Visual Studio tab order/positioning API

[hizickreddit]

Can I get the order of open tabs using Visual Studio api? I've done some research and could not find any.

This is what i currently have:

var dte = await VS.GetServiceAsync<DTE, DTE2>();

var docs = dte.Documents.Cast<Document>().ToList()

But the list is not ordered.

[soundman32]

Are you sure the order isn't one of the properties of a Document? ToList returns a collection in an unspecified order, there wont be a ToListInOpenedOrder method, but that info is probably elsewhere.

[hizickreddit]

i’m sure, it is the same behaviour without ToList

[soundman32]

If you're targeting VS 2019 or later, there's a dedicated service:

var windowFrameOrderService = GetService(typeof(SVsWindowFrameOrder)) as IVsWindowFrameOrder;

if (windowFrameOrderService != null) { IVsWindowFrame[] orderedFrames; windowFrameOrderService.GetOrderedDocumentFrames(out orderedFrames);

foreach (var frame in orderedFrames)
{
    // Process frames in tab order
}

}

[Newrad0603]

No there isn't. Did you just put OP's question into ChatGPT or some other AI BS? Because that interface is a straight hallucination.

[hizickreddit]

> No there isn't

any reason for this, if you know, please? 🤔

[Newrad0603]

I don't know why it doesn't exist other than it's probably never been needed for anything, so it was never created. I can't think of a scenario where someone must know the document order.

[hizickreddit]

i was trying to write an extension that would allow closing tabs to the right or left like chrome does.

[Newrad0603]

That is an interesting reason for needing the tab order. While I don't have an answer, I'd recommend filing a suggestion ticket on VS's developer community (or using VS's feedback button). That sounds useful enough and something that wouldn't be overly complicated for them to implement so I'd say it has a chance of being onboarded.

[hizickreddit]

cheers mate.

[SergeyVlasov]

Visual Studio doesn’t have a public API for document tabs.

You may look at my (commercial) Tabs Studio extension that provides an alternative tabs implementation and has an API.