Develop Reference

How to transform Include attribute value of PackageReference property in .csproj using Package.props file?

In my solution I'm using Package.props file for settings versions for referenced packages.
For instance if I want to add a nuget package Microsoft.Cool.Package to one of my solution's projects, I just put in corresponding .csproj file a line:
<PackageReference Include="My.Cool.Package" />
And also add another one to Package.props:
<PackageReference Update="My.Cool.Package" Version="1.0.1" />
For local development I sometimes want to replace nuget package reference in all projects, like I want: <PackageReference Include="My.Cool.Package" /> to become <PackageReference Include="../../My.Cool.Package.csproj" />.
How can I achieve that just by making corresponding change in Package.props file, which will override all non local package includes.

If your .csproj has
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="My.Cool.Package"/>
</ItemGroup>
then in Directory.Packages.props you can figure that out using
<PropertyGroup>
<HasCoolPackage>#(PackageReference->AnyHaveMetadataValue("Identity", "My.Cool.Package"))</HasCoolPackage>
</PropertyGroup>
and based on that remove it and something else instead:
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="../My.Cool.Package.csproj" Condition="$(HasCoolPackage) == True"/>
<PackageReference Remove="My.Cool.Package" Condition="$(HasCoolPackage) == True"/>
</ItemGroup>
Note: due to msbuild evaluation order the lines must be in the order shown otherwise msbuild would first remove the package, then evaluate the property again and it would be false at that point.

How to pack the products from multiple projects into one nuget without any nuspec file?

I am using Sdk projects targeting .NET Framework 4.7.2. The project structure is:
SmokeTests
|
+--UITests
| |
| +--Common
|
+ NonUITests
|
+--Common
where:
the SmokeTests project references both UITests and NonUITests using ProjectReferences
UITests and NonUITests both reference Common using a ProjectReference
UITests, NonUITests and Common reference some NuGet packages using PackageReferences
the SmokeTests project has no source code, but it does have some content files.
I use the SmokeTests project as a roll up project. When I build it, its bin\debug\net472 directory contains all the binaries and symbols I want to have in the nuget package, i.e.:
The NuGet dependencies of UITests, NonUITests and Common
The dlls of UITests, NonUITests and Common
The PDBs
The SmokeTests csproj looks like this:
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>net472</TargetFramework>
<PackageId>SmokeTests</PackageId>
<NoPackageAnalysis>true</NoPackageAnalysis>
<IncludeBuildOutput>true</IncludeBuildOutput>
<GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild>
<ContentTargetFolders>content</ContentTargetFolders>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="**\*.ps1" Exclude="PSTests\run.ps1" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectReference Include="..\NonUITests\NonUITests.csproj" />
<ProjectReference Include="..\UITests\UITests.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
I also have a Directory.Build.props file:
<Project>
<PropertyGroup>
<TreatWarningsAsErrors>true</TreatWarningsAsErrors>
<AllowedReferenceRelatedFileExtensions>.pdb</AllowedReferenceRelatedFileExtensions>
<Version>$([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Match($(BuildName), `\d+\.\d+(?:.\d+)?(?:.\d+)?`))</Version>
<Version Condition="'$(Version)' == ''">1.0.0.0</Version>
<SourceRevisionId>$(Revision)</SourceRevisionId>
<Company>My Company, Inc.</Company>
<Copyright>Copyright © $([System.DateTime]::Now.Year) by My Company, Inc. All rights reserved.</Copyright>
<Product>Smoke Tests</Product>
<NeutralLanguage>en-US</NeutralLanguage>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
When I build the solution, the produced SmokeTests.1.0.0.nupkg file does not contain any of the binaries, except the SmokeTests.dll itself. Clearly not what I want.
How can I get everything from bin\debug\net472 into the produced NuGet package without specifying a nuspec file?
I can always hack an after build step that would manipulate the nupkg file, but I want a proper way to do it.
EDIT 1
Judging by the amount of responses either the question is plain stupid or nobody uses .Net core. Posted it here as well - https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/aa25cb08-ff95-4d81-b0c3-9c4a395f9999/how-to-pack-the-products-from-multiple-projects-into-one-nuget-without-any-nuspec-file?forum=msbuild
Could it be that SO lost its charm?
EDIT 2
I added the following properties to PublicLib.csproj to produce a NuGet package:
<GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild>
<PackageId>$(AssemblyName)</PackageId>
<NoPackageAnalysis>true</NoPackageAnalysis>
<IncludeBuildOutput>true</IncludeBuildOutput>
<AllowedOutputExtensionsInPackageBuildOutputFolder>.pdb</AllowedOutputExtensionsInPackageBuildOutputFolder>
And it almost works, here is the content of the PublicLib.1.0.0.nupkg\lib\netstandard2.0 folder:
But IncludedLib.pdb is missing.

