Reputation: 11958

How do I add a reference to a Shared Code project (.shproj) from another project

When I created a new universal app project in Visual Studio it created a shared project that let me share code between the Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1 projects that were created.

Now I have other projects that I would also like to use that shared code. However, I do not see a way to add select that project in the "Add Reference..." window.

If I try to copy the reference from one of the existing projects I get the error:

Catastrophic failure (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8000FFFF (E_UNEXPECTED))

when I click 'Paste Reference'. How do I reference the shared project from other projects?

Upvotes: 27

Answers (6)

Bjarke Fjeldsted

Reputation: 11

I got the same error, trying to add windows forms to something. I added the windows forms reference to all the projects using my shared project, and the code compiled.

Im guessing that using a shared project, instead of a reference to a dll means the projects using your shared project. MUST have the references your shared one needs.

Upvotes: 0

vossad01

Reputation: 11958

Adding the reference will require editing the project files where you want to add it. If it helps, you can peek at the project file where it is already referenced to see a working example.

Near the bottom of the project file (ex, a .csproj) there is likely already an <Import> element such as

<Project ...>
  [...]
  <Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
</Project>

You add the Shared project by adding another element like that for the Shared project. For example:

<Project ...>
  [...]
  <Import Project="..\Shared\Shared.projitems" Label="Shared" />
  <Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
</Project>

It is important for the Label attribute to be set to "Shared." If you set it to something else it will not be recognized as a Shared project by Visual Studio and will not appear under References. Project should be set to the path to the appropriate ".projitems" file.

Upvotes: 40

JoeyD

Reputation: 743

Check your version of Visual Studio. in VS2017 there was a bug fix for version 15.9 which will show the Shared Project selector. Click Tools -> Update to get the lastest version of VS

Upvotes: 0

Damian Morozov

Reputation: 35

In TargetProject.csproj file add that string:

<Import Project="..\YourSharedProject\YourSharedProject.projitems" Label="Shared" Condition="Exists('..\YourSharedProject\YourSharedProject.projitems')" />

Upvotes: 4