Visual Studio Visualizers (LINQPad Option?)

Omzig

Hello All,

Is there a built in way to see LINQPad as a Visualizer in Visual studio? I have seen some outside work like LINQBridgeVs Extension https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/8ede652c-396f-4dc9-bc4f-c88f9b8291d2, is there anything built in that does this? If not can we add it to the suggestions list?

If I could use LINQPad inside VS when I am debugging, WOW, you how amazing that would be?

Thanks

Omzig

So I have found this: https://linqpad.uservoice.com/forums/18302-linqpad-feature-suggestions/suggestions/447166-make-dump-extension-method-available-in-visual-s

This seems to be working so far, I will update if there is anything else.

Steps to get it to work from Joe:

You can use LINQPad's XHTML Dump engine from within Visual Studio by adding a reference to LINQPad.exe and then doing this:

var writer = LINQPad.Util.CreateXhtmlWriter();

To call Dump(), simply call Write or WriteLine on the writer object.

When you want to view the output. call ToString() on the writer - if you write the output to a file, you can then view it in a web browser.

Extensions:
public static class Extensions { /// <summary> /// Dumps to a temporary html file and opens in the browser. /// </summary> /// <param name="o">The object to display.</param> public static void DumpToFile<T>(this T o) { string localUrl = Path.GetTempFileName() + ".html"; using (var writer = LINQPad.Util.CreateXhtmlWriter(true)) { writer.Write(o); File.WriteAllText(localUrl, writer.ToString()); } Process.Start(localUrl); } /// <summary> /// Dumps to debugger. Used in the HTML debug view. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam> /// <param name="o">The o.</param> /// <returns></returns> public static string DumpToDebugger<T>(this T o) { var writer = LINQPad.Util.CreateXhtmlWriter(); writer.Write(o); return writer.ToString(); } }

Omzig

I really wish that I didn't have to add things to my project to get this to work. I wish that there was a LinqPad.dll that I could add to my "\Visual Studio 2015\Visualizers" folder and then just have it as an added feature in the debugger.

linqbridgevs

Hi,

That's not possible. The debugger visualizer dll must know about the types to be mapped (e.g. the types of your project/s), which means a linqpad.dll cannot be just simply dropped in the Visualizers folder.
Disclaimer: I'm the author of LINQBridgeVs