Suppose we have a Visual Studio template that we would like to distribute within our organization. This template is hosted on an SVN server. I would like users to be able to point Nuget to the SVN location and get the template installed in the proper location just like any other package. Is this possible?
Is this possible?
We can do it but individuals do NOT recommend it.
How
According to the NuGet document:
Put simply, a NuGet package is a single ZIP file with the .nupkg
extension that contains compiled code (DLLs), other files related to
that code, and a descriptive manifest that includes information like
the package's version number. Developers with code to share create
packages and publish them to a public or private host. Package
consumers obtain those packages from suitable hosts, add them to their
projects, and then call a package's functionality in their project
code. NuGet itself then handles all of the intermediate details.
However, the Visual Studio Template is a file with the .zip extension, which could not be recognized by NuGet. Even if we point NuGet to the SVN location, NuGet still can not recognize it.
To resolve this issue, we have to create a NuGet package to include this Visual Studio Template .zip file, like:
<files>
<file src="TestDemo.zip" target="Tools\TestDemo.zip" />
</files>
Besides, there is another question, when we install this nuget package to the project, this Visual Studio Template .zip file would be downloaded to the \packages folder in the solution folder. We have to move it to the Visual Studio Templates folder.
So, we have to add .targets with copy task in that nuget package to copy zip file to the Visual Studio Templates folder.
The content of .targets file:
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="CopyTemplate" BeforeTargets="Build">
<Message Text="Copy Template to template folder."></Message>
<Copy
SourceFiles="$(SolutionDir)packages\MyTemplatePackage.1.0.0\Tools\TestDemo.zip"
DestinationFolder="$(USERPROFILE)\Documents\Visual Studio 2017\Templates\ProjectTemplates"
/>
</Target>
</Project>
Finally, the .nuspec file like following:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<package >
<metadata>
<id>MyTemplatePackage</id>
<version>1.0.0</version>
<authors>Tester</authors>
<owners>Tester</owners>
<requireLicenseAcceptance>false</requireLicenseAcceptance>
<description>Package description</description>
<releaseNotes>Summary of changes made in this release of the package.</releaseNotes>
<copyright>Copyright 2018</copyright>
<tags>Tag1 Tag2</tags>
</metadata>
<files>
<file src="TestDemo.zip" target="Tools\TestDemo.zip" />
<file src="MyTemplatePackage.targets" target="Build\MyTemplatePackage.targets" />
</files>
</package>
Then pack this .nuspec file, add this nuget package to the SVN location, add the SVN location to the nuget package source, you can install this nuget package to the project, and build the project, Visual Studio will download that nuget package and copy .zip file to the Visual Studio Templates folder.
I have created a sample test nuget package and it work fine on my side with Visual Studio 2017, you can test it on VS2017: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ai1sp_yvodHf2Vax7TzuC6HQUD5w
Why not recommend
Just as you can see above, it is not easy and simple to do this, we have to do a lot of things to create that nuget package. What`s more, in order to get the template we have to create a project and install that package and build the project. It pulls in too many extra operations. Besides, when you change anything in the template, you have to re-create this package and install it.
Since this template is hosted on an SVN server, you can just check it to the Visual Studio template folder, this will be more effective.
Hope this complicated answer helps.
Related
I have been working with Artifactory NuGet packages in Visual Studio 2019 recently, and have a workflow which looks sort of like this:
Add private Artifactory repo as NuGet Package Source
Download specific older version of my NuGet package [either using Package Manager UI or Package Manager Console]
Once NuGet package is installed, build VS2019 project
I need to eliminate the need for a user to know how to go through these steps, and make it as simple as possible for a Visual Studio 2019 project to automatically install a specific version of my private NuGet package hosted in artifactory.
I've been trying to accomplish this but with no luck, I'm not sure if this would best be done by editing the Visual Studio project file, or by editing the windows global nuget.config file, or create a custom nuget.config file for my visual studio project.
Any advice/help would be appreciated, thanks.
