BUG: EnvDTE.UIHierarchyItems does not work correctly in Visual Studio 2005 if Solution Explorer nodes are not opened previously

Author:	Carlos J. Quintero (Microsoft MVP)	Applies to:	Microsoft Visual Studio 2005
Date:	April 2007

Introduction

When using a macro or add-in in VS 2005 to iterate the nodes of the Solution Explorer, some nodes inside solution folders are not returned if you didn't expand them previously by hand.

Cause

This seems to be a bug of Visual Studio 2005.

More Information

Steps to reproduce the problem:

• Create a macro like the following, which iterates recursively the nodes of the solution explorer:

  Sub NavigateSolutionExplorerHierarchy()

      NavigateUIHierarchyItems(DTE.ToolWindows.SolutionExplorer.UIHierarchyItems)

  End Sub

  Private Sub NavigateUIHierarchyItems(ByVal colUIHierarchyItems As UIHierarchyItems)

      For Each objUIHierarchyItem As UIHierarchyItem In colUIHierarchyItems

          System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(objUIHierarchyItem.Name)

          NavigateUIHierarchyItems(objUIHierarchyItem.UIHierarchyItems)

      Next

  End Sub

• Create a blank solution in Visual Studio 2005 ("Other Project Types", "Visual Studio Solutions").
• Add to the solution a solution folder (such as "NewFolder1").
• Add to the solution folder a child solution folder (such as "NewFolder11").
• Add a project (such as "ClassLibrary1") to the child solution folder ("NewFolder11").
• Collapse the child solution folder ("NewFolder11") in the Solution Explorer.
• Collapse the solution folder ("NewFolder1") in the Solution Explorer.
• Close the solution (saving the changes).
• Open the solution again. The nodes in the Solution Explorer are collapsed.
• Run the macro. Notice that the project node ("ClassLibrary1") is not listed.
• Expand all the nodes in the Solution Explorer.
• Run the macro again. This time the project node ("ClassLibrary1") is listed.

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