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.
Related
before i start i must state that i pretty new to this nuget package things, so come basic at me.
My app has a core project to carry some .dll and .sql files and an api project. I have made the core project a nuget package with dotnet pack and automated it on github action so it creates a new version at all prs and pushes it to my private nuget server and it is all fine till here.
When i install this core package to my api project, there is no problem either. It installs successfully and my sql files shows up on the target project as i expected(but as linked sources).
But when i try to publish this project with dotnet pack, the .sql files are not copied to output folder. I looked to the properties of the files and saw that their copy to output directory prop has been reset to do not copy and the file path was absolute.
My goal is to build and deploy this api with github actions so absolute paths are not acceptable and besides i don't want to arrange something in the target project manually.
I'm packing the core project with dotnet pack
I don't have any
.nuspec file
package config xml
nuget config
package metadata
or other things like than and i don't know how to use them.
I have tried adding to csproj file <CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies>true</CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies> and <RestoreProjectStyle>PackageReference</RestoreProjectStyle> things and they did not work.
I have tried adding to csproj file
and it did not work too.
Can anyone help me?
The only thing you need to do is that you should write this node <PackageCopyToOutput>true</PackageCopyToOutput> to every content file of the nuget net core project:
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="Queries\Account\CheckAccountRef.sql">
<PackageCopyToOutput>true</PackageCopyToOutput>
</Content>
.....
</ItemGroup>
Then, re-pack your nuget project with dotnet pack and then reinstall this new version into your main project. Before you install, you should delete the old caches under C:\Users\xxx\.nuget\packages.
There is a similar issue about this.
You can use .nuspec file to configure all your dependencies. Please refer https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/reference/nuspec
We have some projects (Plugins) which use in several projects, the output of these projects will copy to the specific folder in the target projects (Plugins folder).
We pack project with Visual studio 2019 Pack option and after that, we push npkg files to our local NuGet server for further use.
The problem is when we want to get these packages, Package Manager should put lib files in the Plugins folder, but unfortunately, the package manager extracts these in the root folder (bin).
My question is: How can I config nuspec file to force package manager to extract to the right folder, and can I do it with visual studio or I have to create nuspec file manually.
You should use a <packages_id>.props file to realize it.
create a file called <packages_id>.props under the build folder of your lib project.
You should note that if your nupkg file is called Plugins.1.0.0.nupkg, you should name this file as Plugins.props so that it will work.
add these on Plugins.props file:
<Project>
<Target Name="CopyFiles" BeforeTargets="Build">
<ItemGroup>
<File Include="$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)..\Plugins\*.*"></File>
</ItemGroup>
<!--It will copy the plugins output files into the Plugins folder of the goal project-->
<Copy SourceFiles="#(File)" DestinationFolder="$(ProjectDir)Plugins"></Copy>
</Target>
</Project>
add these on Plugins.csproj file:
<ItemGroup>
<None Include="bin\Debug\netstandard2.0\Plugins.dll" Pack="true" PackagePath="Plugins"></None>
//add any output files from Plugins project which you want them to be packed
<None Include="build\Plugins.props" Pack="true" PackagePath="build"></None>
</ItemGroup>
use Pack Button to create the new release version of your nuget pakckage.
Also, when you install this new version of nuget package, please clean your nuget caches or delete all files under C:\Users\xxx(current user)\.nuget\packages.
When you finish the installing process, please click Build button and the files will generated under Plugins folder.
There is also a similar issue about this.
I have multiple projects in my solution, they all have the same NuGet package installed. I installed this NuGet package via the 'Manage Nuget Packages for Solution' option in my menu.
Now this particular NuGet Package has a .targets file in my build folder that imports some files into the build.
When I rebuild my solution these files are only copied for the top-level project. The other projects don't get the files copied into their build folder. This is causing me headaches because all the projects need these files in their build folder.
When I look into my .csproject files I see the following difference:
Project 1
<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
<Import Project="..\packages\NuGetTester.1.0.1\build\NuGetTester.targets" Condition="Exists('..\packages\NuGetTester.1.0.1\build\NuGetTester.targets')" />
<Target Name="EnsureNuGetPackageBuildImports" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild">
<PropertyGroup>
<ErrorText>This project references NuGet package(s) that are missing on this computer. Use NuGet Package Restore to download them. For more information, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=322105. The missing file is {0}.</ErrorText>
</PropertyGroup>
<Error Condition="!Exists('..\packages\NuGetTester.1.0.1\build\NuGetTester.targets')" Text="$([System.String]::Format('$(ErrorText)', '..\packages\NuGetTester.1.0.1\build\NuGetTester.targets'))" />
</Target>
</Project>
Project 2
The 2nd project does not have these lines.
<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
</Project>
When I include these lines in the 2nd project everything seem to work.
Can someone explain why this only happens for the first project? Can I somehow force that every project in the solution that installs this NuGet will also include these lines? I can't force my users to include this manually.
Edit, this is the .targets file.
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)\Versions\*.sql">
<Link>App_Data\Versions\%(FileName)%(Extension)</Link>
<CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
Thanks
Can someone explain why this only happens for the first project? Can I somehow force that every project in the solution that installs this NuGet will also include these lines?
