Nuspec buildAction not applying to contentFiles - nuget

Question

I've been recently trying to create a .nuspec file that attaches a .dll file as an Embedded Resource. To do so, I've used the contentFiles tag on metadata, setting the buildAction="EmbeddedResource", as described in the section Example contentFiles section on the official documentation.
Below you can see my .nuspec file content:
<package>
<metadata>
<id>MyPackage</id>
<version>1.0.0.0</version>
<title>MyPackage</title>
<authors>Matias G Henschel</authors>
<owners>Matias G Henschel</owners>
<requireLicenseAcceptance>false</requireLicenseAcceptance>
<description>My package description</description>
<copyright>2017</copyright>
<contentFiles>
<files include="myDllFile.dll" buildAction="EmbeddedResource" />
</contentFiles>
</metadata>
<files>
<file src="content\myDllFile.dll" target="contentFiles" />
</files>
</package>
This package correctly copies the file inside the target project, but it doesn't apply the Build Action to it, which is crucial for me.
I've also tried using a .targets file, with no success.
If you want to see more, I've also created an Issue on the GitHub page.
PS: IMHO, both documentation on contentFiles and .targets files require some rework, they aren't clear enough and .targets' lacks examples.

Answer 1

You also need a file entry to actually copy the file to the correct contentFiles folder:
<package xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/packaging/2012/06/nuspec.xsd">
<metadata>
…
<contentFiles>
<files include="any/any/MyEmbeddedFile.txt" buildAction="EmbeddedResource" />
</contentFiles>
</metadata>
<files>
<file src="path/to/MyEmbeddedFile.txt" target="contentFiles/any/any/MyEmbeddedFile.txt" />
</files>
</package>
Note that this will only work in NuGet 3.3+ with project.json based projects and NuGet 4+ for PackageReference based projects. For projects using this package via packages.config, you will still need to add the file to the content folder and add a custom target to make it the right item type.