.net - Cannot find Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextTemplating assembly

Question

I am doing some work with T4 (Text Template Transformation Toolkit) and am trying to get to a point where I can create my own custom text template host. However, all of that relies on the Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextTemplating assembly and I cannot find it on my system!

I first tried adding a reference to the assembly in Visual Studio, but the assembly for Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextTemplating is not listed under the .NET tab.

I then took a look in the %WINDIR%/Assembly directory and found an entry for Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextTemplating. However, when I try and browse to this location and add the assembly in Visual Studio, nothing happens.

Has anybody else had this problem? According to MSDN tuts it sounds like this assembly should be included with Visual Studio (and I have VS 2003, 2005, and 2008 installed).

Answer 1

I have the Visual Studio SDK installed. Here is where the assembly is physically installed on my system:

C:Program FilesMicrosoft Visual Studio 2008 SDKVisualStudioIntegrationCommonAssembliesMicrosoft.VisualStudio.TextTemplating.dll.

It does show up in the Add Reference dialog normally.