Project References Not Linking when instantiating ProjectTemplates - visual-studio-2010

I am trying to create a Visual Studio Project Template that contains a solution and two projects. The first project, ProjectA, has needs a reference to the second project, ProjectB. I found that I need to add the tag to the ProjectTemplate.csproj for ProjectA. However, it adds the reference, but doesn't link it up. In other words it has the yellow flag on it like it would if the reference is missing. I am assuming that my path is correct, because with an intentionally incorrect path the reference doesn't show up at all. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Related

Visual Studio Error: Unable to load arguments for the XmlPeek task. One of XmlContent or XmlInputPath arguments must be set

I opened up VS today to find this error waiting for me when I built my project. I hadn't changed anything since yesterday, when it was working just fine.
Unable to load arguments for the XmlPeek task. One of XmlContent or XmlInputPath arguments must be set.
Of course this error has no line associated with it or anything else that may be helpful...
The project is in the .NET 4 Framework with Console Output.
Any ideas as to what is going on? I tried googling this of course but the few answered I found had to do with a content pipeline (which this project does not use).
Thanks!
I received this error in case, when I have deleted Content Project of my game. It has been solved by adding correct content reference into the Content References directory.
I had two projects (proj1 and proj2) and each of them had their own content projects (proj1_content and proj2_content). I wanted to have one common content project for both projects, so I had deleted both proj1_content and proj2_content and created new content project called common_content. After that, mentioned error appeared. Solution was to go to Content References directory at each project and Add Content Reference pointing to common_content.
Due to a hardware problem I had to put in a new SSD and re-installed VS. All my projects worked except my XNA in Winforms project. Being rather large (12,000 hand-written lines of code) really didn't want to try the "copy it all in to a new project" solution above. Thought I'd try to see what versions worked. All versions prior to me adding an installer project worked. In fact, the version where I had added, then deleted the installer was broken. So I'm not sure how (or if) the installer broke it but I found one section of the main project file that had a missing entry and it did reference XNA also (all my non-XNA projects build just fine). Note that I have substituted my project's name with a reference to YOUR projects name by using <YourMainProjectName>. If your project is joesgreatproject then use that text in place of <YourMainProjectName> (don't include the <> symbols). I think this was only because the XNA didn't have a content directory and needed a reference to one.
File: <YourMainProjectName>.csproj
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectReference Include="..\< YourMainProjectName>Content\<YourMainProjectName>Content.contentproj">
<Name><YourMainProjectName>Content</Name>
<XnaReferenceType>Content</XnaReferenceType>
</ProjectReference>
</ItemGroup>

Solution/MultiProject Template in VS2010

Looking to make a Solution/Multiproject Template.
While I'm aware a solution template does not exist, I've been researching/trying with some of success. (Link from here (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2717110/how-to-create-a-solution-template-in-vs2010) have been a big help.
The only issue I'm facing is that, when creating a project from my template, the solution contains brand-new copies of all of the projects involved. What I require is that only ONE project is made as a fresh copy, and that the other projects in the template should reference already-existing projects.
I've made single project templates that hold the DLL references to other projects (which is fine, but it's not what I need.) I need a multi-project template where all but one project involved reference already existing projects...
How would I go about this?
edit:
I'm also finding that any dbml designer.cs that's added to a project are not included in the newly generated solution/projects. They are copied across, but I then have to manually include them in the project. Why is this, and how do I get araound it?
How about using the Feature Builder Power Tool? http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/67b720f4-9a50-41cb-86a2-82e33b7c5fc4/
It should give you all the freedom to create whatever logic you want during solution setup...
So I couldn't find a workaround for this issue.
What I have managed to do though is make a decent enough template that should be run once, with all references (being relative) pointing to an outside lib folder.
This means I can use the template on a new machine, copy some dlls to a new lib folder, and then work away from there. Not an ideal solution, but it works...

Visual Studio 2008: How do I include project output as an embedded resource in another project?

