TT-Processor

Process your T4 files right from Visual Studio Code.

We had been missing this feature of parsing T4 template to easily generate code from VS Code.

T4 template parser is a text transformation utility created by Microsoft and has been available in Visual Studio since 2008. We have extensively used this utility to generate most of the repeatable code like POCO, Data Access Object, Stub Services, Stub Unit Tests etc.

Requirements

This Extension requires TextTransform.exe file. This is shipped with Microsoft Visual Studio

• Default location of TextTransform.exe is C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\TextTemplating\<version>\TextTransform.exe

• If, you have TextTransform.exe file at some other location other than default, you can configure it's location by adding following Configurations in Settings of Visual Studio Code

  You need to open File -> Preferences -> Settings and add path in TTPath. OR You can also add following configuration in settings.json.
  You can add following path in configuration.

  1. Windows: "ttProcessor.TTPath": "C:\\\"Program Files (x86)\"\\\"Common Files\"\\\"microsoft shared\"\\TextTemplating\\14.0\\TextTransform.exe"
  2. Mac: "ttProcessor.TTPath": "mono \"/Applications/Visual Studio.app/Contents/Resources/lib/monodevelop/AddIns/MonoDevelop.TextTemplating/TextTransform.exe\""
     • Note: You need to have Visual Studio For Mac installed.
  3. Linux: "ttProcessor.TTPath": "/usr/lib/monodevelop/AddIns/MonoDevelop.TextTemplating/TextTransform.exe"
     • Note: You need to have monodevelop installed.

Usage

You can run file by following methods.

When .tt file is open in current editor

• By saving current file
• Right click in editor and select "Run T4" from context menu
• By choosing "Run T4" from command pallete(Ctrl+Shift+P)

Using external file for processing

• Process file at configured location

  1. Add desired path in configuration

     1. Open Settings from File -> Preferences -> Settings

     2. Navigate to Extensions -> TT Processor

     3. Add path of .tt file in Solution Directory. OR You can also add following configuration in settings.json.

        "ttProcessor.SolutionDir": "${workspaceFolder}/demo.tt"

        Note: You can also add ${workspaceFolder} if you want your current open project to be your Solution Directory or you can add any path along with .tt file.

  2. Run T4 file at configured path.
     1. Open Command Pallete(Ctrl+Shift+P)
     2. Type and select "Run T4 at Configured Path"

• Process file at any other location

  1. Open Command Pallete(Ctrl+Shift+P).
  2. Type and select "Run T4 at Different location"
  3. Select .tt file to process from File Browser Dialog.

Logs

You can find TT-Logs.txt file in your Documents Directory of Current System User. All processing failure logs are written over there.