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Quick start

After you installed T4.FileManager into your project, you can dive right into your T4 template. A more thorough explanation follows in the next pages.

Include in your text template

Open your text template (*.tt) or create a new one.

.NET Core, .NET Standard, NET 5, NET 6 (NuGet with PackageReference)

The File Manger will be linked to the NuGet system folder. You can compile your project and then reference it using $(TargetDir) in your template.

Add the following code to the top of the file:

<#@ include file="$(TargetDir)\T4.FileManager.VisualStudio.ttinclude" #>

.NET Framework (NuGet with packages.config)

The File Manager will be copied to the Project root. You can reference it using $(ProjectDir) in your template.

Add the following code to the top of the file:

<#@ include file="$(ProjectDir)\T4.FileManager.VisualStudio.ttinclude" #>

Extend your T4 template

With those 4 steps can you use the T4.FileManager to generate code into different files:

  1. Set hostspecific="true" in your template
  2. Include T4.FileManager.VisualStudio.ttinclude in your template
  3. Instantiate T4FileManager
  4. Start a new file with the CreateNewFile() method
  5. Close the file and generate it with the Generate() method

The 4 parts are marked in this T4 template:

<#@ template debug="false" hostspecific="true" language="C#" #>
<#@ assembly name="System.Core" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.Linq" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.Text" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.Collections.Generic" #>
<#@ output extension=".txt" #>

<#@ include file="$(ProjectDir)\T4.FileManager.VisualStudio.ttinclude" #>

<#
var files = new string[] { "PersonDto", "OrderDto" };

var fileManager = T4FileManager.Create(this).EnableAutoIndent();

foreach(var itm in files)
{
    fileManager.StartNewFile(itm + ".g.cs", "","");
#>
namespace Test
{
    public class <#= itm #>
    {
    }
}
<#
}
    fileManager.Process();
#>

The call to EnableAutoIndent() is not necessary, but it will nicely format your code.

The result

If you run the template from above it will create the two files PersonDto.g.cs and OrderDto.g.cs next to your template.

PersonDto.g.cs: 

namespace Test
{
    public class PersonDto
    {
    }
}

OrderDto.g.cs:

namespace Test
{
    public class OrderDto
    {
    }
}

Want to know more?

This is just the basic usage of T4.FileManager. You can find an explanation on all other features in the next pages of this documentation.