[MonoDevelop] How to bind solutionpad nodetype to file format?

[Lauri Taimila]

Hi all, 

I'm new here and asking for guidance with the add-in development. I have been working on lightweight entity framework targeted to mono desktop applications. The framework itself is quite nice and well functioning already, but I want to make using it as easy as possible. Thats why I'm working on MonoDevelop add-in that will provide visual editor for creating entities.

I want to have a custom XML-format that descibes entity set. I have successfully added a new type to "New File..." dialog in MonoDevelop and when I select it, MonoDevelop adds the new file into the current project. I also inherited SingleFileDescriptionTemplate to have default content for new files. I guess this could be done without any added code too.

Now, my question is how can I bind this *.xes filetype to some C# Type? Let me explain this in more detail. I have implemented EntitySet class which can be serialized to XML with MonoDevelop serializer service. I have also implemeted TypeNodeBuilder for EntitySet type, so that I can control project item rendering in solution pad. Only the problem is, that I cannot figure out, how to make MonoDevelop understand that .xes files should be handled as EntitySet type objects.

Hopefully this makes sense to someone. I appriciate any input to my problem!

-- Lauri Taimila
taimila at me.com
www.taimila.com