What is the difference between a NuGet package, a Reference (is reference similar to a tool?), and a template in Visual Studio?
Why do we need them?
What is done / changed in our project when we install each one of them?
Are they dependent on each other in some way? Which one(s) of them are global installs, and which one(s) need to be installed in every project?
Before any comments or misunderstandings: this answer is NOT composed by me, but it was accepted as an answer here, so for the sake of the users trying to find an answer to this, I am literally Copying the answer to your question in this place.
What is the difference between a NuGet package, a Reference (is reference similar to a tool?), and a template in Visual Studio?
References are used to pull additional libraries into your project. For example, your colleague develop a library which implement some functions that you wanted. You needn't write it by yourself, just add the dll into your project through add reference. Of course you can add any libraries not it come from third part or from Microsoft. But it won't notice you when the libraries changed or updated.
NuGet package is the package manager for the Microsoft development platform including .NET. It will help you manage your packages which installed on your project. When the package has new version released, it will notice you to update it. The NuGet client is a tool provide the ability to produce and consume packages.
Template is similar to a sample project which provides the frameworks based on different type of project. You just need to add your content/functions into this frameworks to implement your requirement. For example, if create a WinForms project, it will reference System.Windows.Forms automatically which contains all stuffs you needed in WinForms project.
Why do we need them?
NuGet package and Reference can help us invoke some functions which have been implemented by others or some have been encapsulated by Microsoft. And the Template can help us create a project without build framework by our self. All of them help us save a lot of time when developing a project.
What is done / changed in our project when we install each one of them?
Add references in your project, it will let you invoke the functions in these references in your project.
Install NuGet packages will add the package reference into your project automatically and then you can use the functions the package provided.
The template will be installed when you install Visual Studio. Most of common templates will be installed. Then you can create a new project through these templates quickly.
Are they dependent on each other in some way? Which one(s) of them are global installs, and which one(s) need to be installed in every project?
Reference and NuGet packages need to referenced/installed on a project. But this project can be create through the templates or can be create by customer self. So in some way, reference and NuGet package are dependent on project.
Templates is global installs and NuGet packages and reference need to be install in every project.
Related
Suppose I am building two class libraries in a single solution in visual stuido. The projects are called "Core" and "Extensions".
Extensions depends upon Core.
I would like to publish these as separate nuget packages for other developers to consume, because while the Core package would always be used, the extensions package just provides some optional functionality.
When I am developing the solution in visual studio, however, it is much simpler for me to set a project dependency from Extension to Core. Otherwise (in a naive approach), building the whole solution would require the following steps:
In visual studio, commit and push Core.
Wait for the CI server to build Core and publish the nuget package to our internal feed.
In visual studio, manage nuget packages for the Extensions project.
Connect to the internal nuget feed
Get the updated Core nuget package.
This approach would work, but is obviously very tedious.
The main difficulty I have been encountering while researching how to do this is that the way all of these things interact has been changing quite rapidly over the past few years, with sdk vs non sdk style projects, nuget pack vs dotnet pack vs msbuild pack, and so on and so forth.
Perhaps the most relevant, most recent answer appears in this question How do I create an individual nuget package for each project in a solution, with project references converted to nuget dependencies? however the answer is now quite old, and is for a dot net framework style project (using packages.config), not a .net5 project.
So, can anyone provide up to date advice on how to correctly accomplish the following:
In a visual studio solution with multiple .net5 class library projects, have dependencies set up as project dependencies at dev-time, but convert each project to its own nuget package with the equivalent package dependencies at publish time.
I'm trying to make a very simple Xamarin.Forms test application to explore some features of the System.Data.SQLite package (namely encryption). However, I can't seem to get Visual Studio 2012 to add a reference to the package to the project.
Here are the steps I am taking:
Created a new Xamarin.Forms Portable blank app.
Right-click on TestApp (core project) and select Manage NuGet Packages
Search for "sqlite"
Install the "System.Data.SQLite (x86/x64)" package. (This package is version 1.0.97.0 and it is described as "the official SQLite database engine for both x86 and x64 along with the ADO.NET provider.")
According to NuGet, the package was successfully installed.
However, I cannot see the reference added under my project's "References" folder, and I also cannot write "using System.Data.SQLite" without errors ("cannot resolve symbol 'Data'"). Does anyone have any idea why this is happening?
On a side note, I can follow the exact same process described above except instead of creating a Xamarin.Forms Portable blank app, I choose a regular C# console app. This allows me to install the NuGet package fine and it shows up in references as expected.
Posting an update to share what I've learned.
So as Jason sort of alluded to in his answer, the reason I was not able to reference the package in my Xamarin.Forms project is because Xamarin.Forms is, by definition, a PCL project. It's meant to work on all platforms. The package I was referring to in my question is not a PCL, which means that anything in the package that is platform dependent is inaccessable (which is basically the entire package). The SQLite.Net-PCL package is basically the same thing as System.Data.SQLite, but in PCL form, which means it is compatible for use in a Xamarin.Forms project.
Following this logic, it makes sense that I was able to access System.Data.SQLite from a console project, since a console project is not a PCL project and it targets a specific platform.
For PCL projects, use SQLite.Net-PCL.
