Question

It’s not code-related but IDE related. I’m working on a .NET solution with about 35 different projects. These projects need to be re-organized into a new folder structure. Why? Because about 10 of those will be removed and the rest will be divided in more logical units.
One way to do this is by creating a new solution, Drag&Drop the projects into a new folder tree within the Windows explorer and then just add them to the new solution.
To be honest, that sounds dumb!

Is there a way to just move projects into different folders from within the IDE? I’ve tried to “save as” the projects but the IDE won’t accept a different folder.

It’s irritating but because there have been a few wrong choices in folder names, I’m now stuck with those names.

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Example: Right now I have a project main folder which contains child folders named “Client”, “Server”, “Business”, “Database” and whatever more. Within those child folders, there are more child folders, each a three-digit number. Within each numbered folder there’s a project which is named in some logical way, like Company.Business.Customers with additional logic within this project.
The problem is that not all projects now follow this naming convention and I consider it obsolete.
A project like Company.Business.Customers should just be in a folder named Company.Business.Customers in the project root so it’s easier to recognize. The name already makes it clear that it’s a business class for this project. The clear division within client classes, business classes and whatever more just needs to be arranged within the solution, but I want to flatten the file structure. (And remove some obsolete projects.) Basically, I’m not refactoring, I’m just cleaning up.
VS2008 doesn’t seem to have such an option, though…

Answer 1

I’ve used the following solution to solve my problem:

1. I started with a new, empty solution in a new folder.
2. For every project that needed to be moved, I used the Windows explorer to create a child folder in the solution folder, this time with the proper name.
3. I copied the projects from their original location to their new folders.
4. I added all the (moved) existing projects from their new locations.
5. In the Solution Manager, I renamed the projects to a better name.
6. I fixed the project properties and other settings for all projects.

This did clean up the whole project quite nicely. I then added the whole project to Vault (Version Control System) and once it was in the VSS, I deleted the folder again (actually, just renamed it first) and retrieved it back from the VSS system so any obsolete binaries and other garbage was gone too.
It’s a lot of work, but the result turned out exactly what it needed.