The SolZip package provides 3 ways to Compress(Zip) Visual Studio 2008 C# Solutions, C# Projects and Items. A commandline, One using Guidance Automation (GAX) and one using ManagedMenuExtensions.

The concept of SolZip is simple - to enable Zip Compression of Visual Studio Solutions and Projects. This is not a unique idea, others have done it too. The uniqueness comes from the tools used to accomplish this, and the userinterfaces offered.

The simple and smart thing is that SolZip doesn't compress folders but actually reads the sln file and csproj files to infer which items are to be zipped. This also means that it doesn't need special logic to keep out things like the bin and obj folder or .svn folders from subversion.

So it is really not the compression part which makes SolZip extremely valuable. The ability to get all relevant files of the solution, excluding generated assemblies, PDB files, XML files, and other random debris, is something that every developer needs time and time again when they want to share their code with others. The ability to right click on a solution in Visual Studio, and make a Zip file of all relevant files makes this extremely easy.

SolZipMME
SolZipMME uses Managed Menu Extensions to enable Right click menus on Visual Studio Solutions, Projects and Items in the Solution Explorer. It is really the main offering of SolZip.

SolZip Commandline tool
SolZip.exe is a commandline tool for compressing solutions from a dos prompt.

SolZipGuidance
Offers the same Visual Studio Integration as SolZipMME but using Guidance Automation instead of Managed Menu Extensions. It in this sense it is not quite as slick as SolZipMME because you need to enable the guidance package for each solution you want to Compress.

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· Now Source Control bindings for TFS and SCC can be removed from sln and csproj files. The default for all 3 UI's is that the bindings are removed, but you can optionally choose not to remove them. Feel free to contact Jern if you need bindings from other source control vendors removed.
· A bug fixed that made WinZip clients give a warning when unzipping certain archives made by SolZip. The warning was given when there was .. (2 dots) in a path in one of the zipped files.
· The Name SunZip.exe for the commandline tool was changed to SolZip.exe. Because SunZip sounded too much like UnZip.
· The Name SolutionZipper changed to SolZip everywhere. Except for SolutionZipper.dll which has been changed to SolZipBasis.dll