I understand how to build dll nuget package
I would like to build a JavaScript nuget package of my own. I would like to learn how jQuery nuget package being constructed/installed by nuget.
How do I know how jQuery (or similar nuget package) nuget package being constructed? Especially I would like to know how these *.js being copied/ installed to specific folder (scripts) of a ASP.net MVC project
Thanks
NuGet uses a convention-over-configuration approach. This is what makes it easy to inject some files (images, code, javascript, etc) into a specific folder of a target Visual Studio project.
You can simply open a .nupkg file with any zip-utility (e.g. 7zip) and extract the archive to see its contents.
A NuGet package can have 3 folders: lib, content & tools.
Anything in the content folder will be injected into the target project using the same relative path to the project root as to the content folder of the nuget package.
More info here: http://docs.nuget.org/docs/creating-packages/package-conventions
Also with respect to how jQuery or other similar Javascript libraries are packaged, here are some pointers.
The list of public jQuery/jQuery plugins that have been "NuGetified" can be see here http://nuget.org/packages?q=jquery The jQuery NuGet package page http://nuget.org/packages/jQuery has a note saying that it is maintained by the NuGet Community Packages project.
If you go to the CodePlex project at http://nugetpackages.codeplex.com/ and browse the source code, you'll find it contains a couple of sub projects. These are NuGet package projects for the respective open source (mainly Javascript) projects.
You will notice that they simply include the relevant pure Javascript packages, e.g. jquery-1.8.3.js, jquery-1.8.3.min.js, etc. in the Content/Scripts path.
Related
I have a solution in Visual Studio 2013 with more C# project files that have source code in common but are targeting for different platforms (.Net, WinRT, .Net Micro Framework and so on).
All the csproj files are under the same directory.
These projects use a Nuget package that is available for all the above platforms itself.
If I add this Nuget package for one of the project (ex. .Net), the package.config file is created and inside has reference to that target (ex. .Net). The package is downloaded in the packages folder.
If I try to add the same package but for a different target to another project in the solution, the UI tells me that the package is already installed. It's true because a package.config file is already there but I'd like to have the same package for a different target.
So my question is the following : how can I add the same Nuget package to all different projects but with different targets ?
Thanks,
Paolo
Unfortunately, I don't think NuGet supports your scenario.
NuGet expects the packages.config file to be in the same folder as the .csproj file. There should be a 1-to-1 relation between these files. You should create a separate folder for each project rather than keep all .csproj files in the same folder.
If you want to share code across multiple projects, the easiest way is to use the new Shared Project support in Visual Studio. Normally this only applies to Universal Projects, but there is an extension[1] that you can install that enables Shared Projects for all project types.
Simply create a new Shared Project. Add all you common code to it. Then in your platform specific projects, you can simply Add Shared Project Reference.
Since each project is now independent, NuGet will add the appropriate package.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
[1] Shared Project Reference Manager https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/315c13a7-2787-4f57-bdf7-adae6ed54450
I have created a NuGet gallery in my company.
I want to create and publish a solution level NuGet package.
Everyone who will install the package will not get a dll but an entire project added to his/her visual studio solution.
Just like adding an existing project, the user will get a project with source code classes and everything is ready to use.
Just build it and use it.
I know it's possible, but couldn't find any documentation.
Anyone?
It is possible to add any files (not only .dll) and even directory structures to a NuGet package, so in theory you could store all files belonging to a project in a package and publish that. However, it is only possible to install NuGet packages into an existing project, meaning that you won't be able to add the packaged files as new project to any solution. In addition, the contained files will be put to the solution's packages folder, not to a solution or project folder.
As an alternative, consider creating a Template project instead of a NuGet package, as explained in How to: Create Project Templates and my blog post Creating template projects. This will result in a .vsix file that any developer can install as Visual Studio Add-In, the templated project will then appear in Visual Studio's File -> New -> Project... dialog as new project type and can be added to any solution.
Similar to your NuGet gallery, it is also possible to create a private Visual Studio Gallery to share such Add-Ins within, for example, a company, as explained in this MSDN article.
I am building an MVC4 web application with VS2012 professional with NuGet Package Manager version 2.2.31210. I have multiple projects in my solution, all sharing various packages I installed using NuGet. One of my projects is an MVC4 web application where I am using packages such as bootstrap, jquery UI, etc, all installed using NuGet.
When I clone a fresh copy of my entire solution from my repository and build my MVC4 project, the package restore feature seems to be working: it creates the packages directory under the solution direcotry and populates it will all the versions of the packages I expect to see. However, the content files do not get copied to the appropriate places in the MVC app directory. The weird thing is that it does create directories for the content, but does not copy the content files themselves.
For example, I am using the Twitter Bootstrap package which appears in the packages/Twitter.Bootstrap.2.2.2. In the MVC project a directory called bootstrap (containing css, img, and js directories) gets created in the Content directory. But, no css or js files are copied into those directories!
Does anyone have a clue what magic incantation I must utter to get the build to copy these content files from the NuGet packages directory?
This is a very common issue we are all having. I've created an MSBuild Task NugetContentRestoreTask that will do this trick for you. Run the following command in the Package Manager Console:
Install Nuget Content Restore MSBuild Targets
PM> Install-Package MSBuild.NugetContentRestore
The only thing left is to call it from your BeforeBuild Target with something like this:
Project File Targets
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<NugetContentRestoreTask SolutionDir="$(SolutionDir)" ProjectDir="$(ProjectDir)" />
</Target>
You can take a look at the source repo and find it on nuget.org
Additional Content Folders
This nuget only includes the default folders scripts, images, fonts, and content, it is not a recursive directory includes. For additional content subfolders - you must assign the property AdditionalFolders.