I have noticed many times that developers tend to reference assemblies directly by browsing to the .dll file under the .\packages folder (installed by another project) and adding that to project references instead of installing the nuget package on that project. In that case, even though it compiles, but the Nuget Package Manager does not know that the referenced assembly is from a package, and so updating the package solution-wide does not update those references in that project. If you are doing a Service Oriented architecture where each piece of feature in your application is a separate project in the solution, then you probably have hundred of projects, and managing those references would become a nightmare. Is there any way to prevent developers from referencing assemblies directly if they belong to a nuget package? For example is there any MSBuild task to verify all references to package assemblies require the package to be installed on the project?
If your team uses resharper, they have a plugin to help with this:
http://blog.jetbrains.com/dotnet/2012/11/20/add-packages-not-references-a-nuget-plugin-for-resharper/
I'm guessing the issue is caused by people using resharper without it, since by default VS won't know to include that DLL but Resharper will find it and reference it (and not update package config without the plugin)
Also get used having people using nuget at the solution level, not project level. That will force people to update all nuget packages across the solution, and not leave you with V 1.1.1.0 on Project A and v 1.1.2.0 on Project B.
I don't get it - can someone please explain to me why I should use NuGet rather than installing a bunch of libraries via a setup.exe or MSI? What advantage is there?
For example is it better to install Entity Framework 4.3 via NuGet rather than downloading the setup? Also, if I install entity framework via NuGet then is it available to any new solutions or projects that I create (bit confused here).
Basically what does NuGet do that a normal install doesn't do (or vice versa!)
Besides making it simple to add a package to your project, I think NuGet's biggest advantage is dependency management.
NuGet allows project owners to package their libraries as packages. Before, if they depended on other libraries like log4net, they would include those assemblies in their setup/zip file and upload to their web site.
With NuGet, they simply add a reference to these external packages in the .nuspec file. When NuGet installs the package, it will see that there are dependencies and will automatically download and install those packages as well. It also supports conflict management so that if 2 packages depends on different versions, it will figure out the correct one to install.
I think the best way to determine if NuGet will work for you is to actually try using it. I'm sure that once you do, you'll realize that it has many benefits.
Nuget provides several additional benefits:
it automatically configures your projects by adding references to the necessary assemblies, creating and adding project files (e.g. configuration), etc.
it provides package updates
it does all of this very conveniently
What advantage is there?
Nuget simplifies third libraries incorporation : With a single command line (Install-Package EntityFramework) you make your package available for your project. Instead of googling-find the package-download-setup-reference the package in your project...
Auto-Update is not mandatory, Nuget configuration file let you specify the version, or the range of version, that your application is compatible with.
Also, if I install entity framework via Nuget then is it available to any new solutions or projects that I create
Once you installed a package, dlls are copied in a directory at solution level, you can then reference them from there in others projects of your solution.
For each new solutions, re-installing packages is a better solution. As it is very easy with nuget, it won't be a problem.
Nuget contributes to creating a DLL hell and makes the solution go out of control very quickly, especially when different versions of so called "packages" come into play. Apart from assembly versioning, there are now nuget package versions. Nuget is just adding another wrapper over DLLs and does nothing that would make developers' life easier.
Is it possible to make a solution in VS depend on (i.e. include) an entire other solution? I've seen some stuff about "Solution Folders", but these don't seem to be the same thing....? Thanks! (BTW, I'm using VS 2008)
Not really. You'd have to do one of the following:
Make a build script that builds the solutions in the correct order.
Pre-build solution A, and only reference the built binary outputs from it in solution B.
Make a third solution containing all of the projects from both solutions.
The first two items are the most common, where I personally prefer the second.
This post is old, but these days you can easily reuse dependencies in other solutions by building nuget packages for all of them. VS 2015 has nuget package building built in but is currently a Release Candidate. In Visual Studio 2013 you can use the Nuget.Packaging nuget package to allow your project to build as a Nuget Package.
Then you can just publish new versions of your packages to a local network share and configure it as a Repository in Visual Studio.
Then your other solution's projects can depend on that package.
For example, say you have a reusable Utility DLL in a Solution Called "Core Framework" and you want to use a utility in there on a WebSite you are building in a solution called "XYZEcosystem".
In the CoreFramework solution you would build a nuget package for the Utility Project that compiles to the utility dll and include the dll and it's pdb file in the package.
Then you publish that to your network share.
So let's say your package has an ID like "XYZ.Core.Utilities" with a version of 1.0.0.0.
Now in XYZEcosystem you would use the package manager console, set the repository drop down to your repository and type "Install-Package XYZ.Core.Utilities" and it will install the latest version of XYZ.Core.Utilities.
If you make a change to XYZ.Core.Utilities you can run Update-Package XYZ.Core.Utilities on XYZEcosystem and it will pick up the new version.
Take a look here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/habibh/walkthrough-adding-an-existing-visual-studio-solution-to-another-solution
Actually the method described adds all projects from another solution to the current solution, not quite what we want, but at least this saves time adding all of the projects manually one by one.
A solution is a collection of assemblies that build to create some kind of executable or dll. Having one solution depend on another does not make sense. The output assembly (executable/dll) depends on the assemblies that it references. If your solution depends on other assemblies, then reference them. You can add projects to your solution (File>Add>Existing Project) and then you can add refences these projects from your output project.
You cannot do that. And why would you want to?
Simply add all the projects that you depend on (the projects in the 'other' solution) to the solution.
Then use project references (not file references) between the projects.