This is a showcase review for our sponsors at The Code Project. These reviews are intended to provide you with information on products and services that we consider useful and of value to developers.
Introduction
ReSharper is undoubtedly the most intelligent add-in to Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. It comes equipped with a rich set of features that greatly increase the productivity of C# and ASP.NET developers. With ReSharper, you get intelligent coding assistance, on-the-fly error highlighting, and quick error correction, as well as unmatched support for code refactoring, unit testing, and a whole lot more. All of ReSharper's advanced features are available right from Visual Studio.
Key Features
Error Highlighting and Quick-Fixes
ReSharper analyzes and highlights errors in your code while you type, so that you don't even have to compile it first. It also helps you solve problems instantly by suggesting quick-fixes for most errors.
Advanced Coding Assistance
ReSharper offers a number of shortcuts for streamlining common coding tasks to increase your productivity and save your time. In the screenshot above, ReSharper smartly suggests to insert a missing using directive right after you've entered a type name. ReSharper also enables you to quickly generate code using various code templates, view documentation for types and their members right in the editor, and perform code transformations using the so-called "context actions," and a lot more.
ReSharper extends and improves native Visual Studio IntelliSense with three types of Code Completion, the most useful of which are Smart Code Completion and Type Name Completion. Smart Completion works at the right-hand side of assignments, filtering the list of methods and variables to match the expected type of expression. Type Name Completion, unlike basic completion which only suggests types accessible at the current location, completes the names of types available in the current project; it also automatically adds the appropriate using directives when necessary.
Numerous Refactorings
Adding to the list with each new release, ReSharper provides the richest set of automated code refactorings.
| Rename Symbol |
Inline Variable |
Safe Delete |
| Move Type |
Extract Interface |
Convert Method to Property |
| Copy Type |
Extract Superclass |
Convert Property to Method(s) |
| Change Method Signature |
Extract Class from Method Parameters |
Convert Abstract Class to Interface |
| Extract Method |
Make Method Static |
Convert Interface to Abstract Class |
| Extract type to a new file |
Make Method Non-Static |
Encapsulate Field |
| Introduce Variable |
Use Base Type where Possible |
Move Type to Outer Scope |
| Introduce Field |
Pull Members Up |
Move Static Members |
| Introduce Parameter |
Push Members Down |
|
A wealth of refactorings is available for renaming, moving, and safely deleting symbols; introducing and inlining fields, variables, and parameters; and a lot more. In addition, all kinds of simpler code transformations (which are just as convenient and useful) are made possible with Quick-Fixes and Context Actions.
Navigation and Search
Whenever you need to find a certain type, field, method, or any other symbol, ReSharper provides you with a variety of ways to do it. You can find a symbol by name, navigate to a symbol declaration from its reference in the code, or find and highlight symbol usages. You can also use a single shortcut for all navigation actions available at the current position, called Navigate From Here. In addition, ReSharper enables you to thoroughly review type hierarchies and file structures, with its dedicated tool windows that are smartly integrated into the Visual Studio user interface.
Visual Basic Assistance
ReSharper 2.5 extends a number of its smart features to Visual Basic code, including ASP pages written in VB. The greatest benefit is to be experienced by .NET developers working on mixed C# and VB projects. In particular, all of ReSharper's navigation and search features are available. The features also include syntax highlighting, quick documentation lookup, and more.
ASP.NET Support
Now, you can edit ASP.NET files with both pleasure and increased productivity. Take advantage of error highlighting, quick-fixes, context actions, coding assistance, navigation, refactoring, and other features. With ReSharper, you can edit and refactor C# code within ASP.NET as well as Web control properties and events, data sources, and content placeholders, without hassle.
Unit Testing
ReSharper automatically detects unit tests in your code and offers comprehensive unit testing support. The supported test frameworks include NUnit and csUnit. You are able to run and debug tests right from the code editor; at the same time, a dedicated window is provided where you can analyze test results and re-run unit tests.
NAnt and MS Build Scripts Editing
Advanced editing capabilities, previously available only for C#, are now extended to NAnt and MSBuild scripts. As soon as you open a script file in Visual Studio .NET with ReSharper installed, full coding assistance is available.
To get the full story on ReSharper's feature set, please visit the ReSharper Features page.
Why ReSharper
With ReSharper, .NET development becomes a real pleasure. The tool decreases the time you spend on routine, repetitive handwork and gives you more time to focus on the task at hand. Its robust set of features for automatic error-checking and code correction cuts development time and increases your efficiency. You'll find that ReSharper quickly pays back its cost in increased developer productivity and improved code quality. The wait is over� ReSharper is here, and now .NET developers can experience what we mean when we say "Develop with pleasure!"
