Add Reference for WPF

17 Jul 20265 minutes to read

Syncfusion Reference Manager is the Visual Studio add-in for the WPF platform. It adds the Syncfusion® assembly reference to the project, either from the GAC location, from the Essential Studio® installed location, or from NuGet packages. It can also migrate the projects that contain the old versions of the Syncfusion® assembly reference to newer or specific versions of the Syncfusion® assembly reference. It supports Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 or higher. This Visual Studio extension is included in the Essential Studio® 2013 Volume 3 release.

NOTE

This Reference Manager can be applied to a project for Syncfusion® assembly versions 10.4.0.71 and later.

To add the Syncfusion® assembly references in Visual Studio, follow the steps below:

Check whether the WPF Extensions - Syncfusion are installed or not in Visual Studio Extension Manager by going to Extensions -> Manage Extensions -> Installed for Visual Studio 2019 or later and for Visual Studio 2017 or lower by going to Tools -> Extensions and Updates -> Installed. If this extension is not installed, please install the extension by following the steps from the download and installation help topic.

  1. Open a new or existing WPF application.

  2. To open the Syncfusion Reference Manager Wizard, follow either one of the options below:

    Option 1:
    Click Extensions->Syncfusion Menu and choose Essential Studio® for WPF > Add References… in Visual Studio.

    Syncfusion Reference Manager via Syncfusion Menu

    NOTE

    In Visual Studio 2017 or lower, click Syncfusion Menu and choose Essential Studio® for WPF>Add References….

    Syncfusion Reference Manager via Syncfusion Menu

    Option 2:

    Right-click the selected project file from Solution Explorer, then select Syncfusion Reference Manager… from Context Menu. The following screenshot shows this option in Visual Studio.

    Syncfusion Reference Manager add-in

  3. The Syncfusion Reference Manager Wizard displays a list of loaded Syncfusion® WPF controls.

    Syncfusion Reference Manger Wizard

    Platform Selection: The platform selection option will appear in Syncfusion Reference Manager if it is opened from a Console/Class Library project. Select the appropriate platform.

    Platform selection option in Syncfusion Reference Manger

    NOTE

    The platform selection option will appear only if Essential Studio® for Enterprise Edition with the platforms WPF and Windows Forms has been installed, or if both Essential Studio® for WPF and WinForms have been installed.

    Assembly From: Choose the assembly location from where the assembly is added to the project.

    Assembly location option in Syncfusion Reference Manger

    NOTE

     The GAC option will not be available when you select a WPF (.NET Core 3.1, .NET 5.0, .NET 6.0, .NET 7.0, and .NET 8.0) application in Visual Studio 2019 or Visual Studio 2022.

    Version: To add the corresponding version assemblies to the project, select the build version.

    Assembly location option in Syncfusion Reference Manger

    NOTE

    WPF (.NET Core 3.1 and .NET 5.0) applications in Visual Studio 2019 are supported from version 18.2.0.44, .NET 6.0 applications in Visual Studio 2022 are supported from 19.4.0.38, .NET 7.0 applications in Visual Studio 2022 are supported from 20.4.0.38, and .NET 8.0 applications in Visual Studio 2022 are supported from 23.2.4. The version combo box is not visible for the NuGet option.

    Themes Option: Choose the necessary themes based on your requirements. To learn more about the built-in themes and their available assemblies, click the link below.

    https://help.syncfusion.com/wpf/themes/

    Themes selection option in Syncfusion Reference Manger

    NOTE

    Themes option will be enabled only if theme-supported controls are selected.

    Themes selection option notification in Syncfusion Reference Manger

  4. Select the required controls you want to add to your project. Then click Done to add the required assemblies for the specified controls to the project. The list of required assemblies to be added for the selected controls is shown in the screenshot below.

    Syncfusion Reference Manager new assemblies add information dialog

  5. Click OK. The listed Syncfusion assemblies are added to the project. Then it notifies, “Syncfusion assemblies have been added successfully,” in the Visual Studio status bar.

    Syncfusion Reference Manager success status in Visual Studio status bar

  6. Then, a message box stating that Syncfusion® license registration is required will be shown if you installed the trial setup or NuGet packages, since Syncfusion® introduced the licensing system starting with the 2018 Volume 2 (v16.2.0.41) Essential Studio® release. Navigate to the help topic, which is shown in the licensing message box, to generate and register the Syncfusion® license key in your project. Refer to this blog post to understand the licensing changes introduced in Essential Studio®.

    Syncfusion license registration required information dialog in Syncfusion Reference Manager

NOTE

Reference Manager support is provided by Syncfusion® for select versions of the .NET Framework that are included (as assemblies) in the Syncfusion® Essential Studio® installation. If you try to add Syncfusion assemblies to a project and the project framework isn’t compatible with the specified Syncfusion® version assemblies, a dialog box appears with the message, “Current build v{version} isn’t compatible with this framework v{Framework} Version.”