Since your question does not contain relevant information like if you're using a Visual Studio Solution (*.sln file), Git, etc., I can only have a guess 😉
Assuming you're using Git and having a folder structure like this:
- MyProject
- .git
- MyProject.sln
- ProjectA
- ProjectA.csproj
- ProjectB
- ProjectB.csproj
Now you can create a file MyProject/NuGet.config with the following content and put it under version control:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<packageSources>
<add key="Your Artifactory source" value="https://your.artifactory.source/v3/index.json" />
</packageSources>
</configuration>
According to the docs, NuGet should pick up NuGet.config automatically.
I Create a NuGet package and install into another project. but don't copy a file into the location project. only my file reference to NuGet package and I change the code, The package also changes! I want to copy the package to the target project.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<package>
<metadata minClientVersion="3.3.0">
<id>MyPackage</id>
<version>1.0.0</version>
<authors>Meysam</authors>
<owners>Meysam</owners>
<requireLicenseAcceptance>false</requireLicenseAcceptance>
<description>Package description</description>
<releaseNotes>Summary of changes made in this release of the package.</releaseNotes>
<copyright>Copyright 2018</copyright>
<tags>Tag1 Tag2</tags>
<contentFiles>
<files include="cs/*.*/**" buildAction="Compile" />
</contentFiles>
</metadata>
<files>
<file src="ConsoleApp1\CustomClass\CustomClass.cs" target="contentFiles\cs\any\CustomClass" />
</files>
</package>
Copying files into the project that uses a nuget package is only supported when using packages.config, which isn't supported by SDK-style projects, which are required for .NET Core projects. As your screenshots show, contentFiles in PackageReferences projects are included at build time. The little arrow icon in the bottom right corner of the C# and folder icons you pointed to in your screenshot are visual indicators that the file and folder are different to the other files and folders in your project. In fact, that little icon overlay is similar to what Windows adds for shortcuts, so if you understand a shortcut is a file that "points to" another file, it should make sense that these are shortcuts to files outside your project, but are included as part of your project.
Anyway, it's working as designed.
You'll need to find another way to do whatever you want, but you didn't describe why you're trying to include a file in the project that references your package, so I can't give direct advice. My best advice, if you are experienced with ASP.NET and ASP.NET Core is think about how ASP.NET used to read a lot of settings directly from web.config, but ASP.NET Core instead uses a builder pattern, so that users are not forced to store settings in web.config and can store settings anywhere they want. If what you're doing is similar, your package users will have a better experience if you provide them with a configuration builder that they can override, rather than having a file in their project that they must edit and gets overwritten every time they upgrade to a new version of your package.
Cannot copy folder with nuget package in .net core
Yes, just like zivkan said:
Copying files into the project that uses a nuget package is only
supported when using packages.config
But, we could use a workaround to resolve this issue. We could add a copy task in the xx.targets file, and set this file in the \build folder in the .nuspec file.
The content of mypackage.targets file:
<Target Name="CopyFile" AfterTargets="AfterBuild">
<ItemGroup>
<CopyFiles Include="$(NuGetPackageRoot)\mypackage\4.0.0\cs\*.*\**" />
</ItemGroup>
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(CopyFiles)"
DestinationFolder="$(ProjectDir)"
/>
</Target>
And the .nuspec file:
<file src="xxx\xxx\mypackage.targets" target="build" />
Hope this helps.
I'm trying to get content files in a C#.Net project that is being packed into a Nuget package to flatten the containing folders. Based on this page it seems that this is possible with the flatten attribute.
But I want to use the new MSBuild Nuget packaging built into VS2017. Based on this page, I should be able to achieve the same thing with the <PackageFlatten> tag, but I cannot get it to work.
Here is a basic project file which demonstrates the problem. I'm expecting the single content file under the folder hierarchy .\RemoveMe\ContentFile.txt to end up in the Nuget package under .\content\ContentFile.txt - i.e. without the folder RemoveMe. But I still get this subfolder.