I have two projects in one Visual Studio 2008 solution. I'd like to use the primary output from one of the projects as an embedded resource in the other, but for the life of me I can't find any way to accomplish this.
If I simply add the output file as a resource, then it doesn't seem to change when its source project is rebuilt. I even have the project dependencies/build order set up properly and this does not seem to help.
Anyone have any hints for me?
Thanks!
the best option is to "reference" the other project as if it were a class library.
that way you make sure the whole references tree is copied to your output dir.
When you add an existing file to a project, Visual Studio copies the file into the project's directory.
Any subsequent changes to the original file are ignored.
There are two workarounds:
Add a post-build action to the first project that copies its output file to the second project, and edit the dependencies so that the first project is always built first.
Add the output file to the second project as a link (Click the down arrow next to the Add button in the open dialog).
This will reference the file from its original location without making any copies.
Set the output directory of the project that generates the resource to point to the resource directory in the project that uses it.
If that's not possible for some reason, use a post-build command (also available in the project settings) to copy the file there.

MSBuild doesn't copy references (DLL files) if using project dependencies in solution

I have four projects in my Visual Studio solution (everyone targeting .NET 3.5) - for my problem only these two are important:
MyBaseProject <- this class library references a third-party DLL file (elmah.dll)
MyWebProject1 <- this web application project has a reference to MyBaseProject
I added the elmah.dll reference to MyBaseProject in Visual studio 2008 by clicking "Add reference..." → "Browse" tab → selecting the "elmah.dll".
The Properties of the Elmah Reference are as follows:
Aliases - global
Copy local - true
Culture -
Description - Error Logging Modules and Handlers (ELMAH) for ASP.NET
File Type - Assembly
Path - D:\webs\otherfolder\_myPath\__tools\elmah\Elmah.dll
Resolved - True
Runtime version - v2.0.50727
Specified version - false
Strong Name - false
Version - 1.0.11211.0
In MyWebProject1 I added the reference to Project MyBaseProject by:
"Add reference..." → "Projects" tab → selecting the "MyBaseProject". The Properties of this reference are the same except the following members:
Description -
Path - D:\webs\CMS\MyBaseProject\bin\Debug\MyBaseProject.dll
Version - 1.0.0.0
If I run the build in Visual Studio the elmah.dll file is copied to my MyWebProject1's bin directory, along with MyBaseProject.dll!
However if I clean and run MSBuild for the solution (via D:\webs\CMS> C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild.exe /t:ReBuild /p:Configuration=Debug MyProject.sln)
the elmah.dll is missing in MyWebProject1's bin directory - although the build itself contains no warning or errors!
I already made sure that the .csproj of MyBaseProject contains the private element with the value "true" (that should be an alias for "copy local" in Visual Studio):
<Reference Include="Elmah, Version=1.0.11211.0, Culture=neutral, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
<SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
<HintPath>..\mypath\__tools\elmah\Elmah.dll</HintPath>
**<Private>true</Private>**
</Reference>
(The private tag didn't appear in the .csproj's xml by default, although Visual Studio said "copy local" true. I switched "copy local" to false - saved - and set it back to true again - save!)
What is wrong with MSBuild? How do I get the (elmah.dll) reference copied to MyWebProject1's bin?
I do NOT want to add a postbuild copy action to every project's postbuild command! (Imagine I would have many projects depend on MyBaseProject!)
I just deal with it like this. Go to the properties of your reference and do this:
Set "Copy local = false"
Save
Set "Copy local = true"
Save
and that's it.
Visual Studio 2010 doesn't initially put:
<private>True</private> in the reference tag and setting "copy local" to false causes it to create the tag. Afterwards it will set it to true and false accordingly.
I'm not sure why it is different when building between Visual Studio and MsBuild, but here is what I have found when I've encountered this problem in MsBuild and Visual Studio.
Explanation
For a sample scenario let's say we have project X, assembly A, and assembly B. Assembly A references assembly B, so project X includes a reference to both A and B. Also, project X includes code that references assembly A (e.g. A.SomeFunction()). Now, you create a new project Y which references project X.
So the dependency chain looks like this: Y => X => A => B
Visual Studio / MSBuild tries to be smart and only bring references over into project Y that it detects as being required by project X; it does this to avoid reference pollution in project Y. The problem is, since project X doesn't actually contain any code that explicitly uses assembly B (e.g. B.SomeFunction()), VS/MSBuild doesn't detect that B is required by X, and thus doesn't copy it over into project Y's bin directory; it only copies the X and A assemblies.
