How to duplicate a document on Visual Studio 2022?

Question

How to duplicate a document on Visual Studio 2022?

Lilo 40

I'm working on a Visual Studio 2022 C# extension, and I'm trying to "programmatically" duplicate an open document and move it into a different group.

By "duplicate" I mean like when you click on the option "Window > New Window" and it creates a "file.ext:2" copy of the original file.

For example, suppose I have two document groups opened side by side on the IDE:

First: file.cpp, main.cpp

Second: file.cpp:2 (this is a dupe/clone of file.cpp)

How I could programmatically make a "main.cpp:2" dupe/clone and also move it to the second "group"?

// ...
IVsWindowFrame secondGroupFrame; // A random IVsWindowFrame that is on the second group
// ...

DTE2 dte = (DTE2)Package.GetGlobalService(typeof(DTE));
try
{
    foreach (Document doc in dte.Documents)
    {
        if (doc.FullName != searchedDoc)
            continue;
			
		Window newWindow = doc.NewWindow();
		 
		// Find the newWindow frame
		IVsWindowFrame[] frame = new IVsWindowFrame[1];
		uint fetched;
		while (enumFrames.Next(1, frame, out fetched) == VSConstants.S_OK && fetched == 1)
		{
			frame[0].GetProperty((int)__VSFPROPID.VSFPROPID_ExtWindowObject, out object pvar);
			if (pvar is Window fframe && fframe == newWindow)
			{
				windowFrame = frame[0];
				break;
			}
		}


{
    foreach (Document doc in dte.Documents)
    {
        if (doc.FullName != searchedDoc)
            continue;
			
		 Window newWindow = doc.NewWindow();

I figured how to "duplicate" the document and also how to find the new document IVSWindowFrame and also the frame of a document in the "second group", but I'm not finding a way to move it to the second group.

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Answer 1

Visual Studio exposes exactly the same “Window → New Window” feature you use by hand through the VS SDK:

step	API	what it does
①	IVsUIShellOpenDocument.OpenCopyOfStandardEditor	creates the “file:2” clone of an existing IVsWindowFrame (that is the programmatic equivalent of New Window)
①	IVsUIShellOpenDocument.OpenCopyOfStandardEditor	creates the “file:2” clone of an existing IVsWindowFrame (that is the programmatic equivalent of New Window)
②	Window.Activate / DTE.ExecuteCommand("Window.MoveToNextTabGroup")(or …PreviousTabGroup, …MainDocumentGroup)	moves the active document tab into any other document-group, exactly the way the built-in menu items Window → Move to Next Tab Group / Previous Tab Group do

// async package suggested – avoids blocking the UI thread
public async Task DuplicateIntoOtherGroupAsync(IVsWindowFrame sourceFrame)
{
    // 1. clone the document (New Window)
    var openDoc = await AsyncServiceProvider.GlobalProvider
                       .GetServiceAsync(typeof(SVsUIShellOpenDocument))
                       as IVsUIShellOpenDocument;

    Guid logicalView = VSConstants.LOGVIEWID_Primary;      // normal text view
    IVsWindowFrame cloneFrame;
    ErrorHandler.ThrowOnFailure(
        openDoc.OpenCopyOfStandardEditor(sourceFrame, ref logicalView, out cloneFrame));

    // 2. show the new frame and obtain the EnvDTE.Window wrapper
    cloneFrame.Show();
    cloneFrame.GetProperty((int)__VSFPROPID.VSFPROPID_ExtWindowObject, out object winObj);
    var dteWin = (EnvDTE.Window)winObj;

    // 3. move it to the other document group
    dteWin.Activate();                                     // becomes the active tab
    var dte = (EnvDTE80.DTE2)Package.GetGlobalService(typeof(SDTE));
    dte.ExecuteCommand("Window.MoveToNextTabGroup");
}

Duplicate – OpenCopyOfStandardEditor gives you the brand-new IVsWindowFrame (main.cpp:2, etc.).

Relocate – activating that frame and firing the built-in command moves it to the neighbour group; if you want the group on the left instead of the right, use Window.MoveToPreviousTabGroup, or send the command twice to hop across several groups.

Because you are executing the same IDE commands the UI uses, you don’t have to worry about low-level frame layout APIs, persistence, or edge-cases—Visual Studio handles all of that for you.

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How to duplicate a document on Visual Studio 2022?

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