Set up Visual Studios 2015 project with installed Sitecore

ref – https://www.akshaysura.com/2016/06/29/tihidi-setup-a-visual-studio-2015-sitecore-8-x-mvc-solution/

Assuming you have a Sitecore site already set up with the Sitecore Instance Manager, you want to create a project in Visual studio so that you can start developing custom code for sitecore.

Initial Setup

First create a new folder on your desktop like so:

C:\Users\Ricky_Tsao\Desktop\Projects\TIHIDI

Then create folders Dependencies and Source like so:

C:\Users\Ricky_Tsao\Desktop\Projects\TIHIDI\Dependencies
C:\Users\Ricky_Tsao\Desktop\Projects\TIHIDI\Source

Source folder is where you’ll put your Visual Studios project.

Then create folder Sitecore under Dependencies like so:
C:\Users\Ricky_Tsao\Desktop\Projects\TIHIDI\Dependencies\Sitecore

Creating VS project

new_project

Start the VS as an admin. Go to File > New > Project. Under New Project, click on Web, then new ASP.NET project.

Give it a name, say THIHIDI.WEB. Then under location, Browse to:

C:\Users\Ricky_Tsao\Desktop\Projects\TIHIDI\Source

This is where you will be putting all the project files. Uncheck create directory for solution. This is because the Source folder is already the directory for our solution.

project_location

Then on the next screen, we’ll select the Empty project, check the “MVC” box, and click OK.

empty_mvc

Settings

When the project is up, Delete the Web.config and Global.asax.

delete_global_web

What we’re gunna do is to get the web.config and global.asax from the installed sitecore site, and copy it into our visual studio project.

copy global.asax and config.web from:
C:\inetpub\wwwroot\hadoken\Website

into

C:\Users\Ricky_Tsao\Desktop\Projects\TIHIDI\Source\TIHIDI.Web\

App Config

Create App_Config folder in C:\Users\Ricky_Tsao\Desktop\Projects\TIHIDI\Source\TIHIDI.Web\

app_config

Copy the ConnectionStrings.config and Sitecore.config from:
C:\inetpub\wwwroot\hadoken\Website\App_Config

in to your visual studio’s (Web project root) > App_Config folder:
C:\Users\Ricky_Tsao\Desktop\Projects\TIHIDI\Source\TIHIDI.Web\App_Config

cp_config_appconfig

Back in Visual Studio 2015, include the newly created App_Config folder. If you don’t see the App_Config folder, go to menu Project > Show All Files. Then you should be able to see the App_Config folder.

Also include the copied Global.asax and Web.config.

Add references to the Sitecore.Kernel.dll and Sitecore.Mvc.dll from

C:\Users\Ricky_Tsao\Desktop\Projects\TIHIDI\Dependencies\Sitecore

Open Views\web.config and add the following to the end of the node so that you can use @Html.Sitecore() in your views.

Restart Visual Studio 2015 and reopen the solution.

Rebuild solution.

At this point we have everything we need to deploy. Double check to make sure your MVC versions matchup before you deploy to the website. In my case, no additional work needed.
Setup a One Click Publish profile pointing to the website root.