Solution
You have two options to solve this problem, both of which will result in assembly B being copied to project Y's bin directory:
Add a reference to assembly B in project Y.
Add dummy code to a file in project X that uses assembly B.
Personally I prefer option 2 for a couple reasons.
If you add another project in the future that references project X, you won't have to remember to also include a reference to assembly B (like you would have to do with option 1).
You can have explicit comments saying why the dummy code needs to be there and not to remove it. So if somebody does delete the code by accident (say with a refactor tool that looks for unused code), you can easily see from source control that the code is required and to restore it. If you use option 1 and somebody uses a refactor tool to clean up unused references, you don't have any comments; you will just see that a reference was removed from the .csproj file.
Here is a sample of the "dummy code" that I typically add when I encounter this situation.
// DO NOT DELETE THIS CODE UNLESS WE NO LONGER REQUIRE ASSEMBLY A!!!
private void DummyFunctionToMakeSureReferencesGetCopiedProperly_DO_NOT_DELETE_THIS_CODE()
{
// Assembly A is used by this file, and that assembly depends on assembly B,
// but this project does not have any code that explicitly references assembly B. Therefore, when another project references
// this project, this project's assembly and the assembly A get copied to the project's bin directory, but not
// assembly B. So in order to get the required assembly B copied over, we add some dummy code here (that never
// gets called) that references assembly B; this will flag VS/MSBuild to copy the required assembly B over as well.
var dummyType = typeof(B.SomeClass);
Console.WriteLine(dummyType.FullName);
}
If you are not using the assembly directly in code then Visual Studio whilst trying to be helpful detects that it is not used and doesn't include it in the output. I'm not sure why you are seeing different behaviour between Visual Studio and MSBuild. You could try setting the build output to diagnostic for both and compare the results see where it diverges.
As for your elmah.dll reference if you are not referencing it directly in code you could add it as an item to your project and set the Build Action to Content and the Copy to Output Directory to Always.
Take a look at:
This MSBuild forum thread I started
You will find my temporary solution / workaround there!
(MyBaseProject needs some code that is referencing some classes (whatever) from the elmah.dll for elmah.dll being copied to MyWebProject1's bin!)
I had the same problem.
Check if the framework version of your project is the same of the framework version of the dll that you put on reference.
In my case, my client was compiled using "Framework 4 Client" and the DLL was in "Framework 4".
The issue I was facing was I have a project that is dependent on a library project. In order to build I was following these steps:
msbuild.exe myproject.vbproj /T:Rebuild
msbuild.exe myproject.vbproj /T:Package
That of course meant I was missing my library's dll files in bin and most importantly in the package zip file. I found this works perfectly:
msbuild.exe myproject.vbproj /T:Rebuild;Package
I have no idea why this work or why it didn't in the first place. But hope that helps.
I just had the exact same problem and it turned out to be caused by the fact that 2 projects in the same solution were referencing a different version of the 3rd party library.
Once I corrected all the references everything worked perfectly.
As Alex Burtsev mentioned in a comment anything that’s only used in a XAML resource dictionary, or in my case, anything that’s only used in XAML and not in code behind, isn't deemed to be 'in use' by MSBuild.
So simply new-ing up a dummy reference to a class/component in the assembly in some code behind was enough convince MSBuild that the assembly was actually in use.
Using deadlydog's scheme,
Y => X => A => B,
my problem was when I built Y, the assemblies (A and B, all 15 of them) from X were not showing up in Y's bin folder.
I got it resolved by removing the reference X from Y, save, build, then re-add X reference (a project reference), and save, build, and A and B started showing up in Y's bin folder.
Changing the target framework from .NET Framework 4 Client Profile to .NET Framework 4 fixed this problem for me.
So in your example: set the target framework on MyWebProject1 to .NET Framework 4
I had the same problem and the dll was a dynamically loaded reference.
To solve the problem I have added an "using" with the namespace of the dll.
Now the dll is copied in the output folder.
This requires adding a .targets file to your project and setting it to be included in the project's includes section.
See my answer here for the procedure.