So, after long hours of inspecting the NuGet.Build.Tasks.Pack.targets I have arrived at the following code for my roll up project SmokeTests:
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>net472</TargetFramework>
<GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild>
<PackageId>$(AssemblyName)</PackageId>
<NoPackageAnalysis>true</NoPackageAnalysis>
<IncludeBuildOutput>true</IncludeBuildOutput>
<AllowedOutputExtensionsInPackageBuildOutputFolder>.pdb</AllowedOutputExtensionsInPackageBuildOutputFolder>
<ContentTargetFolders>content</ContentTargetFolders>
<GenerateNuspecDependsOn>MyCustomizePacking</GenerateNuspecDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="MyCustomizePacking" Returns="#(NuGetPackInput);#(_BuildOutputInPackage);#(_TargetPathsToSymbols)">
<ItemGroup>
<NuGetPackInput Remove="#(BuiltProjectOutputGroupKeyOutput);#(DebugSymbolsProjectOutputGroupOutput)"/>
<_BuildOutputInPackage Remove="#(BuiltProjectOutputGroupKeyOutput)"/>
<_TargetPathsToSymbols Remove="#(DebugSymbolsProjectOutputGroupOutput)"/>
<NuGetPackInput Include="#(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths);#(AllItemsFullPathWithTargetPath)" />
<_BuildOutputInPackage Include="%(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths.Identity)" >
<TargetFramework>$(TargetFramework)</TargetFramework>
</_BuildOutputInPackage>
<_BuildOutputInPackage Include="%(AllItemsFullPathWithTargetPath.Identity)" >
<TargetFramework>$(TargetFramework)</TargetFramework>
</_BuildOutputInPackage>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="**\*.ps1" Exclude="PSTests\run.ps1" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectReference Include="..\NonUITests\NonUITests.csproj" />
<ProjectReference Include="..\UITests\UITests.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
The only way I could find to pack all my project and package references into the NuGet was to hook into the process through GenerateNuspecDependsOn by injecting my target MyCustomizePacking. This target does the following:
Remove the SmokeTests.dll and SmokeTests.pdb from the relevant item groups, because this is a roll up project with no code on its own, I do not need its dll or pdb inside the package.
Include #(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths) and #(AllItemsFullPathWithTargetPath) in the relevant item groups.
Seems to work,but I am not happy with my implementation. I wish there was better support for this.

Target .NET 4.x and .NET Standard 2.0

Last year I added .NET Standard 2.0 support to the Network library. I did achieve this by creating a second (.NET Standard) project, and basically copy + paste the sourcecode. With some adjustments it was ready to go.
But since I add features on demand, it is really bothersome to change the same thing in both projects. It would be great to just create one code-base and simply change the compile target.
Pre-Compile statements aren't an option, because the .NET 4.x version does additionally include some NuGet packages, which aren't available for .NET Standard.
The solution I can currently think of is, to create a shared library, including all the cross-project classes. Or is there a much smoother solution?

