I'm a newcomer to .NET world, and at this point I'm super confused about the packages, references and how to reference them in my c# project.
I have 3 project in my solution:
DataAccess - which contains the logic for accessing data, the mapping between DTOs and entities, etc.,
DataAccessTest - contains unit tests for DataAccess project,
Service - wraps the DataAccess project into a Windows service.
Now, DataAccess project references AutoMapper (among others) to help with data transformation. It's included in <PackageReference /> element in the csproj file. It seems to be working fine when I'm doing dotnet restore, however dotnet build fails when trying to resolve the namespaces! The same goes for JetBrains Rider - it doesn't find the namespaces until I explicitly reference them in <Reference>!
Not sure if related, but the same goes for the dependent projects. For example, DataAccessTest references the DataAccess project - so that the test will run. However, it still requires adding the transitive dependencies (for example AutoMapper), on top of the project reference.
Is this the intended behavior? Do you need to keep both <PackageReference> and <Reference> for project to compile correctly?
In C# you Have to take care about referencing to other projects. if one project has been referenced to other project, the other project couldn't use or reference to first project. if you did, it will gives you compilation Error.
You need to install Nuget packages for each project that references methods in that package. So, if only your DataAccess project requires AutoMapper, it should be sufficient to add the Nuget package to that project. The solution is not much more than a wrapper around a bunch of projects. You should be able to publish a project separately. The project will take care of its own dependencies. It is hard to find out what goes wqrong. It may be helpful if you create a small testproject, e.g. create an empty console project and a DataAccess Library. Then you add a Nuget package to your DataAccess library and copile all stuff. In this way you can try to find out what is goning wrong. Make sure to install the Nuget Packages for the correct project (I got this wrong several times before I discovered how it really worked).
This is the basics of the problem I am having (of course it is oversimplified for the sake of the question):
I have 2 projects in a solution stored in mono-repository:
Project1 - outputs a library
Project2 - outputs an executable
When Project2 references Project1.
I would like to move to multi-repository where Project1 will be stored in different Repository from Project2.
Project1 will output a nuget package and Project2 will reference it instead the project itself.
The issue I am facing: in current situation (mono-repository) when during development I introduce a feature in
Project2 that also requires a change in Project1 it is not a problem. If there are problems I can discover it
during development time.
In a new way (multi-repository) I first need to make a change to Project1, create nuget and push it to nuget
store, then update reference in Project2. If I would have problems in Project1, I must go back to Project1,
fix the issue and push it again, update reference in Project2 and so on. Also, losing the benefit of debugging
both projects.
Is there a solution to this approach? To focus my question: if I have source codes of both projects on my dev machine,
is it possible somehow to instruct Visual Studio to use source code instead of referenced Nuget for debugging?
Hope I explained it right and clear as possible...
If you have two different projects and both of them are in different repositories, you could add the library as a submodule of the first project. I'm assuming you're using git. You could do this simply by:
git submodule add <link for the other repo>
In visual studio you just add the project to the same solution and then reference library from the executable. I'm not sure if that would do the trick for you, but I hope that works.
We have the exact same problem in our company.
This is 2 part problem.
First part is to have both repositories near each other... There are more options, we were deciding between these 2:
git submodule
meta repository (it is a compromise between mono-repository and multi-repository) you have 2 repositories you want to connect, so you create 3rd repository as a meta-repository via https://github.com/mateodelnorte/meta
Second part is how to connect those 2 repositories so that they are debuggable, but still apart each other... We though of these 3 ways:
new .sln in meta repository that will reference both projects (this didn't cut it, because we already been in a position when we had multiple .sln files and maintaining them is not that easy, because when you add some project into one, you have to add it to the other solutions and this goes sideways really quick)
using Reference and PackageReference with Condition - locally for debugging when .dll is build in ProjA then the ProjB would use "Reference", if not the ProjB would use PackageReference => this was our main solution to our problem until we did it like that... (Because we have more than 2 projects ProjA -> ProjB -> ProjC.. The problem here was when it was built locally, referenced via Reference DLL, then ProjA was not visible from ProjC, but when built via CI and referenced via PackageReference, then ProjA was visible from ProjC)
using only Nugets - Every build of ProjA it will create nuget locally (pre-release) and in ProjB, we would reference that via wild-cards. This works, until you make a second change into ProjA, because ProjB will cache that nuget in C:/Users//.nuget/packages :( so when building ProjA and packing the nuget we clear the newly built nuget from this packages folder. You have to restore ProjB every time you make change into ProjA, but this is where we landed as a final solution for now.
