Opening a Folder in Visual Studio

To open a folder that contains your source files:

  1. In Visual Studio, click File > Open > Folder.
  2. Navigate to the folder, and click Select Folder.

    This opens the folder in Solution Explorer and displays its contents, files and any subfolders.

The Open Folder workspace and mfworkspace.json

The folder opened in the IDE in Open Folder mode is known as the workspace.

When you open sources in Open Folder mode, Visual Studio creates a mfworkspace.json file in which it stores some information about how you work with your application and any non-default properties you specify.

If you change any of the properties of a file in a subfolder of the main folder, Visual Studio creates a mfworkspace.json file that stores the changes in that subfolder.

Micro Focus recommends that you avoid editing this file directly. Instead, use the folder and file properties accessed from the context menu in Solution Explorer.

Working with files

You can edit, compile and debug your source files in Open Folder mode. Context menu commands are available in the editor and in Solution Explorer.

Most of the features in the editor are available as well including some of the quick actions - for finding or creating a copybook, extract to section, and setting the CICSECM Compiler directive.