Solved the Problem with the suggested solution. The .csproj Looks like following
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFrameworks>net46;netstandard2.0</TargetFrameworks>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<RestoreProjectStyle>PackageReference</RestoreProjectStyle>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Compile Remove="packages\**" />
<EmbeddedResource Remove="packages\**" />
<None Remove="packages\**" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<!-- PackageReferences for all TargetFrameworks -->
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup Condition="'$(TargetFramework)' == 'net46' ">
<!-- PackageReferences for net46 TargetFramework -->
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup Condition="'$(TargetFramework)' == 'netstandard2.0' ">
<!-- PackageReferences for standard2.0 TargetFramework -->
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
The only issue currently: I can't use the NuGet Package-Manager. I have to add every entry manually into the correct ItemGroup.
EDIT: The manual edit is only required if the packages are not supported by both TargetFrameworks. Simply Change in the Settings -> NuGet-Paket-Manager -> Default Format -> PackageReference

You can add source files from an existing project to another project as a link.
project a
somefile.cs
project b
Right click on project b, add existing item...navigate to somefile.cs in project a, and then add
You can edit the file from either project...so be careful.

How can I include a NuGet package with native dlls in my new CSPROJ Class Library?

I have a class library which I just migrated to the new csproj format that has a dependency on SQLite.Core.
SQLite has native dependencies x64/SQLite.Interop.dll and x86/SQLite.Interoop.dll which used to get copied to the output folder for any project adding my package. This was taken care of by NuGet by automatically including the following import in the old csproj file:
<Import Project="..\packages\System.Data.SQLite.Core.1.0.106\build\net451\System.Data.SQLite.Core.targets" Condition="Exists('..\packages\System.Data.SQLite.Core.1.0.106\build\net451\System.Data.SQLite.Core.targets')" />
After migrating to the new csproj I can build my library as a NuGet package which correctly includes SQLite.Core as a dependency however whoever consumes my NuGet library does not get the native dependencies coppied to the output folder.
On the other hand, if the consumer first adds the SQLite.Core then add my package everything works correctly.
Any idea how I can restore the behaviour before the migration? Below is the migrated csproj:
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<PackageId>My.Library</PackageId>
<Description>Some Library.</Description>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>net452</TargetFramework>
<AssemblyName>My Library</AssemblyName>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="System.Data.SQLite.Core" Version="1.0.106" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Reference Include="Microsoft.CSharp" />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>

Since System.Data.SQLite.Core uses build-time logic to include the package to the content, the default dependency settings for PackageReference aren't a good fit if you build a library referencing that package. By default, PackageReference will not forward contentFiles, build assets and analyzers for transitive references.
To change that behavior, edit your PackageReference to:
<PackageReference Include="System.Data.SQLite.Core" Version="1.0.106" PrivateAssets="none"/>
This will ensure that the package will behave exactly the same when reference directly or transitively via your library. In your specific case, PrivateAssets could also be contentFiles;analyzers since only build would need to be forwarded but since the package only contains build assets, it doesn't matter.
See Controlling dependency assets for more details.

Include Nuget dependencies in my build output?

I am building a modular .NET core application that can load extensions at runtime using MEF. I have 2 projects, one is a library that I want to be able to load at runtime, then I have my main application that will do the loading.
My library project has some Nuget dependencies. In order to load my library at runtime, I need those Nuget dependencies to be available next to the library at runtime, but building using VS2017 does not include these Nuget DLLs as part of the output.
How do I get Nuget DLLs included when I build my library?
Edit: I have tried dotnet publish and dotnet pack, but both of those make me a nupkg file only containing my DLL and not the nuget DLLs I need with it. Also, I can't load a nupkg file at runtime very easily, which is why I'd like to just get the resulting assemblies themselves on their own.
For what it's worth, this is what my csproj looks like:
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>netcoreapp1.1</TargetFramework>
<AssemblyName>JSON.plugin</AssemblyName>
<IncludeBuiltProjectOutputGroup>true</IncludeBuiltProjectOutputGroup>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Composition" Version="1.0.31" />
<PackageReference Include="Newtonsoft.Json" Version="10.0.3" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectReference Include="..\..\BDDGen.Types\BDDGen.Types.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>

In order to make the build process copy all referenced dll files from NuGet packages from the cache folder into the build output, set this property inside a <PropertyGroup>:
<CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies>true</CopyLocalLockFileAssemblies>