So the final solution for us is:
meta-repository for like 5 other repositories
for debugging we use locally built nugets with constant version of "major.minor.patch.65534-local"
for CI we use the same nuget packaging but we override the local version with
feature branches "major.minor.patch.build_number-branch_name" (having -something after the version makes that nuget pre-release)
master/main branch "major.minor.path.build_number"
I have a solution that has a project that has a class that I'd like to share with another project in the same solution.
This class depends on a library that was pulled in from nuget.
Because the second project hasn't pulled this same library from nuget, the class execution fails (despite the second project depending on the first).
Up to this point, I've just been going and adding the same nuget packages to multiple projects.
This seems terribly unwieldy as when I need to update one project, I have to remember to update them all, or depend on tests, which seems like a great opportunity for bugs to slip through the cracks.
How can I go about sharing these dependencies between multiple projects in the same solution?
I create a sample solution based on your description, I found the dependencies nuget library could be found automatically in other projects that reference Class1 project. But if I set the Copy to Local property as false for the nuget library in Class1 project references, I will get an error message about could not find the dependencies when running other projects.
So please check the Copy to Local property for the nuget library in your Class1 project to confirm it is set as True.
I'm getting my knickers in a twist with 'project' versus 'package' (ie Nuget package) references in asp.net 5.0. I'd really like for someone to explain a bit more fully the way references are pulled in in asp.net 5.0. How does a 'dnu restore' determine if something is a project reference rather than a package reference?
I had thought that a reference would be pulled in as a project if the projects were in the same directory, but this is clearly not the whole story. It does appear that you can have a deeper directory nesting and still pick up the project reference.
Here is an outline of my common project structure:
I've got a set of projects, some of which reference one another. There are libraries called TextHelpers and MathHelpers and a project called MainProject. The libraries live in a folder called Libraries, and the MainProject lives in a folder called Tools. This separation is necessary as Libraries and Tools belong to different Git repos:
Root/Libraries/TextHelpers.Project1 - version 1.0.0-*
Root/Libraries/TextHelpers.Project2 - version 1.0.0-*
Root/Libraries/MathHelpers.Project1 - version 1.0.0-*
Root/Libraries/MathHelpers.Project2 - version 1.0.0-*
Root/Tools/MainProject - version 1.0.0-*
Usually MainProject references the libraries as Nuget packages from a private Nuget repository (just a folder on the file system) which serves the libraries.
While I'm building MainProject, however, sometimes I need to make a change to one of the library projects, or sometimes I'd like to step into the files without using a Nuget symbol server. For this reason, I'd like to switch to referencing the (live) projects rather than from the (static) Nuget packages. How would I do this?
I've discovered this much so far: if I have a global.json file, a 'dnu restore' creates a project.lock.json with 'project' rather than 'package' references. Is this the whole story?
dnu and dnx look in the following folders:
The folder where the current project is (that means the parent folder of the folder containing the project.json of the current project). E.g. if you have repo/src/project1/project.json it will look in repo/src
Any other folder included in global.json
Then the algorithm is really naive: if it finds a folder with the name matching the package in any the folders mentioned above it will assume those are the sources for that package.
For example, if you have
src/P1/project.json
src/System.Collections/project.json
and in src/P1/project.json you have a reference to System.Collections, it will use src/System.Collection instead of the NuGet package System.Collections. Projects take precedence over packages.
Caveats:
Since the algoritm looks in the current folder and everything in global.json you might be able to reference some projects from one folder but not another. If in my previous example you'd add a test/T1/project.json project but src is not in global.json then the projects in src will reference System.Collections the project while T1 will reference the package (installed in the global packages folder).