Referencing assemblies that are not used during build is not the correct practice. You should augment your build file so it will copy the additional files. Either by using a post build event or by updating the property group.
Some examples can be found in other post
MSBuild to copy dynamically generated files as part of project dependency
VS2010 How to include files in project, to copy them to build output directory automatically during build or publish
Another scenario where this shows up is if you are using the older "Web Site" project type in Visual Studio. For that project type, it is unable to reference .dlls that are outside of it's own directory structure (current folder and down). So in the answer above, let's say your directory structure looks like this:
Where ProjectX and ProjectY are parent/child directories, and ProjectX references A.dll which in turn references B.dll, and B.dll is outside the directory structure, such as in a Nuget package on the root (Packages), then A.dll will be included, but B.dll will not.
I had a similar issue today, and this is most certainly not the answer to your question. But I'd like to inform everyone, and possibly provide a spark of insight.
I have a ASP.NET application. The build process is set to clean and then build.
I have two Jenkins CI scripts. One for production and one for staging. I deployed my application to staging and everything worked fine. Deployed to production and was missing a DLL file that was referenced. This DLL file was just in the root of the project. Not in any NuGet repository. The DLL was set to do not copy.
The CI script and the application was the same between the two deployments. Still after the clean and deploy in the staging environment the DLL file was replaced in the deploy location of the ASP.NET application (bin/). This was not the case for the production environment.
It turns out in a testing branch I had added a step to the build process to copy over this DLL file to the bin directory. Now the part that took a little while to figure out. The CI process was not cleaning itself. The DLL was left in the working directory and was being accidentally packaged with the ASP.NET .zip file. The production branch never had the DLL file copied in the same way and was never accidentally deploying this.
TLDR; Check and make sure you know what your build server is doing.
Make sure that both projects are in the same .net version also check copy local property but this should be true as default
Using Visual Studio 2015 adding the additional parameter
/deployonbuild=false
to the msbuild command line fixed the issue.
I just ran into a very similar issue. When compiling using Visual Studio 2010, the DLL file was included in the bin folder. But when compiling using MSBuild the third-party DLL file was not included.
Very frustrating. The way I solved it was to include the NuGet reference to the package in my web project even though I'm not using it directly there.
I dont think #deadlydog answer is valid with the current Nuget system. I recreated the scenario with Y => X => A => B in visual studio 2022 and all I had to do was run the command in terminal
msbuild -t:clean,rebuild,pack
Including all referenced DLL files from your projectreferences in the Website project is not always a good idea, especially when you're using dependency injection: your web project just want to add a reference to the interface DLL file/project, not any concrete implementation DLL file.
Because if you add a reference directly to an implementation DLL file/project, you can't prevent your developer from calling a "new" on concrete classes of the implementation DLL file/project instead of via the interface. It's also you've stated a "hardcode" in your website to use the implementation.

Add reference DLL issue in Visual Studio

I am using VSTS 2008. I have two projects (both are written in C#) in one solution file. Project 1 depends on the output (DLL2) of project 2. So, in project 1, I am using "References --> Add Reference --> Browse", then find and select the DLL2 generated by project 2.
My question is, I am not sure whether using such method to add reference will result in some my local computer specific file path dependencies? In more details, suppose both of projects are located in folder d:\testprojectsolution (d:\testprojectsolution\project1 and d:\testprojectsolution\project2), I want to make sure that if I copy the whole solution folder d:\testprojectsolution (with the same structures of project1/project2) to other people under different location (e.g. c:\my documents\sampleprpjects\projects), they could build successfully (not dependent on any specific file path on my local machine, for example, no need to find files under d:\testprojectsolution\project2 or something).
If my approach to add reference dependencies could result in some specific file path dependencies, please let me know how to solve this issue. :-)
thanks in advance,
George
Instead of adding the reference using Browse, add it using Projects tab. It'll automatically consider the project dependency (and thus build order) and other stuff.

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