CODEWITHSUNDEEP
xsdnuget
scottm
scottm

Reputation: 28699

How do I include an XSD file for a configuration section with a NuGet package?

I have a library with a pretty verbose configuration section. I've created an XSD and would like to distribute that with my package so that when a user installs the package, Visual Studio knows about the XSD without the user needing to do anything extra. How do I do this?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 1974

Answers (2)

Fabian
Fabian

Reputation: 1200

This has recently become more complicated with SDK style projects and the different ways of referencing nuget packages.

Note the end of this section.

Basically, if a nuget project is referenced by package.config file, the files from the content folder of the nuget package will be copied to the referencing project. If the nuget package is referenced by PackageReference in the project file, the files from the contentFiles folder within the package will be used. It is recommended to include both.

Now if you are using a .nuspec file to configure your nuget package, you can use SynXsiS answer to include the file to both directories:

<files>
    <file src="Configuration\MyXsd.xsd" target="content\TargetFolderName" />
    <file src="Configuration\MyXsd.xsd" target="contentFiles\any\any\TargetFolderName" />
</files>

However, if you want to configure it in the .csproj file of SDK projects, you have to add the file you want to include in the nuget package into the project file with the following properties:

<ItemGroup>
    <None Include="MyXsd.xsd">
        <Pack>true</Pack>
        <PackagePath>contentFiles\any\any\TargetFolderName;content\TargetFolderName</PackagePath>
    </None>
</ItemGroup>

The any\any\ part of the path for the contentFiles specifies for which language (cs, vb, ...) and target framework the file is meant.

Note, that the item not necessarily has to be of type "None" it could also be "Content" and others as described here.

You can find all information for this structure here, general information of the folder structure can be found here and help for the SDK style projects here.

Upvotes: 2

SynXsiS
SynXsiS

Reputation: 1898

You can include any files you want in a nuget package by placing them in the content directory. These will then be installed into the root of your target project when the package is installed. If you're using a nuspec file to build your package you would add the following element under the element.

<files>
    <file src="Configuration\MyXsd.xsd" target="content\TargetFolderName" />
</files>

This will create the following file in the target project

\TargetFolderName\MyXsd.xsd

Once the xsd is in the target project visual studio should pick it up automatically for validating your config section.

Upvotes: 4

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