Include Files using Wildcard into a folder in Visual Studio - visual-studio

Question

I am using
<ItemGroup>
<EmbeddedResource Include="..\..\resources\hbm\*.hbm.xml" />
</ItemGroup>
to include a bunch of xml files into my C# project. Works fine.
But, I don't want them in the "root level" of my project, I would rather see them in a subfolder in my project.
For example, this file is included into a Mapping folder in Visual Studio:
<ItemGroup>
<EmbeddedResource Include="Mapping\User.hbm.xml" />
</ItemGroup>
That's what I want for my *.hbm.xml files.
I can't figure out how to do it and still keep my wildcard *.hbm.xml part and also keep the actual files in a different directory.
I've looked at MSDN's doc on MSBUILD and items, but no luck.

Answer 1

Perhaps this has changed in MSBuild since the original answer was posted, but it is possible to use both wildcards and links at the same time. For example, I use the following block in a C# project to import data files into a test library.
<ItemGroup>
<None Include="..\SOMENAME.Tests\data\**\*.*">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
<Link>data\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
</None>
</ItemGroup>
The only disadvantage I've seen so far is that MSBuild recreates the folder names on the file system (ie $(ProjectPath)\data\somesubfolder) which is a little annoying but not a huge issue.
As a test, I also tried the OP's request of embedding resources, using the following snippet, and again this seemed to work fine - dotPeek showed the resources were present in the compiled assembly in addition to being present in the Solution Explorer.
<ItemGroup>
<EmbeddedResource Include="..\SOMENAME.Tests\data\**\*.*">
<Link>resources\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
</EmbeddedResource>
</ItemGroup>
(This was using Visual Studio 2013 and still works as of VS2019)
Update 08Jun2021: The above syntax works is fine for old style csproj files, but if you are using the new SDK format, the syntax is a little different, albeit simpler.
The OP's original question of wildcard embedding can be accomplished with the following
<ItemGroup>
<EmbeddedResource Include="data\**\*.*" />
</ItemGroup>
And to have wildcard file copies for changed or missing files.
<ItemGroup>
<None Update="data\**\*.*">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</None>
</ItemGroup>

Answer 2

I think you can't use links and wildcard at the same time.
You could use this notation to link to include User.hbm.xml file in Mapping folder in Visual Studio :
<ItemGroup>
<EmbeddedResource Include="..\..\resources\hbm\User.hbm.xml">
<Link>Mapping\User.hbm.xml</Link>
</EmbeddedResource>
</ItemGroup>
But you can't do that
<ItemGroup>
<EmbeddedResource Include="..\..\resources\hbm\**\*.hbm.xml">
<Link>%(RecursiveDir)\%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
</EmbeddedResource>
</ItemGroup>

Answer 3

I have been able to create the logical name based on some regex (for only one folder depth). The root namespace I want is Agility.BmsData.Create and and example of the final name of the resource could be Agility.BmsData.Create.tables.mytable.sql where the file is in a folder tables\mytable.sql
<ItemGroup>
<EmbeddedResource Include="..\..\AgilityDatabase\Create\**\*.sql" >
<!-- see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/msbuild/msbuild-well-known-item-metadata?view=vs-2022 -->
<!-- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/msbuild/property-functions?view=vs-2022 -->
<LogicalName>
Agility.BmsData.Create.$(
[System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Match("%(Directory)", "(?<=\\)[^\\]+(?=[\\]*$)")
).%(Filename)%(Extension)
</LogicalName>
</EmbeddedResource>
</ItemGroup>
It is also possible to customise the Link attribute of the EmbeddedResource element but the value needs to be suitably encoded for embedding in an xml attribute.
Following on from the above example, I have sql files located in the database project on a relative path to the current project of ..\..\AgilityDatabase\Create\ and I want to mimic the file structure (and resource names) in my other project. I can use the following MsBuild command $([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Match("%(Directory)", "(?<=\\AgilityDatabase\\Create\\).+$"))\%(Filename)%(Extension)
So my Item group becomes:
<EmbeddedResource Include="..\..\AgilityDatabase\Create\**\*.sql"
Link="Create\$([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Match("%(Directory)", "(?<=\\AgilityDatabase\\Create\\).+$"))\%(Filename)%(Extension)">
</EmbeddedResource>