How to publish file from subfolder to main application folder? - visual-studio

Question

I have a WinForms NET4.8 desktop app that I publish using ClickOnce. I have a dll file in a project subfolder that I need published to the same directory as the main app. I have the following in my csproj file:
<PropertyGroup>
<UnreferencedDlls>lib\twaindsm.dll</UnreferencedDlls>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn>
CustomCollectFiles;
$(CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn);
</CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<Message Text="Copying unreferenced DLLs to bin" Importance="High" />
<CreateItem Include="$(UnreferencedDlls)">
<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="_UnReferencedDLLs" />
</CreateItem>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(_UnReferencedDLLs)" DestinationFolder="$(OutputPath)\%(RecursiveDir)" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
</Target>
<Target Name="CustomCollectFiles">
<Message Text="Publishing unreferenced DLLs" Importance="High" />
<ItemGroup>
<_CustomFiles Include="$(UnreferencedDlls)" />
<FilesForPackagingFromProject Include="%(_CustomFiles.Identity)">
<DestinationRelativePath>$(OutputPath)\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</DestinationRelativePath>
</FilesForPackagingFromProject>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
The file is published to the subfolder.
I change this line:
<DestinationRelativePath>$(OutputPath)\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</DestinationRelativePath>
to:
<DestinationRelativePath>$(OutputPath)\%(Filename)%(Extension)</DestinationRelativePath>
But it still doesn't work.
How can I force the file to be published to the same folder as the app?

Answer 1

I don't know if it can help you: %(RecursiveDir)
If the Include attribute contains the wildcard **, this metadata
specifies the part of the path that replaces the wildcard.
Maybe you can try to change the path of the dll. I put it into ProjectDir\lib\Debug\ and here is my code:
<PropertyGroup>
<UnreferencedDlls>lib\**\ClassLibrary1.dll</UnreferencedDlls>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn>
CustomCollectFiles;
$(CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn);
</CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<Message Text="Copying unreferenced DLLs to bin" Importance="High" />
<CreateItem Include="$(UnreferencedDlls)">
<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="_UnReferencedDLLs" />
</CreateItem>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(_UnReferencedDLLs)" DestinationFolder="bin\%(RecursiveDir)" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
</Target>
<Target Name="CustomCollectFiles">
<Message Text="Publishing unreferenced DLLs" Importance="High" />
<ItemGroup>
<_CustomFiles Include="$(UnreferencedDlls)" />
<FilesForPackagingFromProject Include="%(_CustomFiles.Identity)">
<DestinationRelativePath>bin\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</DestinationRelativePath>
</FilesForPackagingFromProject>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
You can also refer to this page hope it can help you.