Allow guests to view all files in project and open them

[PetriJJ]

Currently guests can only see the source files that the host has opened.
Would it be possible to allow guests to see and open all source files in the project, and create new files if needed.

This would make the sharing very useful, because:

1. You can navigate in the project. Right now when the guest tries to use "Edit->Go to file", they don't see the source files in the project.
2. Situations where you want to ask for help to solve a problem in your code. So you could ask for help from senior developer, or perhaps a developer who is specialized in the issue is in another location. This would make it easier to help with issues, because the host doesn't need to change the branch, and this way to break their own progress. (usually when you need to change branch, you will need to re-generate the project and re-build everything, and this is very time consuming).

Expected workflow when solving problem using Live Share:

1. Host(developer who has a problem) sends a live share link to Guest(senior developer).
2. Host explains the problem to the Guest in visual studio.
3. Guest starts to explore what is causing the issue, and how the best way for solving it, by looking at the opened documents.
4. Guest might need to navigate around in the codebase to see if the problem is caused by parent classes.
5. Guest proposes a solution.
6. While Guest was going through the code, Guest noticed that some of the classes should be broken down, so the Guest creates a new file, and shows how an existing class should be broken down.
7. Host finishes all the changes, commits to git and lives happily ever after.

Performance:
I guess one argument for not having all files visible would be that the guests would need to download the whole codebase, but perhaps there is another way of doing this? You could for example only deliver the list of filenames and file structure. So when the guest wants to open any of the files, only at this point the contents of this file will be transferred to the guest.

More Details:
I'm using Visual Studio 2017, Windows.

Somewhat related requests:
#31

[jramsay]

@PetriJJ: thanks for the feedback! The scenario you mentioned above should now be supported (if I'm reading it correctly). Have you tried installing the latest Live Share extension from the Visual Studio MarketPlace? We recently added support for "Solution View" so if the host is sharing a solution that contains multiple projects then the guest should be able to navigate to any file they want to in the host's codebase. The Guest can also right-click on a project and select the 'Add > New File' option to create a file.

Is this not the case for you? If not, it would be much appreciated if you can provide repro steps/ screen shots of your experience to see where things are falling short.

[PetriJJ]

Hi, thanks for the response.
That's great to hear that this is how it's meant to work.
I will try to find reproduction steps on monday when i get back to work. Perhaps it's our project setup or something.. i'll get back to you.
Cheers.

[Tango199]

@MicrosoftCaitlin @PetriJJ @jramsay

hey guys, this is an issue (or maybe it is intended this way) that I am seeing. I noticed that whenever a new project is created within the solution, it is able to be seen by the collaborating user. If a existing project is added to the solution, the existing project cannot be seen by the user.

I feel like the only files that are shared are the files actually in the same directory as the solution (where as the existing projects when added are in a completely different directory).

Please let me know if that makes sense or not
Thanks.