Programmatically modify/create vcproj files - c++

Question

I have a visual c++ project file (vcproj) and i want to programmatically modify it in order to add additional include directories or link libraries.
One solution could be to parse the vcproj as an XML file and modify it. There is any other API to make this easier?

Answer 1

Here is some code I wrote for fetching from a Visual Studio solution (.sln) all the projects it contains, and from each project, all the file (including full paths) it contain.
static strList parseSolution( const char * solName )
{
strList result;
static char drive[_MAX_DRIVE];
static char somepath[_MAX_PATH];
static char buffer[_MAX_PATH];
static char path[_MAX_PATH];
static char ext[_MAX_EXT];
_splitpath( solName, drive, somepath, buffer, ext );
FILE * f = fopen( solName, "r" );
if( NULL == f )
{
printf("ERROR: Solution %s is missing or unavailable.\n", solName );
exit(1);
}
while( !feof(f) )
{
char * res = fgets( buffer, sizeof(buffer), f );
if( NULL == res )
continue;
if( NULL != strstr(buffer, "Project(") )
{
char * ptrName = strchr( buffer, '=' );
char * ptrFile = strchr( ptrName, ',' );
*ptrFile++ = 0;
char * ptrEnd = strchr( ptrFile, ',' );
*ptrEnd++ = 0;
while( ('=' == *ptrName)
||(' ' == *ptrName)
||('"' == *ptrName) ) ptrName++;
if( '"' == ptrName[strlen(ptrName)-1] )
ptrName[strlen(ptrName)-1] = 0;
while( (' ' == *ptrFile)
||('"' == *ptrFile) ) ptrFile++;
if( '"' == ptrFile[strlen(ptrFile)-1] )
ptrFile[strlen(ptrFile)-1] = 0;
_makepath( path, drive, somepath, ptrFile, NULL );
result.push_back( std::string(path) );
}
}
fclose(f);
return result;
}
/**
* Parse project and extract fullpath source filename from project.
*/
static strList parseProject( const char * projName )
{
strList result;
static char drive[_MAX_DRIVE];
static char somepath[_MAX_PATH];
static char buffer[_MAX_PATH];
static char path[_MAX_PATH];
static char ext[_MAX_EXT];
_splitpath( projName, drive, somepath, buffer, ext );
FILE * f = fopen( projName, "r" );
if( NULL == f )
{
printf("ERROR: Project %s is missing or unavailable.\n", projName );
exit(1);
}
while( !feof(f) )
{
char * res = fgets( buffer, sizeof(buffer), f );
if( NULL == res )
continue;
if( (NULL != strstr(buffer, "<ClInclude Include="))
||(NULL != strstr(buffer, "<ClCompile Include=")) )
{
char * ptrName = strchr( buffer, '=' );
char * ptrName1 = strstr( buffer, "/>" );
if( NULL != ptrName1 ) *ptrName1 = 0;
while( ('=' == *ptrName)
||(' ' == *ptrName)
||('"' == *ptrName) ) ptrName++;
while( ('"' == ptrName[strlen(ptrName)-1])
||(' ' == ptrName[strlen(ptrName)-1])
||('\n' == ptrName[strlen(ptrName)-1]))
ptrName[strlen(ptrName)-1] = 0;
_makepath( path, drive, somepath, ptrName, NULL );
result.push_back( std::string(path) );
}
}
fclose(f);
return result;
}
/**
* Recoding source file.
*/
Using these functions you can work on each file, or work on the projects themselves.
strList projectList = parseSolution( argv[1] );
strList::iterator itProj = projectList.begin();
while( itProj != projectList.end() )
{
printf("Project: %s\n", itProj->c_str());
strList fileName = parseProject( itProj->c_str() );
strList::iterator itFile = fileName.begin();
while( itFile != fileName.end() )
{
printf(" File %s\n", itFile->c_str());
// do something with the project file
itFile++;
}
fileName.clear();
itProj++;
}