Develop Reference

Trying to remove NLog.config results in "Cannot modify an evaluated object originating in an imported file"

I have been moving the content of NLog.config to my App.config and was about to delete the original nlog configuration file.
However Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise (15.8.4) prevents me from doing so with the following error message:
Cannot modify an evaluated object originating in an imported file.
C:......csproj.nuget.g.props
When opening the aforementioned file I find the following section:
<ItemGroup Condition=" '$(ExcludeRestorePackageImports)' != 'true' ">
<None Include="$(NuGetPackageRoot)nlog.config\4.5.10\contentFiles\any\any\NLog.config" Condition="Exists('$(NuGetPackageRoot)nlog.config\4.5.10\contentFiles\any\any\NLog.config')">
<NuGetPackageId>NLog.Config</NuGetPackageId>
<NuGetPackageVersion>4.5.10</NuGetPackageVersion>
<NuGetItemType>None</NuGetItemType>
<CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
<TargetPath>NLog.config</TargetPath>
<Private>True</Private>
<Link>NLog.config</Link>
</None>
After deleting the section <ItemGroup> the NLog.config was gone, but came up again with autogenerated default content.
So long story short: How can I delete the file NLog.config at the root of my project when I have moved all the configuration stuff to App.config

Looks like a NuGet thing. You might have to delete the package and find one that does not setup the config file and just installs the DLL's.
Per #matze
Removing Replacing the package NLog.Config with NLog did the trick

What are the recommendations to deal with configuration files in visual studio for debug and release modes?

I have config files: confing.yml and scenarios.yml that are in the /config/ folder in my source. I use this code to find the configurations at the expected location using relative path:
string currentAssblLoc = Path.GetDirectoryName(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory);
string confFileLoc = currentAssblLoc + #"\config\config.yaml";
When I compile the app, the executable is moved to the debug folder, but the config files are not.
Question: taking into account the release version of the compiled assembly and the debug mode in which developers are writing code where should I place the config files. Is there a way for these files to be moved into the appropriate folders that can be defined in the project properties and what are some recommended practices around that.
Update: I see that the contents of the config folder are included in the .csproj file
<ItemGroup>
<None Include="App.config" />
<None Include="config\config.yml" />
<None Include="config\scenarios.yml" />
<None Include="packages.config" />
</ItemGroup>

I have been using SlowCheetah for many years. It can transform different config files depending on the Configuration settings. You can transform config files for development, staging and releases without having to manually change anything.
You can replace certain tags or complete sections. Config files are put into the appropriate configuration output directory defines in the properties for the configuration.
You can also use the Post Build options to copy files around after the build.

Add a directory to clickonce

I want to add a directory and its files to visual studio keeping the root dir. I did this with the below piece of XML on my .csproj file but this does add all its files to solution explorer but exclude the root. The file are variable and I don't want to hard code them add manually. That's why I'm looking for an automated solution.
How do I fix this?
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="bin\x86\release\myFolder\**\*">
<Visible>true</Visible>
<Link>%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
</Content>
I would like to include this directory (and not only its files) in ClickOnce publishing.

I couldn't think of any automatic way to created the folder and make the solutin explorer aware of this files. So I created the folder on right click on project -> add folder. Unloaded the project and edited the piece of XML which add the directory I've created to solution explorer to this:
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="foo\*.*">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
<Visible>True</Visible>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
Now solution explorer is aware of that files and so does clickonce. The files get properly in the app.publish folder
NOTE: On this project, the foo files came from another folder (external C++'s binary output folder). They're copyed at post-build time. The folder name is sort of hard-coded (I need to chage them manually on the VS solution explorer, on the .csproj file and in the xcopy command-line on post-build) cause I didn't find any other way to do that.

