How do you create VS templates manually?

[Matthew]

Howdy All,

How does one create VS template ZIP files manually?

If I use the Export Template feature in VS, it gives me the ZIP file
which contains my template files plus a .vstemplate file with some
setup information.

I would like to edit the .vstemplate file to include different
substitution parameters in the project name or file names. I can
extract this file, edit it at will, but I am unable to get it back
into the ZIP file. It fails with an error of "Invalid or unsupported
ZIP file format."

If I try to just create my own ZIP file using either Windows
Compressed Folders or WinZip, then VS is unable to open it.

Is there a command line or some other tool I can use to create VS
templates?

Thank you in advance,
Matthew

 

[Gregory A. Beamer]

How does one create VS template ZIP files manually?

I suspect there is some type of checksum of the zip file which is
invalidated when you manually edit the template. If it were me, I would
look for the tooling bits in the Framework and see how MS is packaging
the zip file to see what step you are missing when you manually edit the
file for different scenarios.

I would imagine keeping the raw files out of a zip until you compile it
for the custom implementation is the sanest approach.

Peace and Grace,