ASP.NET Core 6: copy external directory to the publish folder - asp.net-core

How to copy the content of external directory to the publish folder when I do dotnet publish ?
I tried the following in the project config, but unfortunately this copies the content of documents-templates directory to the root of the publish directory, but I want the whole folder documents-templates to be copied with its contents.
Is there any way to set the destination folder name too ?
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="D:\Workspace\OtherProject\documents-templates\**">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>


I have tested in my local, and it works for me.
<ItemGroup>
<Parent Include="C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\Testimages\*.*" />
<EmbeddedResource Include="#(Parent)">
<Link>Resources\%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
<CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</EmbeddedResource>
</ItemGroup>

Related

NuGet Package Packing - Is it possible to copy files to a custom directory?

I'm trying to package a few files into a NuGet package, but the issue is that all of the files are sent to the "content" folder within the NuGet package by default when packaged. Normally this is okay, but for the JSON files I have in "ABCJsons" I'd like them to be sent to "content/NewFolderName".
In my example below, the first block is my AbcToolTester, which has all of its project files files being successfully sent to the content directory in the NuGet package. The second block, is where I attempted to copy all the json files with ABCLibrary (ABCLibrary has subfolders where the actual Jsons are located) to the destination folder "ABCJsons". I thought this would do the trick, but unfortunately the ABCJson files just get sent to the content folder along with all the other files.
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="..\AbcToolTester\bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.1\**" Exclude="..\AbcToolTester\bin\Debug\netcoreapp3.1\*.pdb">
<IncludeInPackage>true</IncludeInPackage>
<CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>
<ItemGroup>
<Target Name="CopyABCLibrary" AfterTargets="AfterBuild">
<ItemGroup>
<ABCJsonsInclude="..\..\tests\ABCLibrary\**\*.*"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(ABCJsons)" DestinationFolder="$(TargetDir)\ABCJsons" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
</Target>

It's hard to tell if the NuGet package you are creating is actually dependent on AbcToolTester project because there are easier ways to package that. That's another question though.
For your actual issue, you can simplify the copying process while also telling it where to pack the files. Replace your CopyABCLibrary target with this:
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="..\..\tests\ABCLibrary\**\*.*">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
<Pack>true</Pack>
<PackagePath>ABCJsons\%(RecursiveDir)</PackagePath>
<!-- This line hides the items from showing in the solution explorer -->
<Visible>false</Visible>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
This will put all those files into the root of the nuget package into the ABCJsons folder and preserve the directory structure. Change the path accordingly to put it somewhere else.

How to copy downloaded file to publish directory with msbuild?

I'd like to download and copy files to the publish directory with MSBuild. I've tried the following which seems pretty obvious:
<Target Name="DownloadContentFiles" BeforeTargets="BeforePublish">
<DownloadFile SourceUrl="$(LatestValidatorUrl)" DestinationFolder="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)">
<Output TaskParameter="DownloadedFile" ItemName="Content" />
</DownloadFile>
</Target>
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="org.hl7.fhir.validator.jar" CopyToPublishDirectory="PreserveNewest" CopyToOutputDirectory="PreserveNewest" />
</ItemGroup>
However CopyToPublishDirectory is running before BeforeTargets="BeforePublish" runs, so it fails to find the file.
I've tried many other variations as well, but nothing is working.
How can I download a file and copy it to the publish directory before the Publish step runs?

Copy to Publish Directory output of PreBuild Event

Inside my csproj I have a pre-build event where I run the build of Vue js project. It outputs to a "dist" folder, and that is loaded by an cshtml file.
In the csproj file I have a reference to the dist folder and I tell it to copy to publish directory:
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="dist\**" CopyToPublishDirectory="Always" />
</ItemGroup>
On publish, MsBuild seems to be trying to copy the files in the dist folder that exist before the pre-build event starts. Is there an way to get MsBuild to copy the contents of the folder after the pre-build event?

In order to support all possible publish mechanisms that tooling (VS etc.) supports, I suggest setting it up similar to how the in-box angular template works:
<Target Name="PublishDistFiles" AfterTargets="ComputeFilesToPublish">
<ItemGroup>
<DistFiles Include="dist\**" />
<ResolvedFileToPublish Include="#(DistFiles->'%(FullPath)')" Exclude="#(ResolvedFileToPublish)">
<RelativePath>%(DistFiles.Identity)</RelativePath>
<CopyToPublishDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToPublishDirectory>
</ResolvedFileToPublish>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>

You can add a step to do it manually using the Copy task
<Target Name="MyCopyStep" AfterTargets="AfterPublish">
<ItemGroup>
<MyDistFiles Include="dist\**" />
</ItemGroup>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(MyDistFiles)" DestinationFiles="#(MyDistFiles->'$(PublishDir)\dist\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')"/>
</Target>

Linked files location on .Net core in Debug vs Publish

I have a shared.{Environment}.json file that is added as linked files in several .Net core 2.1 projects. When project is build or published file gets copied to output directory, in case of release its fine but on debug it doesn't work as when project run it looks up for that file in project directory not in output directory.
Whats the proper way to solve this issue for both debug and publish?

For linked files, it will not exist under the project directory.
For a workaround, you could try to copy the file with task in csproj like below:
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="..\MVCPro\shared.{Environment}.json">
<Link>shared.{Environment}.json</Link>
<CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="CopyLinkedContentFiles" BeforeTargets="Build">
<Copy SourceFiles="..\MVCPro\shared.{Environment}.json" DestinationFolder=".\" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" OverwriteReadOnlyFiles="true" />
</Target>

Add folder from solution to C# .NET project Content output

I want to include files from the solution directory, regardless of where the files are. I added this to my .csproj file:
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="$(SolutionDir)\web\**\*" />
</ItemGroup>
But the files do not appear in the solution explorer. And they do not appear in the publish output either.
How to do this correctly?

You still need to tell MSBuild to copy the content, for example
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="$(SolutionDir)\web\**\*">
<CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</Content>
</ItemGroup>