<Target Name="AddGeneratedFiles" AfterTargets="SOMETASK">
<CreateItem Include="*.cpp">
<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="ClCompile" />
</CreateItem>
</Target>

Deployment exclude files or folder

I try to publish my ASP.Net MVC project and i keep getting this error
Error 30 Copying file bin\Castle.Core.xml to
obj\Debug\Package\PackageTmp\bin\Castle.Core.xml failed. Could not
find file 'bin\Castle.Core.xml'. 0 0 XXX.YYYY.UI
I understand this is because of missing Castle.Core.xml in the bin folder, so how could i configure to not letting the compiler to copy this file?
The Castle.core.xml file will be deleted each time i rebuild the project so i'm tired copy into bin again and again.
Things i tried
I tried this approach from Microsoft but still no different. and this is the wpp.target file
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<ExcludeFromPackageFolders Include="bin\*.xml">
<FromTarget>ContactManager.Mvc.wpp.targets</FromTarget>
</ExcludeFromPackageFolders>
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
and also i tried to edit my .csproj file to exclude by adding these line which i read from this link
<ItemGroup>
<!-- This will exclude the .xml files from the bin folder -->
<ExcludeFromPackageFiles Include="$(OutputPath)*.xml" />
<!-- This will exclude the tmp folder from the bin folder -->
<ExcludeFromPackageFolders Include="$(OutputPath)tmp" />
</ItemGroup>
Can anyone give advise on this? Thanks in advance.

Is the Copy Local option in the Properties window available for this file? If so, change the Copy Local property to True.

Add dynamically generated file in MSBuild task to output and appx folders

I have created a build task that dynamically generates a file for the project it's used in.
I've managed to get that file to be copied into the $(TargetDir), but not into the AppX folder. The reason I need it there is, that this build task is about unit tests and this file is needed inside the tests.
Sounds a bit confusing so I try to clarify a little:
I generate code in that task and compile that into an assembly which I add as a reference to the main assembly (in this case the test.dll). So what happens is that I do this after the "AfterCompile" target and my assembly gets generated into the obj\Debug folder.
This is my Target:
<UsingTask TaskName="MyBuildTask" AssemblyFile="MyBuildTask.dll"/>
<Target
AfterTargets="AfterCompile"
Name="MyBuildTarget">
<MyBuildTask
SolutionRoot="$(SolutionDir)"
GeneratedAssemblyPath="$(IntermediateOutputPath)$(TargetName).Generated.dll"
TestProjectPath="$(ProjectPath)"
TestAssemblyPath="#(IntermediateAssembly)"
>
<Output TaskParameter="GeneratedFile" ItemName="GeneratedFile"/>
</MyBuildTask>
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="#(GeneratedFile)">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
<DeploymentContent>true</DeploymentContent>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
One this, that I also don't want is, that this file now gets copied to \bin\Debug\obj\Debug.
I could obviously specify this statically, so that it's always copied to the output path root and then to the AppX folder, I only want to do this as my last solution if there is nothing else I can do.
So how do I get my file into this GetCopyToOutputDirectoryItems, which I presume is the list of items that are both for the output directory and the AppX package?

I've actually found after a consecutive 8 hours of further research about the topic and reading a lot through all the target files from both Microsoft.Common.targets and Microsoft.AppxPackage.targets the solution to my problem:
<ItemGroup>
<AppxPackagePayload Include="#(GeneratedAssemblyFullPath)" Condition="#(AppxPackagePayload) != '' Or #(AppxPackagePayload) != '*Undefined*'">
<TargetPath>#(GeneratedFile)</TargetPath>
</AppxPackagePayload>
</ItemGroup>
This adds the file to the AppxPackagePayload and thus it will be copied to the Appx package.
PS: Since I was a little confused myself about this. #(GeneratedFile) and #(GeneratedAssemblyFullPath) are the outputs from my own build task and of type "string", like the names suggest. #(GeneratedFile) is just the file name, so it will be put into the root.

Have you tried removing the $(IntermediateOutputPath) from the GeneratedAssemblyPath, I believe that is what is producing the \bin\Debug\obj\Debug. It is copying that file path into the OutputDirectory (which is generally something like \bin\Debug.