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>netstandard2.0</TargetFramework>
<GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="RemoveMe\ContentFile.txt">
<PackageFlatten>true</PackageFlatten>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
Specify PackageFlatten for content files in Nuget package using Visual Studio 2017
It should be a issue about argument flatten="true" for me. According to the document NuGet ContentFiles Demystified：
flatten - Should the files be all delivered to the root folder of the project or should they keep the folder structure that they were packaged in. The default value is false, which indicates they should create (if necessary) and keep the same structure they have after the TFM folder in the pacakge.
So if we set this argument flatten="true" in the .nuspec file, then pack this .nuspec, install the generate nuget package to the project, the file should be delivered to the root folder of the project. But after install this package to project, still got the that file in the sub-folder RemoveMe not in the root folder.
I also test other arguments buildAction="content" copyToOutput="false", both of them works fine.
So it should be a issue for the argument flatten="true", I submit this issue on GitHub, you can track this issue.
I'm working on a NuGet package that adds a step to the build process by using a .targets file.
I need to reference other files from my NuGet package in order to complete the build successfully.
In the past, I've used $(SolutionDir)packages\MyPackage and all has worked fine.
However, I was just playing around with the VS 2017 RC, and I noticed that my package was installed in the global NuGet package directory, not in the solution folder.
Is there some macro that I can use from MSBuild, that contains the path for the NuGet packages folder? It is a requirement that I maintain compatibility with VS2012.
The $(NuGetPackageRoot) macro points to the package root.
You can use an alternative method that create a NuGet.Config file in the root of the \Solutions\ folder to set the package repositoryPath of VS 2017 RC, add to NuGet.Config the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<config>
<add key="repositoryPath" value="$\..\Packages" />
</config>
</configuration>
For the repositoryPath setting, you can specify an absolute path or relative path (recommended) using the $ token. The $ token is based on where the NuGet.Config is located. In this case, you package will install in $(SolutionDir)packages\ folder, you can used $(SolutionDir)packages\MyPackage for Visual Studio 2017 RC. It`s also maintain compatibility with VS2012.
This link How do I create an XML Intellisense file for my DLL? explains how to build your dlls so that an XML file is included containing all your documentation headers so that they are available in those IntelliSense popups.
In my company we frequently distribute our own dlls using an internal NuGet package source. When I create NuGet packages for the package source, how do I ensure that someone else gets the dll from the package source, IntelliSense displays the documentation headers for them?
If you distribute your XML files with your NuGet package in the same folder as your Dlls then Visual Studio will then find these XML files and show IntelliSense for your assemblies.
To distribute the IntelliSense XML files you will need to add them to your .nuspec file, for example:
<files>
<file src="bin\IronPython.dll" target="lib\Net40" />
<file src="bin\IronPython.xml" target="lib\Net40" />
</files>
tl;dr documentation files need to be .xml not .XML
I was able to get the XML files included by first enabling the production using the Build tab, checking XML Documentation File in the Output section. Note: for some reason I had to manually change the extension from .XML to lowercase .xml. YMMV. This is the same as the question you referenced, How do I create an XML Intellisense file for my DLL?.
Once done, I created the Nuspec file in the project directory. Here's a sample, you can also generate it with nuget spec MyAssembly.dll - but make sure to edit it and set the values appropriately.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<package >
<metadata>
<id>$id$</id>
<version>1.0.0</version>
<title>Title for your package</title>
<authors>Package Author</authors>
<owners>Package Owner</owners>
<requireLicenseAcceptance>false</requireLicenseAcceptance>
<description>A description of your library</description>
<releaseNotes>Release notes for this version.</releaseNotes>
<copyright>Copyright 2013</copyright>
<tags>tag1 tag2</tags>
</metadata>
</package>
Once that was done, I used Nuget to package. Note I had to specify the platform because I'm using a 64-bit OS, but I don't have any targets in the project for x64, only AnyCPU
nuget pack MyAssembly.csproj -Prop Configuration=Release;Platform=AnyCPU -build
The assembly and it's associated documentation were automatically included in the package. In addition any packages that you've used in your project are added to the dependency list.
See http://docs.nuget.org/docs/creating-packages/creating-and-publishing-a-package for more information.