readd the solution mapping to your workspace and get the latest version. Now try the above steps. The same applies if something goes wrong while following the above steps. Just delete your solution locally and get the latest source, and you'll have a clean slate to work with.
If you're still having problems, make sure that you haven't changed anything manually in the solution file, or trying other 'tricks' before trying the above steps. If you have changed something and checked it in, you might want to consider doing a rollback to the point just before you started messing with the renaming of the project.
Of course, you'd also want to rename the project itself, in Solution Explorer. You can do this before the steps above, but in that case, make sure you check in that change before applying the steps above. You can also do it afterwards, but make sure you follow all the steps above first, and check in your changes before trying to rename the project name in Solution Explorer. I don't recommend trying to mix the above steps with a rename of the project name in Solution Explorer. It might work though, but I would recommand doing it in 2 separate changesets.
Currently, no. Well, actually you can click the broken project node and in the properties pane look for the property 'Path', click the small browse icon, and select the new path.
Voilà :)
The simplest way is to go to the property of the window, change the name of the default namespaces, and then the rename is done.
Using Visual Studio 2019, I followed below steps to make the project name change successful:
There is another way doing this, using the *.sol, *csproj files.
It will be like this (relative to the *.sol file):
Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "Shani.Commands.Impl", "Shani.Commands.Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl.csproj", "{747CFA4B-FC83-419A-858E-5E2DE2B948EE}"
And just change the first part to the new diretory for example:
Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl\Shani.Commands.Impl.csproj
Of course, don't forget to move the whole project to that directory.
Or simply, copy all the codes, open a new project with the desired name, and paste the code. Run debug and then delete the previous project. Done!
It worked for me!
This is straightforward in Visual Studio 2015 (possibly works in older versions)
.sln
file in Notepad, and change the path to the csproj, i.e., fu\bar.csproj
→ bar\bar.csproj
.For Visual Studio 2017 you can use my Visual Studio extension:
It will rename the project in:
There's a simpler approach which was tested in Visual Studio 2013 Update 1 and applicable for TFS-connected projects:
After changing the folder name, open the .sln file in Notepad and change the path to new path.
For those using Visual Studio + Git and wanting to keep the file history (works renaming both projects and/or solutions):
Close Visual Studio
In the .gitignore file, duplicate all ignore paths of the project you want to rename with renamed versions of those paths.
Use the Git move command like this:
git mv <old_folder_name> <new_folder_name>
See documentation for additional options: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-mv
In your .sln file: Find the line defining your project and change the folder name in path. The line should look something like:
Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "<Project name>", "<path-to-project>\<project>.csproj"
Open Visual Studio, and right click on project → Rename
Afterwards, rename the namespaces.
I read that ReSharper has some options for this. But simple find/replace did the job for me.
Remove old .gitignore paths.
Open .sln in a text editor, and in the following line change <FolderName> to your new folder name Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "Ricky", "\.csproj", "{021CC6B0-8CFB-4194-A103-C19AF869D965}"
When using TFS, step 2 is actually to rename the folder in source control and then get the latest before reopening the solution.
I just had to do this myself (using Visual Studio 2010). As some folks have answered, the simplest step seems to be:
Right click project → Properties, and set (name) to the required name.
Currently, no. Well, actually you can click the broken project node and in the properties pane look for the property 'Path', click the small browse icon, and select the new path.
Voilà :)
Man, have I struggled with this. Unfortunately there isn't a one click solution in Visual Studio, but if you're running Visual Studio 2012 and your project is under source control with Team Foundation Server, here is how I got it to work, while keeping the source history:
(Make sure you read @mjv's comment below, as he notes that you can skip step 5-10)
The above guide worked for me. If it doesn't work for you, try and delete your local solution completely, and remove the folder mapping in your workspace. Restart Visual Studio just in case. Make sure you actually deleted the whole solution from your computer. Now readd the solution mapping to your workspace and get the latest version. Now try the above steps. The same applies if something goes wrong while following the above steps. Just delete your solution locally and get the latest source, and you'll have a clean slate to work with.
If you're still having problems, make sure that you haven't changed anything manually in the solution file, or trying other 'tricks' before trying the above steps. If you have changed something and checked it in, you might want to consider doing a rollback to the point just before you started messing with the renaming of the project.
Of course, you'd also want to rename the project itself, in Solution Explorer. You can do this before the steps above, but in that case, make sure you check in that change before applying the steps above. You can also do it afterwards, but make sure you follow all the steps above first, and check in your changes before trying to rename the project name in Solution Explorer. I don't recommend trying to mix the above steps with a rename of the project name in Solution Explorer. It might work though, but I would recommand doing it in 2 separate changesets.
Go to the .sln file, right click, open with Notepad++ (or any editor; Notepad++ is the fastest), find the path, change it.
For Visual Studio 2017 you can use my Visual Studio extension:
It will rename the project in:
Well, I did it my way
What worked for me in Visual Studio 2017:
It said something like "re-adding project". I rebuilt everything and everything was good to go.
Currently, no. Well, actually you can click the broken project node and in the properties pane look for the property 'Path', click the small browse icon, and select the new path.
Voilà :)
I just solved this problem for myself writing a global dotnet tool (that also takes into account git+history).
Install via
dotnet tool install -g ModernRonin.ProjectRenamer
, use with renameproject <oldName> <newName>
.
Documentation/Tinkering/PRs at
The simplest way is to go to the property of the window, change the name of the default namespaces, and then the rename is done.
I use Visual Studio 2013 and TFS 2013.
I did it like this:
I just solved this problem for myself writing a global dotnet tool (that also takes into account git+history).
Install via
dotnet tool install -g ModernRonin.ProjectRenamer
, use with renameproject <oldName> <newName>
.
Documentation/Tinkering/PRs at
After changing the folder name, open the .sln file in Notepad and change the path to new path.
The simpler solution is the following:
There are four needed steps, but seven recommended. At the end of the day though the project is renamed completely. Technically, the folder name for the project doesn’t have to match the project itself, so even that step is optional, but it can be confusing if they don’t match. The same for the assembly and namespace names.
I did the following:
<Create a backup of the entire folder>
Rename the project from within Visual Studio 2013 (optional/not needed).
Export the project as a template.
Close the solution.
Reopen the solution
Create a project from the saved template and use the name you like.
Delete from the solution explorer the previous project.
At this point I tried to compile the new solution, and to do so, I had to manually copy some resources and headers to the new project folder from the old project folder. Do this until it compiles without errors. Now this new project saved the ".exe" file to the previous folder.*
So ->
Go to Windows Explorer and manually copy the solution file from the old project folder to the new project folder.
Close the solution, and open the solution from within the new project.
Changed the configuration back to (x64) if needed.
Delete the folder of the project with the old name from the folder of the solution.
Currently, no. Well, actually you can click the broken project node and in the properties pane look for the property 'Path', click the small browse icon, and select the new path.
Voilà :)
Source: Stackoverflow.com