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Collapse all Solution Explorer items in Visual Studio 2010

Tim

Ever wanted to be able to collapse all items within Visual Studio's solution window? This is a nifty little Visual Studio macro that I came across a few years ago and have been using successfully in Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio 2008 and now in the Visual Studio 2010 RC.

I'll overview how to install it below in case you're unsure how to do it but I have this bound to the key combination Ctrl+Shift+` as ReSharper now uses my previous key combination of Ctrl+` for it's new bookmark explorer.

Anyway, here's the Visual Studio Solution Explorer item Collapse All macro:

Imports System
Imports EnvDTE
Imports EnvDTE80
Imports EnvDTE90
Imports System.Diagnostics
'-----------------------------------------------------------
' CollapseAll Module
'-----------------------------------------------------------
' Simple macro that fully collapses all items in the 
' Solution Explorer rather than just the top level node
'
' To make live easier, bind it to a keyboard setting such
' as Ctrl+Shift+` which by default has no bindings (Ctrl+` is
' now used by Resharper
'
' Tested and works with:
' Visual Studio 2005
' Visual Studio 2008
' Visual Studio 2010
'
' Originally from: http://bit.ly/bmRu3W
'-----------------------------------------------------------
Public Module CollapseAll

    Sub CollapseTree()
        ' Get the the Solution Explorer tree
        Dim solutionExplorer As UIHierarchy
        solutionExplorer = DTE.Windows.Item(Constants.vsext_wk_SProjectWindow).Object()

        ' Check if there is any open solution
        If (solutionExplorer.UIHierarchyItems.Count = 0) Then
            Return
        End If

        ' Get the top node (the name of the solution)
        Dim rootNode As UIHierarchyItem = solutionExplorer.UIHierarchyItems.Item(1)
        rootNode.DTE.SuppressUI = True

        ' Collapse each project node
        Collapse(rootNode, solutionExplorer)

        ' Select the solution node, or else when you click 
        ' on the solution window
        ' scrollbar, it will synchronize the open document 
        ' with the tree and pop
        ' out the corresponding node which is probably not what you want.
        rootNode.Select(vsUISelectionType.vsUISelectionTypeSelect)
        rootNode.DTE.SuppressUI = False
    End Sub

    Private Sub Collapse(ByVal item As UIHierarchyItem, ByRef solutionExplorer As UIHierarchy)
        For Each innerItem As UIHierarchyItem In item.UIHierarchyItems
            If innerItem.UIHierarchyItems.Count > 0 Then
                ' Re-cursive call
                Collapse(innerItem, solutionExplorer)
                ' Collapse
                If innerItem.UIHierarchyItems.Expanded Then
                    innerItem.UIHierarchyItems.Expanded = False
                    If innerItem.UIHierarchyItems.Expanded = True Then
                        ' Bug in VS 2005
                        innerItem.Select(vsUISelectionType.vsUISelectionTypeSelect)
                        solutionExplorer.DoDefaultAction()
                    End If
                End If

            End If
        Next
    End Sub
End Module

 

In case you've never installed a Visual Studio macro before, here's a couple of instructions:

  1. In Visual Studio, press Alt+F11 to load up the Visual Studio Macro editor (or View > Other Windows > Macro Explorer > Double Click on "Module1" in "My Macros")
  2. Either create a new module of it it's not in use, you can edit Module1 and past in the code above
  3. Save and close the Visual Studio Macro editor
  4. You should be back in Visual Studio so click "Tools > Options > Environment > Keyboard"
  5. In the "Show commands containing" text box, enter "CollapseTree" and the macro you just created should be shown.
  6. Make sure "Global" is selected in the "Use new shortcut in:" drop down list
  7. Press Ctrl+Shift+` in the "Press shortcut keys:" text box
  8. Click Assign
  9. Click OK

You're done :)

Update via Graeme: Make sure your module name (in the above it's Module1) is the same as your file name otherwise Step 5 minght not work.

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