QuanTAlib/docs/setup/vscode.md

Development Environment Setup in VS Code

Call me grizzled old man, but I do not like to use full Visual Studio environment for my coding work. Here is the setup for VS Code projects for Quantower, so you can build your own as well.

Prerequisites

• VS Code - obviously
• .NET SDK - you should probably have this already
• C# Dev Kit Extension - so VS Code can understand C#
• C# Base language support Extension - I think this is a prereq for C# Dev Kit and will install automatically
• Polyglot Notebooks Extension - optional, but really recommended for tinkering with C# code

Installation Steps

1. Create a new myIndicator.csproj file in a directory of your choice - it doesn't have to be anywhere in Quantower directory structure
2. Add all standard elements to myIndicator.csproj
3. We need to tell dotnet compiler how to find TradingPlatform.BusinessLayer.dll assembly. it is hiding deep in the bowels of Quantower directory structure, including an ever-changing version directory. Luckily msbuild magick can help:

<PropertyGroup>
  <!-- Point this element to the directory where Quantower is installed -->
  <QuantowerRoot>D:\Quantower</QuantowerRoot>
  <!-- Find the first directory that starts with "v1" in TradingPlatform  -->
  <QuantowerPath>$([System.IO.Directory]::GetDirectories("$(QuantowerRoot)\TradingPlatform", "v1*")[0])</QuantowerPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
  <!-- We need this one so we can compile any classess that use Quantower API -->
  <Reference Include="TradingPlatform.BusinessLayer">
    <HintPath>$(QuantowerPath)\bin\TradingPlatform.BusinessLayer.dll</HintPath>
  </Reference>
  <!-- We need this one so IntelliSense inside VS Code can give us hints -->
  <None Include="$(QuantowerPath)\bin\TradingPlatform.BusinessLayer.xml">
    <Link>TradingPlatform.BusinessLayer.xml</Link>
  </None>
</ItemGroup>

4. Each time dotnet compiler creates a new dll assembly, we need to copy it to the .\Scripts\Indicatiors directory so Quantower can use it. Let's automate this with a post-build event in our myIndicator.csproj:

<Target Name="CopyCustomContent" AfterTargets="AfterBuild">
  <!-- after succesful build, the compiled .dll is copied over to Quantower structure  -->
  <Copy SourceFiles="$(OutputPath)\myIndicator.dll" DestinationFolder="$(QuantowerRoot)\Settings\Scripts\Indicators\myIndicator" />
</Target>

Below is a sample complete .csproj file for a Quantower indicator - it should allow building the .dll assembly and copying it to Quantower structure with dotnet build command:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
    <PropertyGroup>
    <NeutralLanguage>en-US</NeutralLanguage>
    <TargetFramework>net8.0</TargetFramework>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
    <Deterministic>true</Deterministic>
    <LangVersion>preview</LangVersion>
    <AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>false</AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath>
    <GenerateAssemblyInfo>false</GenerateAssemblyInfo>
    <DisableImplicitNamespaceImports>true</DisableImplicitNamespaceImports>
    <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
    <AllowUnsafeBlocks>False</AllowUnsafeBlocks>
    <OutputPath>bin\$(Configuration)\</OutputPath>
    <ProduceReferenceAssembly>False</ProduceReferenceAssembly>
    <DebugType>full</DebugType>
    <PublishRepositoryUrl>true</PublishRepositoryUrl>
    <EmbedUntrackedSources>true</EmbedUntrackedSources>
    <IncludeSymbols>true</IncludeSymbols>
    <SymbolPackageFormat>snupkg</SymbolPackageFormat>
    <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <PropertyGroup>
    <QuantowerRoot>D:\Quantower</QuantowerRoot>
    <QuantowerPath>$([System.IO.Directory]::GetDirectories("$(QuantowerRoot)\TradingPlatform", "v1*")[0])</QuantowerPath>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <Reference Include="TradingPlatform.BusinessLayer">
      <HintPath>$(QuantowerPath)\bin\TradingPlatform.BusinessLayer.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <None Include="$(QuantowerPath)\bin\TradingPlatform.BusinessLayer.xml">
      <Link>TradingPlatform.BusinessLayer.xml</Link>
    </None>
  </ItemGroup>

  <Target Name="CopyCustomContent" AfterTargets="AfterBuild">
     <Copy SourceFiles="$(OutputPath)\myIndicator.dll" DestinationFolder="$(QuantowerRoot)\Settings\Scripts\Indicators\myIndicator" />
    </Target>
</Project>