Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 : How to add an external tool (MSBuild script) to a Visual Studio button

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I’m a real fan of MSBuild Scripts, I always use a lot of MSBuild Tools in my projects (for example scripts that automatically get latest version of the code, compile, check-in, …).

The easier way I found to execute those scripts is to run them automatically while I am clicking on a button into my Visual Studio.

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STEP 1: Creation of an external tool

In Visual Studio 2010, Click on “Tools” menu, “External Tools …”.

A pop-up appears, click Add button and enter the desired information.

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“Title” textbox is used as the name of the button that will be created.

If you use MSBuild on a X64 operating System, you have to select x86 MSBuild version:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.21006\MSBuild.exe

Click on “Use Output window” checkbox to redirect the result of your MSBuild script into Visual Studio Output window.

Step2 : Creation of your Toolbar and affectation of the external tool

On the menu bar, right click and select “Customize …”.

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A pop-up appear, create your desired toolbar. Name it MyToolbar and click OK.

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Click on the “Commands” tab and click on ToolBar radio button to select the newly created external tool.

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Select MyToolBar and click on “Add Command …” button.

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On the left lit item, select “Tools” and than select the “External Command x” item where X is the index of your tool that appears in the “Tool” menu (starting index => 1). In my example “External Command 6”.

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Click “Ok” and than “Close”.

And here is the result :-)

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