Ice Builder for Visual Studio

Ice Builder for Visual Studio is a Visual Studio extension that configures Ice Builder for MSBuild for your C++ and C# projects, all within the Visual Studio IDE. It serves as a front-end for Ice Builder for MSBuild: all the build-time processing is performed by Ice Builder for MSBuild.

Ice Builder for Visual Studio is compatible with Visual Studio 2015, 2017, 2019 or 2022, and works best with the following Ice installations:

• Ice NuGet package for Ice 3.7 or greater

Contents

• Installation
• Feedback
• Overview
• Ice Builder Options
  • Compile on Save Configuration
  • Ice Home Configuration (Ice 3.6)
• C++ Usage
  • Adding Slice Files to a C++ Project
  • Selecting the Slice to C++ Mapping
  • Customizing the Slice to C++ Compilation
• C# Usage
  • Adding Slice Files to a C# Project
  • Customizing the Slice to C# Compilation
• Upgrading your Projects from Ice Builder 4.x
• Migration from the Ice Add-in
• Building Ice Builder from Source
  • Build Requirements
  • Build Instructions

Installation

The latest version of Ice Builder is published in the Visual Studio Marketplace and can be installed directly using Visual Studio's Tools > Extensions and Updates.

You can also install older versions or preview releases of Ice Builder by downloading the desired IceBuilder.vsix from the GitHub Releases page, and then double-clicking on IceBuilder.vsix.

Feedback

We encourage you to rate and review Ice Builder in the Visual Studio Marketplace.

You can also report issues here on GitHub, and ask questions on the community forums or on Ice Builder's Q & A page.

Overview

Ice Builder for MSBuild provides support for compiling Slice source files (.ice files) in MSBuild projects, including projects created by Visual Studio. It compiles these Slice files using the Slice to C++ compiler (slice2cpp) or the Slice to C# compiler (slice2cs) provided by your Ice installation.

You tell Ice Builder for MSBuild which Slice files to compile by adding these files to your project, as described in the sections below. Ice Builder checks whether Slice files need to be compiled or recompiled each time Visual Studio loads a project, and each time you build a project. And if you remove or rename a Slice file with the Visual Studio IDE, Ice Builder for Visual Studio automatically removes the corresponding generated files.

Ice Builder Options

You can configure the Ice Builder global options on the Tools > Options > Project and Solutions > Ice Builder page.

Compile on Save Configuration

If the Compile Slice files immediately after save box is checked, Ice Builder compiles a Slice file when you save it, otherwise it compiles Slice files only during project builds.

Ice Home Configuration (Ice 3.6)

With Ice 3.6, you need to specify the Ice installation used by Ice Builder. This Ice Home setting is ignored by projects that install Ice as a NuGet package.

C++ Usage

Adding Slice Files to a C++ Project

Follow these steps:

1. Add the Ice Builder NuGet package (zeroc.icebuilder.msbuild) to your C++ project.

   Adding Ice Builder creates a Slice Files filter in your project.

2. Add one or more Slice (.ice) files to your project.

3. Add the directory where Ice Builder outputs generated C++ header files ($(IntDir) by default) to your project's C/C++ Additional Include Directories:

✅ Make sure to select All Configurations and All Platforms as shown above.

Selecting the Slice to C++ Mapping

As of Ice 3.7, slice2cpp generates C++ code for two mappings, the Slice to C++11 mapping and the Slice to C++98 mapping. You select the C++ mapping used by your C++ code by defining or not defining ICE_CPP11_MAPPING during C++ compilation.

Ice Builder selects C++11 as the default mapping when using Visual Studio 2015 or greater, and C++98 as the default mapping with older versions of Visual Studio.

You can overwrite this default selection by setting C++ Mapping on the Ice Builder property page in the Configuration Properties of your project:

🔄 Ice Builder's property page appears after you add zeroc.icebuilder.msbuild to your project, but not immediately after you restore this NuGet package in your project. You need to reload your project or solution after a NuGet restore to see this page.

This C++ Mapping selection always applies to all configurations and platforms. See Selecting the Slice to C++ Mapping with Ice Builder for MSBuild for further details.

ℹ️ When C++ Mapping is set to C++11, Ice Builder defines ICE_CPP11_MAPPING during C++ compilation of your project even though you don't see ICE_CPP11_MAPPING among the C/C++ Preprocessor Definitions in the Visual Studio IDE.