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<NugetContentRestoreTask SolutionDir="$(SolutionDir)" ProjectDir="$(ProjectDir)"
AdditionalFolders="less;sass;common" />
</Target>
I have found a workaround, but it is ugly. By executing the following command in the NuGet Package Manager Console: Update-Package -Reinstall all the files are indeed copied to their proper places within the Mvc project Content and Scripts directories.
Unfortunately, this is risky because you are likely to end up with the wrong versions of certain packages. For example, in my case after the command finishes executing (which takes quite a while by the way), I end up with jQuery version 1.4.4. This is way old, and I assume it must be an explicit dependency of some other package that is being updated. So it appears that the order in which the packages actually get updated by NuGet is significant (it does not appear to parse the entire dependency tree for all packages and pick only the latest versions from the union of all dependencies, which seems like it would be the preferred behavior). Rather, as the command executes I see it replacing the jQuery package several times with different versions as it works its way through all the packages and their dependencies, only to end up with a very old version.
A similar approach is the execute the Update-Package -Reinstall command explicitly for each package that is causing my problem, but this is incredibly tedious and error prone.
The NuGet Package Restore feature should yield the same result as manually executing the Install-Package or Update-Package -Reinstall command for a package, but it does not.
I don't like to have the thirdparty JavaScript files under source control either. Thats why I've followed Jeff Handley advice in http://nuget.codeplex.com/workitem/2094 to create a solution my self. I didn't go the executable way, but created a nuget solution level package which does the trick.
http://www.nuget.org/packages/Baseclass.Contrib.Nuget.GitIgnoreContent/
It's tied to git, as it automatically updates the .gitignore file.
Short description:
Ignore nuget content files in git:
Generate entries in the .gitignore file to exclude nuget content files from the source repository
Restore nuget content files before building (Automatically in VS and manually with a powershell script
I've written a blog post describing how to use it.
http://www.baseclass.ch/blog/Lists/Beitraege/Post.aspx?ID=9&mobile=0
In Visual Studio 2015 Update 1, they now support contentFiles. The caveat with this is that it only works in projects that use project.json.
In reference to the problem that you are having, there is a good blog post that explains why you see this behaviour: NuGet Package Restore Common Misconceptions.
For my projects it turned out that content files work with PackageReferences only:
Existing project with nuget references via packages.config
Installed NuGet package with content files
Build project
No content files in output directory
Conversion of packages.config to PackageReferences
Build project
Content files have been copied to output directory
IDE is Visual Studio 2017. The project is an application project which means it is in the old csproj format.
I have been using NuGet to manage my internally created assemblies for a few months, and it's working very well. I recently 'discovered' portable class libraries, which has also been great - until it's time to install the packages.
Say I have a PCL that targets .NET 4.5, SL5 and .NET for Windows Store Apps. I run nuget spec to create the .nuspec file, edit the values, package it up, and add the .nupkg to our internal feed. If I open the .nupkg file in the Package Explorer, I see one content folder under lib called portable-win+net45+sl50.
When I try to install the package from any compatible project in another solution, I get the following message:
"'Project.PCL' could not be installed because it is not compatible with any project in the solution. The package doesn't target any framework."
If I manually create the .nupkg in the Package Explorer, updating the version number, adding a lib folder for each targeted framework (not a portable folder) and added the Project.PCL.dll to each folder, I can add the package to the compatible projects in the solution. But to do this process every time I want to update a PCl is somewhat tedious (I had been creating a little .cmd file in the project root folder to quickly package and deploy).
Do other people have this problem? How can I package PCL's in the same way as other types of projects?
Note - I'm using VS 2012 Ultimate and NuGet 2.2
It sounds like maybe nuget spec doesn't work for Portable Class Libraries - that's worth starting a thread or filing an issue on the NuGet site.
However, you can also create a .nuspec file from NuGet Package Explorer. Just create the package as you already did, but then choose "Save Metadata As..." to save it as a .nuspec. Afterwards you may need to edit the source paths in the nuspec file manually, but you should be able to automate the creation of the package.
For me nuget spec and nuget pack worked fine with a portable project while creating the package and installing it on a compatible project.
Do you want to check if you have the latest nuget.exe (2.2), it can be downloaded from http://nuget.org/nuget.exe or can be updated by running nuget update -self
I have some NuGet package that contains both DLL file and web related files like JavaScript, Stylesheet and image files. I want to create package that only install web related file to web project only (including ASP.NET and ASP.NET MVC project). What is the easiest way to do that?
Thanks,
PS. I think it should be possible via Powershell script. But I think, it is quite complex for me.
You probably want to use the Nuget Package Explorer. It allows you to create a package without the command line and add only the required files to your package (plus some easy config).
If I understand you correctly, you sometimes want to install just the DLL, and sometimes the DLL plus the web stuff. In this case it's best to create a separate package for the DLL, then another package with the web stuff which specifies the DLL package as a dependency of the Web package. This way it will automatically add the DLL when you add the Web content.
Here's a tutorial on Nuget Package Explorer that will probably help you.
I have a solution which I am using in several projects which works pretty nicely.
Create a second .Assets project, which contains the Assets, and reference all the files as links in your project, and mark them as embedded resources.
YourProject.Assets - contains the css/html/js/cshtml files
YourProject - files included as links, marked as Embedded Resource
Then include my EmbeddedResourceVirtualPathProvider Nuget package, and it will serve you assets from the Embedded Resources in YourProject.dll.
If someones wants to override the resources, they can install the .Assets nuget package and they will be included in their project and served.