Designer: Project Panel

The Project panel in the Designer allows you to view the project structure and provides the ability to create new XAML and library (DLL) files, open existing files, and add new folders and/or classes to your project. You can also choose to build or build and run your project. These tasks can all be performed from the right-click menu.

The Designer provides a template for the project, which contains all of the references and code required for a project. Forms and user displays that you create with the Designer are compatible with Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 Express. You can create a form or user display in the Designer and then edit it in Visual Studio.

The Project panel displays a tree view of the project files for the selected resource. When you create a new project, it is set with default folders and files. The following table describes the files and folders located on the Project panel:

Folder/FileDescription
Properties Displays the project properties, such as general information about the .NET assembly, the GUID of the project, and version information for the .NET assembly.
References Contains a list of reference files that describe the .NET assembly.
Resources Contains two subfolders—Images and Video—and a file named DataItems.dita, by default. The Images and Video folders are used to store images and video clips that you can use in your project.

You can configure your project to delete all of the local files when you exit the Designer. When you right-click in the Project panel, the Delete local copy of this project when Editor is closed option determines whether or not to delete the local files. If you want to edit or debug your project files in Visual Studio, clear this option.