Simple project type that supports .js and .vbs files; can run and debug them using cscript.exe.

• File globbing (project automatically includes *.js and *.vbs under the project cone)
• Editing the project file without unloading the project (right click on the project node - Edit)
• Project handles own reload without the solution doing a full reload when the project file changes on disk
• Custom properties
• Custom item type - project defines Script item type to include *.js and *.vbs files
• Custom debug launch provider using custom properties to invoke cscript.exe and run the script file
• Run from command line using the same parameters defined above via msbuild target:

  msbuild /t:run
  

1. Open WindowsScript.sln in Visual Studio 2017 and use Ctrl + F5 to run it. This will open the Experimental instance of Visual Studio
2. From the main menu, File -> New Project, select WindowsScript -> Windows Script Project and press OK. This will create a new project that contains a Start.js file
3. In the generated project, insert a breakpoint on the 2nd line of Start.js
4. Press F5 - this will start the debugger; it will stop at the breakpoint
5. Switch to the cscript window - the default implementation displays information about the execution context (which script is running, current directory, arguments)

The sample doesn't currently provide any item templates. To create new files, you can:

• copy-paste the default Start.js
• create new script files (.vbs or .js) in Windows Explorer; the project includes automatically all *.js and *.vbs located under the project cone

Project uses a custom property StartItem to specify which script file to run. The default value is Start.js.

1. Open the Property Pages dialog (right click on the project node -> Properties)
2. Set the value of Start Item property (located under Common Properties -> General) to specify the file you would like to run (e.g. Foo.js)

This value gets persisted in the project file:

<StartItem>Foo.js</StartItem>

Project supports a few additional properties to control the script execution. They can be set from the project properties dialog (Configuration Properties -> Debugging -> Script Debugger) and get persisted in the .user file (next to the project).

• Command (persisted as RunCommand) - specifies which tool to invoke to run the script; by default it uses cscript.exe but you can set it to wscript.exe (offered conveniently as a predefined value when you expand the drop down)
• Command Arguments (persisted as RunCommandArguments) - specifies additional arguments to pass to the script; by default it is empty
• Working Directory (persisted as RunWorkingDirectory) - specifies the working directory for the script; by default it is the project folder

• Default values are defined in the .props file. This allows them to be used from msbuild when the value is not specified.

• .user file is imported in .targets for consumption by msbuild

  <Import Project="$(MSBuildProjectFullPath).user" Condition="Exists('$(MSBuildProjectFullPath).user')" /> 

These properties are consumed in 2 different places:

• Debug Launch Provider (F5 and Ctrl F5 from Visual Studio) - see ScriptDebuggerLaunchProvider.cs
• The Run Target - that can be used from MSBuild - see CustomProject.targets using

  MSBuild /t:Run