How do I Add Existing Item an entire directory structure in Visual Studio

Question

I have a free standing set of files not affiliated with any C  project at all that reside in a complicated nested directory structure   I want to add them in that format to a different directory in an ASP NET web application I am working on  while retaining the same structure  So  I copied the folder into the target location of my project and I tried to    add existing  item    only to lose the previous folder hierarchy   Usually I have re-created the directories by hand  copied across on a one-to-one basis  and then added existing items  There are simply too many directories items in this case   So how do you add existing directories and files in Visual Studio 2008

User · Answer

You can change your project XML to add existing subfolders and structures automatically into your project like "node_modules" from NPM:

This is for older MSBuild / Visual Studio versions

<ItemGroup>
   <Item Include="$([System.IO.Directory]::GetFiles(&quot;$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\node_modules&quot;,&quot;*&quot;,SearchOption.AllDirectories))"></Item>
</ItemGroup>

For the current MSBuild / Visual Studio versions:

Just put it in the nodes of the xml:

<Project>
</Project>

In this case just change $(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\node_modules to your folder name.

User · Answer

Drag the files   folders from Windows Explorer into the Solution Explorer  It will add them all  Note this doesn t work if Visual Studio is in Administrator Mode  because Windows Explorer is a User Mode process

User · Answer

Below is the icon for the  Show All Files   just for easy reference

User · Answer

It s annoying that Visual Studio doesn t support this natively  but CMake could generate the Visual Studio project as a work around   Other than that  just use Qt Creator  It can then export a Visual Studio project

User · Answer

There is now an open-source extension in the Marketplace that seems to do what the OP was asking for   Folder To Solution Folder    If it doesn t do exactly what you want  the code is available  so you can modify it to suit your scenario   HTH

User · Answer

In Windows 7 you could do the following   Right click on your project and select  Add- Existing Item   In the dialog which appears  browse to the root of the directory you want to add  In the upper right corner you have a search box  Type   cs or   cpp  whatever the type of files you want to add  After the search finishes  select all files  click Add and wait for a while

User · Answer

It has been a while since this was originally posted  but here is an alternative answer  If you only care to be able to look at the physical files from inside visual studio and do not necessarily require to see them in the solution explorer default view  then click on the switch view button and choose the folder view and any physical directory directories that are under your solution root folder will appear here even if they do not appear in the solution explorer default view   If however  you want to add a folder tree that isn t too large as a virtual solution directory directories to match your existing tree structure  do that and and then  quot add the existing quot  physical files to the virtual directory directories   If the physical directory exists in your solution directory it will not copy the files - it will link directly to the physical files but they will appear as part of the solution virtual directories

User · Answer

A neat trick I discovered is that if you go to  Add existing      you can drag the folder from the open dialog to your solution   I have my Visual Studio to open in Admin Mode automatically  so this was a good workaround for me as I didn t want to have to undo that just to get this to work

User · Answer

You need to put your directory structure in your project directory  And then click  Show All Files  icon in the top of Solution Explorer toolbox  After that  the added directory will be shown up  You will then need to select this directory  right click  and choose  Include in Project

User · Answer

The cleanest way that I ve found to do this is to create a new Class Library project in the target folder  and redirect all of its build output elsewhere   It still leaves a  csproj file sitting in that folder  but it does let you see it in Visual Studio and pick which files to include in your project

User · Answer

This is what I do    Right click on solution -  Add -  Existing Website    Choose the folder where your website is  Just the root folder of the site    Then everything will be added on your solution from folders to files  and files inside those folders

User · Answer

At last  Visual Studio 2017 allows the user to import an entire directory with a single click  Visual nbsp Studio nbsp 2017 has a new functionality  Open Folder  that allows opening the entire folder  even without the need to save it as solution  The source code can be imported using the following methods    Menu File   Open    Folder  Ctrl   Shift   O  devenv exe   lt source folder gt    It even supports building and debugging CMake projects   Bring your C   codebase to Visual Studio with    Open Folder

User · Answer

Click above in the red circle  Your folder will appear in Solution Explorer   Right click on your folder -  Include in project

User · Answer

I didn t immediately understand this based upon these descriptions but here is what I finally stumbled on    Turn on  Show All Files  - there is an icon on the Solution Explorer toolbar Using Windows Explorer  not solution explorer   move your files into the directory structure where you want them to reside Click  Refresh  also on the Solution Explorer toolbar The files that you ve moved should be visible  ghosted  in the Solution Explorer tree structure where you ve placed them Right click on your ghosted files or folders and click  Include in Project   All the contents of a folder will be included

User · Answer

I just want to point out that two of the solutions offered previously    Drag and drop from Windows Explorer Show All Files and then include in project    do not do what the question asked for   Include in project while preserving the directory structure   At least not in my case  C   CLI project Visual Studio 2013 on Windows nbsp 7    In Visual Studio  once you are back in the normal view  not Show All Files   the files you added are all listed at the top level of the project   Yes  on disk they still reside where they were  but in Solution Explorer they are loose   I did not find a way around it except recreating the directory structure in Solution Explorer and then doing Add Existing Items at the right location

User · Answer

In Solution Explorer    Click Show All Files  second icon from the left at the top of Solution Explorer   Locate the folder you want to add  Right-click and select  Include in Project    I use this to install add-ons like HTML editors and third-party file browsers

User · Answer

What worked for me was to drag the folder into Visual Studio  then right click the folder and select  Open Folder in File Explorer   Then select all and drag them into the folder in Visual Studio

User · Answer

Enable  Show All Files  for the specific project  you might need to hit  Refresh  to see them        The folders files that are not part of your project appear slightly  lighter  in the project tree     Right click the folders files you want to add and click  Include In Project   It will recursively add folders files to the project      These buttons are located on the mini Solution Explorer toolbar      Make sure you are NOT in debug mode

[visual-studio] How do I "Add Existing Item" an entire directory structure in Visual Studio?

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