Without install nuget package log, I could not give the reason that why this only happens for the first project. But you should make sure you have installed the nuget package to all projects when you installed the NuGet package via the 'Manage Nuget Packages for Solution' option:
If all check boxes are checked, you still have this issue, you should install individually that package to the problematic project, then check the install log.
Just in case, there is a workaround for this issue. You can create a MSBuild project file named "Directory.Build.props" in the same folder as your solution with you content in it.
It will be primitive imported into all projects in the directory hierarchy.
Check this document for more details.
Hope this helps.
It appears, to my knowledge, that the order of the projects was not the problem.
The problem only appears when I have no files in my target (net46) folder in the build folder.
Once I placed a random file into the .NET targetted folder the .targets file was imported into the project. Or if I removed all the .NET target folders from the build it works as usual.
So just to make a summary.
Build folder with no .NET framework target folders -> It works
Build folder with an empty .NET framework target folder -> Does not work
Build folder with a .NET framework target folder filled with one or many files -> It works
My NuGet package needs to deliver some rather large files to build output directory.
In an old NuGet model, such files have to be stored in content folder of the .nupkg. While in a new model introduced in NuGet 3.3, such files have to be stored in contentFiles folder.
To maintain a compatibility with older versions of NuGet and mainly with Package.config package management format, I need to duplicate the files into both folders. That unfortunately almost doubles a size of the package.
Is there a way to prevent that? Can I somehow link contentFiles to content folder?
Found updated documentation describing this in detail at
MSBuild targets for NuGet.
By default, everything gets added to the root of the content and contentFiles\any\<target_framework> folder within a package and preserves the relative folder structure, unless you specify a package path:
<Content Include="..\win7-x64\libuv.txt">
<Pack>true</Pack>
<PackagePath>content\myfiles\</PackagePath>
</Content>
If you want to copy all your content to only a specific root folder(s) (instead of content and contentFiles both), you can use the MSBuild property ContentTargetFolders, which defaults to "content;contentFiles" but can be set to any other folder names. Note that just specifying "contentFiles" in ContentTargetFolders puts files under contentFiles\any\<target_framework> or contentFiles\<language>\<target_framework> based on buildAction.
If you only want to output the file to the build output (content only copies the file to the output directory but does cause it to be set as copy to output directory item), you can use a completely different approach by creating an msbuild file that will be included in the project.
You can do this by putting both the file - say test.jpg into the tools folder (you could also use build) and add a Your.Package.Id.targets file to the build folder (the name being the package id of your package with .targets as extension) with the following content:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)..\tools\test.jpg">
<Link>test.jpg</Link>
<Visible>false</Visible>
<CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
<CopyToPublishDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToPublishDirectory>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
This target will be automatically imported into the project files regardless of which "style" of NuGet reference is used (packages.config, PackageReference) and should be backwards compatible to older versions of VS as long as they support NuGet and ToolsVersion 4.0.
The Link metadata denotes where in the output / publish directories the file will end up. You could set it to e.g. defaultContent\images\foo.jpg to create a nested structure and rename the file. (you could even use MSBulid variables to use some of the referencing project's configuration). The Visible metadata prevents the solution explorer from showing the full relative path to the file, which could end up in lots of nested .. nodes. The CopyToPublishDirectory applies to .NET Core / ASP.NET Core apps or SDK-based projects using the Publish target for publishing.
Note that you can set the Inclue-path to anything depending on where in your package the file is. You can also use wildcards (but then set Link to %(Filename)%(Extension))
I had a project structure like this:
WebApp
-- WebApp
-- WebApp.sln
WebApp.Tests
-- WebApp.Tests.csproj
I moved WebApp.Tests into WebApp using a move (simple click & drag into the WebApp folder). I edited WebApp.sln to fix the project reference so that it will load.
When I build, Nuget complains that packages are missing and to do a restore.
I downloaded and used nuget.exe restore on my solution and it reported everything was there.
Based on other Stack Overflow answers, I have tried the following:
Edit the test project reference hint paths. I changed from ..\WebApp\packages\PACKAGE to ..\packages\PACKAGE
Reload Visual Studio (multiple times)
Delete contents of packages folder and bin/obj folders of the projects
Use the package manager console to reinstall packages on the Test Project
All of these failed to fix the problem. When I used the package manager to try to reinstall the packages with the command, it gave me the same error that project building does - I must restore the packages first.
Is there any quick way to fix my project? I really don't want to go through each package and uninstall/reinstall manually. Also, how could I have prevented this problem in the first place? Is there a built-in way to move project locations?
There was XML similar to this at the end of my project file:
<Target Name="EnsureNuGetPackageBuildImports" BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild">
<PropertyGroup>
<ErrorText>This project references NuGet package(s) that are missing on this computer. Enable NuGet Package Restore to download them. For more information, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=322105. The missing file is {0}.</ErrorText>
</PropertyGroup>
<Error Condition="!Exists('..\WebApp\packages\SPECIFICPACKAGE')" Text="$([System.String]::Format('$(ErrorText)', '..\WebApp\packages\SPECIFICPACKAGE'))" />
</Target>
By changing the ..\Webapp\packages to ..\packages like the rest of the file, my solution compiles just fine now.
I had the same issue where I physically moved a project folder into the src folder and got the missing packages error. My fix was to open up the .csproj file in notepad and replace every instance of
this:
..\packages\
with this:
..\..\packages\
It solved the issue...