Hello bmelt,

From your post, my understanding on this issue is: you wonder how to write
automation code for multiple versions of Visual Studio and how to save
changes (CommitChanges) in VS2003. If I'm off base, please feel free to let
me know.

1.  For you first question about VS automation code that can be compatible
for multiple versions of VS:

If it were Office automation, I would recommend that we can either use late
binding, or reference the earliest version of Office application we intend
to automate. However, for Visual Studio automation, VS Core automation
model keeps good backward compatibility, but VC++ automation models do not.
That's why you get the error

"Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.VCProjectEngine,
Version=8.0.0.0...'"

from the line:
VCProjectEngine ^ projectengine = (VCProjectEngine
^)projects->Properties->Item("VCProjectEngine")->Object;

when the program explicitly references VCProject assembly for 8.0 but is
run in VS2008 machine. Actually, if you check the public assemblies of
VS2008 (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio
9.0\Common7\IDE\PublicAsemblies), you will find EnvDTE.dll, EnvDTE80.dll,
and EnvDTE90.dll, but for Microsoft.VisualStudio.VCProjectEngine.dll, it
has only one whose version is 9.0.

In conclusion, we can use late binding to automate multiple versions of
Visual Studio, but we cannot accomplish it with early binding. I write the
following C++/CLI and C# late binding sample code for your references. The
code has been tested in VS2003, 2005 and 2008.

C++/CLI:
Object^ dte = Marshal::GetActiveObject("VisualStudio.DTE");

Object^ projects = dte->GetType()->InvokeMember("GetObject",
System::Reflection::BindingFlags::InvokeMethod, nullptr, dte, gcnew
cli::array<Object^> { "VCProjects" });
Object^ properties = projects->GetType()->InvokeMember("Properties",
System::Reflection::BindingFlags::GetProperty, nullptr, projects, nullptr);
Object^ vcprojectItem = properties->GetType()->InvokeMember("Item",
System::Reflection::BindingFlags::InvokeMethod, nullptr, properties, gcnew
cli::array<Object^>  { "VCProjectEngine" });
Object^ projectengine = vcprojectItem->GetType()->InvokeMember("Object",
System::Reflection::BindingFlags::GetProperty, nullptr, vcprojectItem,
nullptr);
Object^ platforms = projectengine->GetType()->InvokeMember("Platforms",
System::Reflection::BindingFlags::GetProperty, nullptr, projectengine,
nullptr);
Object^ p64 = platforms->GetType()->InvokeMember("Item",
System::Reflection::BindingFlags::InvokeMethod, nullptr, platforms, gcnew
cli::array<Object^>  { "x64" });

String^ exedir;
if (p64 != nullptr)
{
       exedir =
(String^)p64->GetType()->InvokeMember("ExecutableDirectories",
System::Reflection::BindingFlags::GetProperty, nullptr, p64, nullptr);
       Console::WriteLine(exedir);
}

C#:
object dte = Marshal.GetActiveObject("VisualStudio.DTE");
object projects = dte.GetType().InvokeMember("GetObject",
System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, dte, new object[] {
"VCProjects" });
object properties = projects.GetType().InvokeMember("Properties",
System.Reflection.BindingFlags.GetProperty, null, projects, null);
object vcprojectItem = properties.GetType().InvokeMember("Item",
System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, properties, new object[]
{ "VCProjectEngine" });
object projectengine = vcprojectItem.GetType().InvokeMember("Object",
System.Reflection.BindingFlags.GetProperty, null, vcprojectItem, null);
object platforms = projectengine.GetType().InvokeMember("Platforms",
System.Reflection.BindingFlags.GetProperty, null, projectengine, null);
object p64 = platforms.GetType().InvokeMember("Item",
System.Reflection.BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, platforms, new object[]
{ "x64" });
string exedir;
if (p64 != null)
{
        exedir =
(string)p64.GetType().InvokeMember("ExecutableDirectories",
System.Reflection.BindingFlags.GetProperty, null, p64, null);
        Console.WriteLine(exedir);
}

2. For your second question about CommitChanges:

According to the MSDN article
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.visualstudio.vcprojecteng
ine.vcplatform.commitchanges(VS.80).aspx,
the function is for internal use only, and is new to VS2005. In VS2003, as
far as I know, there is not an equivalent. Regarding how to save changes
for VS settings, please give me some time to discuss it with the Visual
Studio development team. I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Please let me know if you have any other concerns, or need anything else.

Regards,
Jialiang Ge (jialge@online.microsoft.com, remove ¡®online.¡¯)
Microsoft Online Community Support

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
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msdnmg@microsoft.com.

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