Get Add Connection event of Server Explorer window inside VS package

Question

I'm trying to fire some changes on a Menu after a new connection is added or removed from the Server Explorer window on my Visual Studio package. So I'm looking for an event that I can subscribe or any other way that allows me to detect when a new Connection node is added. Does anybody has done something similar?. Any tips are greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The server explorer is an IVsUIHierarchy similiar to the solution explorer. I haven´t tried it yet, but you should get access to the server explorer hierarchy by requesting an IVsServerExplorer instance, like:

using Microsoft.VSDesigner.ServerExplorer;

...

IVsServerExplorer explorer = (IVsServerExplorer) package.GetGlobalService(typeof(IVsServerExplorer));
IVsUIHierarchy hierarchy;
if ((hierarchy = explorer as IVsUIHierarchy) != null)
{
    ...
}

Once you have the hierarchy you can subscribe for notifications...

IVsHierarchyEvents eventSink = new ...
uint cookie = 0;
int result = hierarchy.AdviseHierarchyEvents(eventSink, out cookie);
if (result != VSConstants.S_OK)
{
    ErrorHandler.ThrowOnFailure(result);
}

You need to provide an IVsHierarchyEvents instance; this object will receive the notifications. I suggest to implement that interface to a listener class, which handles advise and unadvise properly (you need to keep the cookie, in order to unsubscribe from event notification).

class HierarchyEventsListener : IVsHierarchyEvents, IDisposable
{
    private readonly IVsUIHierarchy hierarchy;

    private uint cookie;

    protected HierarchyEventsListener(IVsUIHierarchy hierarchy)
    {
        this.hierarchy = hierarchy;

        int hr = this.hierarchy.AdviseHierarchyEvents(this, out cookie);
        ErrorHandler.ThrowOnFailure(hr);
    }

    public int OnItemAdded(uint itemidParent, uint itemidSiblingPrev, uint itemidAdded)
    {
        ...
    }

    ...

    public void Dispose()
    {
        if (this.cookie != 0)
        {
            this.hierarchy.UnadviseHierarchyEvents(this.cookie);
            this.cookie = 0;
        }
    }
}

In your case you might be interested in the OnItemAdded- and/or OnItemsAppended-method, which allows you to query the newly added item...

public int OnItemAdded(uint itemidParent, uint itemidSiblingPrev, uint itemidAdded)
{
    const int Property = (int)__VSHPROPID.VSHPROPID_Caption; // let´s ask for the caption (for instance)
    object value;
    int hr = this.hierarchy.GetProperty(itemidAdded, Property, out value);
    if (hr == VSConstants.S_OK)
    {
        ...
    }

    return VSConstants.S_OK;
}

Maybe you´ll need to play with it to figure out, if the added item is a connection node (guess there´s a type property or such), or not.