P4EditVS

Simple, lightweight Visual Studio extension that allows you to checkout and revert files in Perforce without slowing down or blocking your IDE.

Download the latest release from either the Visual Studio Marketplace or GitHub.

Visual Studio 2017/2019 Version

Note: It is recommended to disable Git as the default source control provider in Visual Studio. Otherwise, this will make read-only files writable which will confuse the plugin and Perforce!

Features

Access commands for current file in extension toolbar menu. (Under Extensions in VS2019)

Right-click active file tab.

Right-click items in Solution Explorer.

Bind keyboard shortcuts to commands.

P4 command success/failure summary is shown in the status bar. (When checking out, a (+N) suffix indicates that N other people also have this file checked out.) Full output and server response is available the new P4EditVS section of the Output Window.

Supported Commands

• Checkout
• Revert
• Revert If Unchanged
• History
• Diff Against Have Revision
• Time-lapse View (will highlight current line if invoked from extension toolbar menu or file tab menu)
• Revision Graph
• Add
• Delete
• Auto-Checkout (optional)
• Open in P4V

Requirements

You'll need a relatively recent version of the Perforce client with p4vc installed. Version 2020.2/2013107 is known to work.

Configuration

Visit Tools > Options, P4EditVS section.

Specify client, server and user names for up to 6 workspaces. Any workspaces configured here will show up in the P4EditVS menu, so you can switch between them easily.

Set Allow Environment to True to enable a 7th workspace in the P4EditVS menu: (Use environment). When selected, P4EditVS runs p4 with no additional parameters, with the p4 working folder being the folder containing the source file in question. The p4config rules apply, if you use that mechanism; otherwise, you get whatever settings are set with p4 set and/or Connection > Environment Settings... in p4v.

The selected workspace is saved in the suo file for each solution.

Notes

• p4.exe must be accessible from PATH for checkout/revert.
• p4v.exe must be accessible from PATH for history/diff/timelapse view/revision graph.
• Up to 6 workspace settings supported.
• The extension does not send or collect any information, settings are only stored locally.
• Checkout/revert state is only determined by file read-only flag.
• For more advanced functionality see the offical P4VS extension.
• Time-lapse View may not jump to the right line if you already have a window open for that file - a p4v bug

Troubleshooting

Switch the Output Window to P4EditVS to see P4 command logging to help identify issues if commands are not being executed as expected. This will help quickly identify issues such as being logged out of the server, expired tickets, etc.

Building from Visual Studio

To Build for VS2015 - VS2019

Load P4EditVS.sln into Visual Studio 2019. Build. A double-clickable vsix file will be produced in P4EditVS/bin/Debug or P4EditVS/bin/Release named P4EditVS.vsix.

To Build for VS2022+

Load P4EditVS.sln into Visual Studio 2022. Build. A double-clickable vsix file will be produced in P4EditVS/bin/Debug or P4EditVS/bin/Release named P4EditVS2022.vsix.

Debugging

To debug the addin, you can run Visual Studio in the debugger. Right click the P4EditVS project in the Solution Explorer, select Properties, and visit the Debug section.

Select Start external program, and find the appropriate devenv.exe. (For example, C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe.)

In Command line arguments, enter /rootsuffix Exp /resetsettings.

Then run. You get a second copy of Visual Studio, with the addin loaded.

(/rootsuffix Exp directs Visual Studio to use a completely different set of registry keys and whatnot. For good or for ill, the child copy of Visual Studio is sandboxed in this respect, and doesn't share settings with your usual copy.)

Contributions

Contributions are welcomed where they improve the user experience and do not affect IDE performance.

Thanks to the following contributors for making this extension better.

• Tom Seddon
• Eris Koleszar

FAQ

How is this extension different to the official P4VS extension?

Unlike P4VS, P4EditVS does not aim to provide complete coverage of all Perforce features from within Visual Studio. Instead it uses p4.exe and p4vc.exe to carry out commands with basic integration into Visual Studio. E.g. context menus and auto-checkout. P4EditVS is designed to have zero noticeable overhead and prioritises the users' experience in Visual Studio. This means that some features may not be present in P4EditVS that are in P4VS.

Why should I use P4EditVS over the official P4VS extension?

If you're experiencing performance issues, have a slow Perforce connection or want a lightweight and simple extension then P4EditVS might be for you.