There's no verification to see if the project reference is actually that package. If the name matches, it's a match. So an empty project could replace any package.
If you have multiple project with the same name you can get in trouble.
Hope this helps and answers your question.
Side note: with dotnet (the tool replacing dnx) you can specify for every reference if you want the project or the package to have higher priority.
I am attempting to publish and consume versioned NuGet packages of class libraries while avoiding headaches for local development. Here is a sample Visual Studio solution layout:
| Libraries
| LibraryA
| LibraryB
| LibraryC
| Applications
| ApplicationD
| ApplicationE
This is a single solution containing both shared class libraries and multiple applications. Currently references to the class libraries by the applications are local in-solution references.
What I would like to do is to publish the libraries (A,B,C) as versioned NuGet packages which are then referenced by the applications as needed (D,E). This allows a change to a shared library to be independent from an update to an application which is deployed. Without this, changing one library could cause the binaries to change in a dozen or more applications, all of which would technically need to be tested. This is undesirable, and versioning with NuGet fixes this.
However, let us say that I want to update the content of LibraryA and ApplicationD at the same time. In order to do this after we have switched to NuGet, I will have to make changes to LibraryA, commit them, wait for the package to be created, tell ApplicationD to update its reference to LibraryA, and then test or develop in ApplicationD. This is far more complicated than simply working with both at the same time using local in-solution references.
What is a better way to get both the robustness of versioned NuGet packages for my shared class libraries while also keeping development simple even if it spans over multiple projects and applications? The only other solutions I have found all involve too much overhead or headache, such as having to constantly change the references for ApplicationD between the NuGet package and the local project.
EDIT: To clarify the premise, this question assumes the following:
The architecture (solution and project organization) cannot be significantly reorganized
Shared libraries are going to change at a non-trivial frequency
Changing a shared library cannot force any application to be updated
Applications can reference different versions of shared libraries
Although it takes some work, it is possible to hand-edit .csproj files in order to set up conditional referencing by adding a Condition attribute to the appropriate references.
EDIT I've moved these conditions into ItemGroups, as it seems this is how my mentioned production code is working, and there has been mention of this being a possible issue in VS 2013.
<ItemGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug Local'">
<!-- Library A reference as generated by VS for an in-solution reference, children unmodified -->
<ProjectReference>...
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug NuGet'">
<!-- Library A reference as generated by NuGet, child nodes unmodified -->
<Reference Include="LibraryA">...
</ItemGroup>
This would allow you to have, on the Projects D & E, configurations of "Debug NuGet" vs. "Debug Local" which reference the libraries differently. If you then have multiple solution files which have their configurations mapped to the appropriate configurations on the projects within, the end user would never see more than "Debug" and "Release" for most operation, since those are the solution configs, and would only need to open the full solution for editing the A, B, & C projects.
Now, as for getting the A, B, & C projects out of the way, you could set them up under a folder marked as a subrepo (assuming you're using an SCM that supports this, such as Git). Most users would never need to pull the subrepo since they're not accessing the ABC projects, and are instead grabbing from NuGet.
Maintenance wise, I can guarantee that VS will not edit the conditional references, and will respect them during compilation -I have gone through both VS 2010 and 2013 (EDIT: Professional version, though I have delved into doing the same with express) with the same conditional reference projects at work. Keep in mind than in VS, references can be made version-agnostic, making NuGet the only place from which version need be maintained, and that can be done like any other NuGet package. While I'm hopeful, I have NOT tested whether NuGet will fight with the conditional references.
EDIT It may also be prudent to note that conditional references can cause warnings about missing DLLs, but does not actually hinder compilation or run.
EDIT For those still reading this, I'm now (7/2019) hearing that the IDE isn't as friendly to these changes anymore, and either it or the Package Manager may override them. Proceed with caution, and always read your commits!
Update for .NET Core (2.x ++)
.NET Core 2.x actually has this functionality built in!
