This post is part of a larger tutorial on DSL Tools and Visual Studio 2008 Isolated Shell, in this post I will go through the steps to add the DSL sample to the Shell application.

Previous step: Creating the Shell application

Adding the DSL projects

We will now add the DSL designer to the Shell application, so if not already open you should open the Shell solution.

1. Adding the Dsl project

Select add existing project and locate the Dsl.csproj and add it to the Shell solution

2. Adding the DslPackage project

Select add existing project and locate the DslPackage.csproj and add it to the Shell solution

3. Resulting solution

The solution should now look as shown below.

4. Setting Shell dependencies

Now set the shell dependencies for the “MyDslShell” project, so the project will depend on “DslPackage”. Right-click “MyDslShell” project and choose “Shell Dependencies…”.

5. Testing the DSL within the Shell application

The Shell application does not yet have the ability to create a new project with a DSL file, but it can open an existing DSL (.mydsl1 file) and display then activate the DSL designer.

You can just create an empty text file with extension “.mydsl1” or open an existing file, such as “D:\project\DslToolsAndVsShell\Code\MyDSLApplication\MyDsl\Debugging\Sample.mydsl1” which is created as part of the DSL.

You should then see your DSL designer running within the Shell application, as shown below.

Summary

This end the fourth post about adding the DSL to the Shell application, next step is about adding a custom project type to the Shell application, so it can create new projects with the DSL.

Next step: Creating a custom project type

Download: DslToolsAndVsShell-04.zip (5 MB)