Using Downloaded VB.net Projects (Visual Studio.Net)

[bandido]

I am new to VB.Net and I am in the process of playing around to familiarise myself with the environment. This may seem simplistic but, here goes.
I have downloaded some sample project files to folders on my desktop. How do I "use" them?

[MarkJ]

Which version of Visual Studio are you using? Assuming you're using 2002 or 2003, the concept of Projects and Solutions is a little hard to understand at first. (I believe 2005 takes a different approach.)

A project (represented with a .vbproj or .csproj file) is simply a grouping of files that are used to create an Assembly or an Application (you may want to see your help documentation to read up on Assemblies if this is a new term for you). For instance, all files involved in my web application will be contained in my project. This includes all ASPX, CS or VB, and Config files that I've created or imported to use with my application. It can also include icons, images, other complete Assemblies, or any file that you import as part of your project.

This may not seem like a very useful concept until you think about building or deploying the application. When you create a setup project for your project, it automatically includes all files that are part of your project. This makes life much easier when deploying a web or windows application.

Once you understand projects, you'll also want to look at Solutions. A solution is a group of one or more projects that go together, but contain mutually exclusive functionality. For example, a layer of business logic should be separated into its own project so that it can be modified and rebuilt without affecting the dependent web or windows application. The output of the business layer project should be a single DLL file, which is included in the web project as a dependency. This helps to keep logic separated into the smallest unit and makes deploying much easier.

Please check the MSDN/Help documentation for further information on Projects and Solutions.

Hope this helps

[charlotte]

If by "use", you mean open in visual studio 2003, open Visual Studio.Net and then open the solution (.sln) file. That will load the associated projects and you can then explore them in the Solution Explorer, which is available from the View menu.

[bandido]

Thanks, Mark, for the 'tutorial'. It is a very eloquent description which I found very useful.

[bandido]

You understood me perfectly, Charlotte, and thanks for the reply. I've sorted out the problem which was that, despite being described as a vb.net project, it was in fact a VB6 project. Thus, there was no solution file, which threw me for a while.

Again, thanks Charlotte and Mark.

[Howard Kaikow]

If you do not have VB 6, then right-click on the VB 6 group or project file, and choose to open with VS .NET.

[bandido]

Thanks, Howard. I wasn't aware of that.