If you have a project reference to project A in project B, and project A is a .NET Standard or Core project with proper package information (Properties -> Package with Package id set to your NuGet package ID), then you can have a regular project reference in project B's .csproj file:
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectReference Include="..\..\A\ProjectA.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
When you pack (dotnet pack) project B, because of the Package id in project A, the generated .nuspec file will be set up with a NuGet dependency to that Package ID, together with other NuGet references you might have, instead of just including the built DLL file.
<dependencies>
<group targetFramework=".NETStandard2.0">
<dependency id="Project.A" version="1.2.3" exclude="Build,Analyzers" />
<dependency id="Newtonsoft.Json" version="12.0.2" exclude="Build,Analyzers" />
</group>
</dependencies>
I know this is a 2-years old post, but just found it while facing the same situation. Also found this for VS2015, I'm in the process of testing it. I'll come back and adjust my answer accordingly.
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=RicoSuter.NuGetReferenceSwitcherforVisualStudio2015
I also faced a similar problem. One approach that worked was using local repository (which is basically just a folder in local) and adding post-build script in the libraries. For example: let's say you need to update your implementation for LibraryA, then include following 3 steps in your post-build event for LibraryA:
Check if local repository has that version of package; if yes then delete it
rd /s /q %userprofile%\.nuget\packages\LibraryA\#(VersionNumber) -Recurse -ErrorAction Ignore
Create a nuget package
nuget pack LibraryA.csproj
Push it to local repository
nuget push LibraryA#(VersionNumber) -Source %userprofile%\.nuget\packages
These steps will make sure that the package is always updated for that version after each build (we had to do this since nuget packages are immutable)
Now in ApplicationD, you can point to local repository (%userprofile%.nuget\packages) to get LibraryA; such that after each build of LibraryA, you will receive an updated version of it in ApplicationD
PS: Inorder to get version number of you library you can use this : Determine assembly version during a post-build event
Unfortunately, there really isn't a way to have the best of both worlds. Internally in my company, we've mitigated it somewhat with a fast build/deploy process, which counteracts most of the burdens with always referencing a NuGet package. Basically, all of our applications use a different version of the same library hosted in a local NuGet repository. Since we use our own software to build, deploy, and host the packages, it makes it pretty quick to update the library, then update its NuGet package in another solution. Essentially, the fastest workflow we've found is this:
Make changes to library
Automatically build and deploy version of library incremented by 1 to internal NuGet feed
Update NuGet package in consumer application
The whole process from check-in to updating the consuming project takes around 3 minutes. The NuGet repository also has a symbol/source server which helps tremendously with debugging.
In the properties of ApplicationD, go to the "Reference Paths" tab and add the path of the output folder of LibraryA. Then, if you change and build LibraryA, the next build of ApplicationD will use the modified LibraryA.
When you are finished, don't forget to remove the "Reference Paths" and update the referenced NuGet package version.
My not-so-clean yet fastest solution so far is:
Assuming the following two separate solutions:
VS Solution 1: contains libraries published as nuget packages:
Solution1
|_ my.first.library
|_ my.second.library
VS Solution 2: contains applications, which consume one or more of the above libraries as PackageReferences:
Solution2
|_ my.first.application
| |_ depends on nuget my.first.library (let us say v1.0.1)
|
|_ my.second.application
In case, I'm making changes to my.first.library
I proceed as follows:
Make code changes to my.first.library and rebuild
Navigate to the build output directory of my.first.library (e.g. <Solution1 directory>/my.first.library/bin/debug/netstandard2.0) and copy the .dll and .pdb files
Navigate to the my.first.library's local directory of the currently being used nuget feed (for example at: C:\Users\user.name\.nuget\packages\my.first.library\1.0.1lib\netstandard2.0) and replace the .dll and .pdb files there with the ones generated in step 1 (possibly making backup).
Changes get reflected in my.first.application. Continue working and repeat steps 1-4, when needed
Advantages:
being completely local. No secondary nuget feeds needed.
zero changes to .csproj/.sln files
Caution:
While this solution offers you flexibility, make sure you clear your nuget cache before acting on them, for example by publishing to a nuget server. Thanks #Benrobot