WinForm Visualizer — Copilot Skill

Description

# WinForm Visualizer — Copilot Skill Capture real Visual Studio WinForms Designer screenshots and generate markdown descriptions for every form in a .NET Framework WinForms project. ## When to Use Use this skill when: - Migrating a .NET Framework WinForms application and you need a visual inventory of all forms - Documenting the UI of an existing WinForms codebase - Creating before/after comparisons during a modernization effort - Reviewing forms in a project without opening Visual Studio manually ## Prerequisites - **Windows** (required — WinForms and VS are Windows-only) - **Visual Studio 2022 or later** installed (the tool drives VS via COM automation) - **.NET 9 SDK** installed (to build and run the tool) - The target WinForms project must be openable in Visual Studio ## How to Build ```powershell cd c:\Code\WinFormMigrate dotnet build WinFormMigrate.sln ``` ## How to Run ```powershell # Basic usage — opens solution in VS, captures all forms, generates markdown + PNGs dotnet run --project src/WinFormVisualizer -- "C:\path\to\YourApp.sln" # Specify output folder dotnet run --project src/WinFormVisualizer -- "C:\path\to\YourApp.sln" --output "C:\output\folder" # Attach to an already-running VS instance instead of launching a new one dotnet run --project src/WinFormVisualizer -- "C:\path\to\YourApp.sln" --attach # Keep VS open after capture completes dotnet run --project src/WinFormVisualizer -- "C:\path\to\YourApp.sln" --keep-vs-open # Custom timeout for VS startup (seconds) dotnet run --project src/WinFormVisualizer -- "C:\path\to\YourApp.sln" --timeout 180 ``` ## Output The tool creates an output folder (default: `WinFormVisualizer_Output` next to the solution) containing: | File | Description | |------|-------------| | `index.md` | Summary of all forms with links to individual files | | `FormName.md` | Per-form markdown: properties, control hierarchy tree, controls table, non-visual components | | `FormName.png` | Designer screenshot captured from the real VS WinForms designer | ## Sample Test Input A sample .NET Framework 4.8 WinForms application is included at `tests/input/SampleWinFormsApp/` with three forms: - **MainForm** — complex form with menus, toolstrip, tabs, datagridview, timer - **LoginForm** — simple login dialog with textboxes and buttons - **SettingsForm** — medium form with tabbed settings, radio buttons, comboboxes Run against the sample: ```powershell dotnet run --project src/WinFormVisualizer -- "tests\input\SampleWinFormsApp\SampleWinFormsApp.sln" ``` ## How It Works 1. **Roslyn Parsing** — Parses each `.Designer.cs` file to extract control hierarchy, properties, and non-visual components 2. **VS COM Automation** — Launches Visual Studio via `devenv.exe`, connects through the Running Object Table (ROT) 3. **Designer Capture** — Opens each form in the VS designer, locates the designer surface via UI Automation, captures via Win32 `PrintWindow` 4. **Markdown Generation** — Produces structured markdown for each form with the captured screenshot embedded ## Limitations - Requires a licensed Visual Studio installation (Community, Professional, or Enterprise) - The first run may take longer as VS initializes the solution and restores packages - UI Automation tree structure may vary between VS versions; debug with `--keep-vs-open` if captures fail - Only captures forms that have `.Designer.cs` files with `InitializeComponent()`

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