Customizing the Slice to C++ Compilation

Ice Builder allows you to change the options given to slice2cpp when compiling a Slice file. You can specify the options that apply to all Slice files in a project with the Ice Builder property page in the Configuration Properties of your project:

You can also specify options that apply to a single Slice file with the Ice Builder property page of that file (this is less common):

🔄 Ice Builder's property pages appear after you add zeroc.icebuilder.msbuild to your project, but not immediately after you restore this NuGet package in your project. You need to reload your project or solution after a NuGet restore to see these pages.

These options are always the same for all configurations and platforms, and map to item metadata of the SliceCompile type:

Property	Corresponding SliceCompile Item Metadata
Output Directory	OutputDir
Header Output Directory	HeaderOutputDir
Include Directories	IncludeDirectories
Base Directory For Generated #include	BaseDirectoryForGeneratedInclude
Generated Header Extension	HeaderExt
Generated Source Extension	SourceExt
Additional Options	AdditionalOptions

See Customizing the Slice to C++ Compilation with Ice Builder for MSBuild for further details.

C# Usage

Adding Slice Files to a C# Project

Follow these steps:

1. Add the Ice Builder NuGet package (zeroc.icebuilder.msbuild) to your C# project.

   Adding Ice Builder creates a Slice Files filter in your project.

2. Reload your project if it targets the .NET Framework and you want to customize the Slice to C# compilation described in the next paragraph. If you skip this step, Ice Builder is fully functional except there is no Ice Builder tab in your projects's properties.

3. Add one or more Slice (.ice) files to your project.

Customizing the Slice to C# Compilation

Ice Builder allows you to change the options given to slice2cs when compiling a Slice file. You can specify the options that apply to all Slice files in a project with the Ice Builder tab of your project's properties:

These options are the same for all configurations and platforms, and map to item metadata of the SliceCompile type:

Property	Corresponding SliceCompile Item Metadata
Output Directory	OutputDir
Include Directories	IncludeDirectories
Additional Options	AdditionalOptions

See Customizing the Slice to C# Compilation with Ice Builder for MSBuild for further details.

Upgrading your Projects from Ice Builder 4.x

When you open a solution with one or more projects that use the Ice Builder 4.x extension, Ice Builder offers you to upgrade these projects to the latest format. We recommend you backup your projects before performing this upgrade.

If you decline this upgrade, the solution loads but Ice Builder ignores the Ice Builder 4.x configuration.

If you proceed with this upgrade, all upgraded C++ projects are configured with C++ Mapping set to C++98. If you are using the Slice to C++11 mapping, you should then:

• change C++ Mapping to C++11, as shown on Selecting the Slice to C++ Mapping above
• remove the now redundant ICE_CPP11_MAPPING definition from your projects' C/C++ Preprocessor Definitions

Migration from the Ice Add-in

Ice Builder no longer supports direct migration from the old Ice add-in for Visual Studio to Ice Builder. The migration from the Ice add-in to Ice Builder is now a two-step process:

• Install Ice Builder 4.3.10 to migrate your projects to the Ice Builder 4.3.10 format
• Install the latest Ice Builder to convert your projects (that are now using Ice Builder 4.3.10) to the latest Ice Builder format

Building Ice Builder from Source

Build Requirements

You need Visual Studio 2022 or Visual Studio 2019

AND

to install ALL of the following Visual Studio SDKs:

• Visual Studio 2015 SDK
• Visual Studio 2017 SDK

Build Instructions

Building Visual Studio 2022 extension

Open the IceBuilder.sln solution file in Visual Studio 2022 and build the IceBuilder.Next project.

After building the Ice Builder extension, there would be a VSIX package in:

• IceBuilder.Next\bin\Debug\IceBuilder.vsix or IceBuilder.Next\bin\Release\IceBuilder.vsix

Building Visual Studio 2019, 2017 and 2015 extension

Open the IceBuilder.sln solution file in Visual Studio 2019 and build the IceBuilder project.

After building the Ice Builder extension, there would be a VSIX package in:

• IceBuilder\bin\Debug\IceBuilder.vsix or IceBuilder\bin\Release\IceBuilder.vsix

Signing

You can sign your extension with Authenticode by setting the environment variable SIGN_CERTIFICATE to the path of your PFX certificate store, the SIGN_PASSWORD environment variable to the password used by your certificate store and SIGN_CERTIFICATE_SHA1 to the SHA1 hash of your certificate.