visual studio .net enterprise tools: I am having problems setting up a new Multi-Project Template in the VS2005
IDE and am looking for some guidance.

Scenario:
The application architecture of our system consist of 5 logical layers (Data
Access, Entity, Domain Rules, UI Controller, and UI). Each logical layer of
an application is derived from a base class for the logical layer (i.e.
common UI code exists in the UI Base class, which each app's UI component
should be a subclass of). And, of course, there are other framework
components in the system that are commonly used by all logical layers (for
instance common Delegate types, string utility functions, various interface
declarations, etc.).

So, my primary goal for the template is to setup a basic solution structure
for new applications that will include not only new projects for each logical
layer, but to also include the existing common projects and to have the new
logical layer projects reference those existing projects. (i.e. The new app's
UIController project will always derive from the UIController base, so I want
the template to include the UIController base and have the new app's
UIController project reference the UIController base).

Question:
How do I setup my root .vstemplate to include an existing project (that will
exist in a relative path)?

I haven't been able to find this in any documentation, or sample templates.
If anyone has a link they could share on including existing projects in the
templates, that would be appreciated as well.

Thanks,

Skip V.

ps. I was able to easily accomplish this in VS2003's Enterprise Templates,

Hi,

Currently we are looking into this problem. We will update you as soon as
we get anything out.


Thanks for your understanding!

Best regards,

Gary Chang
Microsoft Community Support
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Gary,

Thanks for looking into this for me, but this was not the response I was
hoping for.

From my perspective, it is frustrating that I will have to rely upon what
appears to be a community type project that is not available yet for the RTM
version of Visual Studio 2005 to completely convert my system's source over
to VS2005.

I had expected the new and improved template feature, which replaced the
Enterprise Template feature in VS2003, to support at least all of the
functionality of the older feature that was being replaced.

Granted, the VS2005 template feature does make it extremely easy to create a
very simple template, but the cost of this niave design is proving to be high
in productivity time for me and my team.

This marks the 3rd disappointment I've experienced (so far) with VS2005.
#1 being: bloated compiled assemblies with VB.Net (the compiler emitting
"My" namespace types into my assemblies, causing my small footprint
assemblies to double in size in some cases). Problem resolved, but cost me 1
day.
#2. Different runtime behavior between debugging in the IDE and running in
release mode (the vshost type impersonating my types - we do some type
checking at runtime to determine which code path to take). Problem resolved,
but cost me the bulk of 1 day.
#3. And now this new Template feature's inability to support existing
projects. Including the time I've spent actually converting our existing ETP
solutions over to the 2005's solutions (I had to convert each individual
project and then manually reconstruct the solutions - as the 2005 Conversion
Wizard would croak and leave out some nested projects when converting an ETP
solution) has cost me a week and a half so far. I expect I'll have to spend a
couple more weeks diving into this GAT when it becomes available for the
VS2005 RTM.

I'm sorry for venting on you (I realize there were many teams involved in
the designs of these new features that have caused me so much frustration),
but I've gotta gripe at somebody:-).

Thanks again for checking this out.

Skip V.

ps. What I was hoping for something simple like "Oh you need to use the
<AmbiguouslyNamedElement> in your root .vstemplate to reference an existing
project." That would've saved me a bit of grief and more importantly, quite a
bit of productivity time.

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