Customization options for the ArcGIS Snippet Editor Manager

Summary The ArcGIS Snippet Editor Manager has options that give you more control over how ArcGIS snippets are created. This topic shows how to add additional references, extensions, products, and versions to the default choices in the ArcGIS Snippet Editor, making ArcGIS snippets usable in a variety of scenarios.

In this topic

About customization options

Using the ArcGIS Snippet Editor Manager options
Special consideration for references

About customization options

Choose Options under the Tools menu on the ArcGIS Snippet Editor Manager to customize the available options on the ArcGIS Snippet Editor. See the following screen shot:

Screen shot showing the Tools menu and Options selection on the ArcGIS Snippet Editor Manager.

Depending on the customization option, click the applicable References, Extensions, Products, or Versions node under the Customization Option pane. Each customization option operates essentially the same way; however, there are minor graphical user interface (GUI) differences on the right. For example, if you select References as a customization option, it is reflected on the ArcGIS Snippet Editor Manager in the labeling of the text box, buttons, and so on. See the following screen shot:

Screen shot showing the References option on the ArcGIS Snippet Editor Manager.

Using the ArcGIS Snippet Editor Manager options

The following explains the add, remove, and reset options on the ArcGIS Snippet Editor Manager:

Add options—To add a reference, extension, product, or version that is not in the default list, select the customization option, type the applicable name in the text box, and click Add.
Remove options—To remove a reference, extension, product, or version that is in the list, select the customization option and click Remove.
Reset options—To reset a list to its initial installation state and depending on the selected customization option, click Reset Default References, Reset Default Extensions, Reset Default Products, or Reset Default Versions.

Special consideration for references

To add a reference that is not in the default list, type the reference's fully qualified name (without the .dll extension) in the Add Custom References text box and click Add. Do not include the path location as part of the reference name.

The ArcGIS Snippet Finder retrieves the fully qualified name (for example, ESRI.ArcGIS.Carto, MyAssembly, and so on) of the reference necessary for the code from the Extensible Markup Language (XML) for the ArcGIS snippet file.

The directory location for .NET assemblies is not stored in an ArcGIS snippet file (some computers might have assemblies in different locations). The ArcGIS Snippet Finder has an XML preferences configuration file that stores where on disk to search for assemblies. The following is the location of the ArcGIS Snippet Finder preferences file:

%APPDATA%\ESRI\ArcGISSnippets\Settings\ArcGISSnippetPreferences9.xml

The %APPDATA% environment variable is set by the Windows operating system. To verify the %APPDATA% location, type %APPDATA% in Windows Explorer's Address bar, then press Enter.

The <ReferenceDirectory> XML tag is located in ArcGISSnippetPreferences9.xml. The following code example is the default XML in the ArcGISSnippetPreferences9.xml file to search for .NET assemblies:

[XML]


        <ReferenceDirectories>
  <ReferenceDirectory>C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\Primary Interop Assemblies\</ReferenceDirectory>
  <ReferenceDirectory>C:\Program Files\Microsoft Shared\MSEnv\PublicAssemblies\</ReferenceDirectory>
</ReferenceDirectories>

You can specify that the ArcGIS Snippet Finder searches a custom directory location for your .NET assemblies. For example, if you changed your assembly's location to C:\MyAssembly\MyAssembly.dll, you can modify the ArcGISSnippetPreferences9.xml file to include your custom assembly in the ArcGIS Snippet Finder. See the following code example of a modified ArcGISSnippetPreferences9.xml file: