Cannot find VS bonsai extension

[ablot]

Hi all,

I tried to follow the create package guide on the docs but after installing visual studio (community 2022) and bonsai v2.9 I don't have a 'Install bonsai VS extensions' shortcut. I thought it could be because I already installed it a long time ago (with bonsai 2.6 IIRC) but there are no templates in visual studio.

So I guess I have 3 questions:

• Is the create package tutorial still up to date?
• Which version of visual studio should I use?
• How can I find the bonsai templates?

Thanks!

[banchan86]

Hi @ablot the "Install Bonsai VS extensions" has been deprecated, we are in the midst of updating the create package guide for Bonsai 2.9.0, but these are the new starting steps:

1. Install .NET 8.0 SDK
2. In a command-line terminal, run

dotnet new install Bonsai.Templates

The templates can now be found in visual studio (you can use Visual Studio Community 2022) and it should look like this:

[banchan86]

Hi @ablot my previous post was wrong, sorry about that! I updated the post with the new instructions.

[ablot]

Great! It works thanks!
I copied them to the docs if it helps: bonsai-rx/docs#150 Feel free to close if you are refactoring the page anyways

[banchan86]

@ablot thanks for the PR! Indeed I am in the midst of updating the page (it might need a more extensive refactoring to bring in the other command-line templates), so it will likely be superseded by that :( but such contributions are welcome! Also thanks for raising the issue in the first place!

If you notice anything else, feel free to raise it here. I think so far I noticed that the source.cs1 code is a little different, it has XML comments, but any code that is provided by the BonsaiTemplates supersedes the code snippets in that article.

[ablot]

If you're redoing the page, it might be worth adding a note on the page about the need to tag bonsai workflows as resources. I couldn't recall why it didn't appear at first (but I recalled that there is a discussion mentioning the solution https://github.com/orgs/bonsai-rx/discussions/1533)

[ablot]

Actually maybe it didn't fully work. I get the templates but when I create a bonsai package and try to add a new item, I don't have the bonsai templates in the C# item category. I tried to search for Bonsai in visual studio Extension manager but didn't get any results.

Do you know how I could add the template for Source/Transform/Workflow etc ?

[banchan86]

@ablot Just got to the same point you did haha!

So unfortunately Visual Studio does not yet expose the C# item templates for Sink/Transform/Visualizer/Workflow for the new BonsaiTemplates :(

However BonsaiTemplates was also designed to be used as a command-line tool, and the templates for those items are accessible there. For instance, as an alternative to going through Visual Studio, creating a package can be done with:

dotnet new bonsaipackage -n PackageName

After the package project is set up, you can navigate to the project src folder (src\BonsaiPackage for instance) and add a new Bonsai Sink with

dotnet new bonsaisink -n OperatorName

To debug the code and run the bonsai editor with the project loaded, a local bonsai environment needs to be setup in the solution folder (the one with artifacts, build, src) with:

dotnet new bonsaienv

Press y to run the powershell script

To find a list of available templates, you can use:

dotnet new uninstall

I know that command seems unintuitive/dangerous haha. You can also use the dotnet new --list command, but I find this to be cleaner as it just shows new installed templates.

[ablot]

Thanks! That's great and actually more convenient for me since I use vscode most of the time and wasn't sure if I could do the same as in visual studio

[banchan86]

@ablot some more information for you on the templates #2306

[ablot]

Ah yes I was trying to copy paste stuff in the .bonsai folder manually, having the bonsaienv command is nicer

[banchan86]

Draft version of the revised article bonsai-rx/docs#151 (online preview in the description).

[banchan86]

Just reopening the discussion so that other users in search of the solution in the interim can find it :)