The Visual Studio Plugin generate files that are used by the Visual Studio IDE, thus making it possible to open the solution into Visual Studio (File - Open - Project/Solution…​).

What exactly the visual-studio plugin generates depends on which other plugins are used:

Table 1. Visual Studio Plugin behavior
Plugin Description

None

Generates minimal solution file.

C++ Application

Adds a project representing the C++ application to the solution file.

C++ Library

Adds a project for each specified linkage representing the shared and/or static library to the solution file.

Usage

Example 1. Applying the Visual Studio Plugin
build.gradle.kts
plugins {
    `visual-studio`
}
build.gradle
plugins {
    id 'visual-studio'
}

The Visual Studio Plugin adds a number of tasks to your project. The main tasks that you will use are the visualStudio, cleanVisualStudio and openVisualStudio tasks.

Tasks

The following diagram shows the relationships between tasks added by this plugin.

visual studio task graph
Figure 1. Visual Studio Plugin default task graph

Lifecycle Tasks

visualStudio — Task

Depends on: projectNameVisualStudioSolution and all Visual Studio project file generation tasks

Generates all Visual Studio configuration files.

cleanVisualStudio — Delete

Depends on: all Visual Studio project and solution file clean tasks

Removes all Visual Studio configuration files.

openVisualStudio - Task

Depends on: visualStudio

Open the Visual Studio solution inside the IDE.

IDE Workspace Tasks

projectNameVisualStudioSolution - GenerateSolutionFileTask

Generates the .sln file. This task is only available on the root project.

IDE Project Tasks

C++ Application Plugin Tasks

projectNameVisualStudioProject — GenerateProjectFileTask

Generates the .vcxproj file for the application component.

projectNameVisualStudioFilters — GenerateFiltersFileTask

Generates the .vcxproj.filters file for the application component.

mainVisualStudio - Task (lifecycle)

Depends on: projectNameVisualStudioProject and projectNameVisualStudioFilters

Generates all Visual Studio project files for the application component.

C++ Library Plugin Tasks

projectNameDllVisualStudioProject — GenerateProjectFileTask

Generates the .vcxproj file for the shared linkage of the main component.

projectNameDllVisualStudioFilters — GenerateFiltersFileTask

Generates the .vcxproj.filters file for the shared linkage of the main component.

projectNameLibVisualStudioProject — GenerateProjectFileTask

Generates the .vcxproj file for the static linkage of the main component.

projectNameLibVisualStudioFilters — GenerateFiltersFileTask

Generates the .vcxproj.filters file for the static linkage of the main component.

mainVisualStudio - Task (lifecycle)

Depends on: projectNameDllVisualStudioProject (for shared linkage), projectNameDllVisualStudioFilters (for shared linkage), projectNameLibVisualStudioProject (for static linkage) and projectNameLibVisualStudioFilters (for static linkage)

Generates all Visual Studio project files for the library component.

Configuration

The Visual Studio Plugin allows for some customization of the generated files. The following sections are shows the customization.

Change solution generated file location

The location of the generated solution can be configured on the root project:

Example 2. Change the generated solution file location
build.gradle.kts
visualStudio {
    solution {
        solutionFile.setLocation(file("solution.sln"))
    }
}
build.gradle
visualStudio {
    solution {
        solutionFile.location = file('solution.sln')
    }
}

Change project generated files location

The location of the generated project files can be configured on any project:

Example 3. Change the generated project files location
build.gradle.kts
visualStudio {
    projects.all {
        projectFile.setLocation(file("project.vcxproj"))
        filtersFile.setLocation(file("project.vcxproj.filters"))
    }
}
build.gradle
visualStudio {
    projects.all {
        projectFile.location = file('project.vcxproj')
        filtersFile.location = file('project.vcxproj.filters')
    }
}