Hi Jake,

I can only talk about the way we do it (and you've seen from the uSync repo). We have moved to having the nuget packages built from the csproj files. which is why the powershell build script we have is mainly :

dotnet pack .\pathto.csproj. 

its a bit of a pain at first but we've found its just a little more consistant and easier to manage with the .csproj, and i can have a go at answering your points .

1. We have multiple projects too, but really because we have other projects (such as uSync.Complete) that only want to consume the dll's from our project. If you don't think that then you could munge it into one package .

however - we do the following :

• uSync.BackOffice (the dll's to run usync)
• uSync.BackOfficeAssets (the app_plugins stuff) (has a targets file! see below)

then we have an almost empty project called uSync. and that is the nuget package that most people see.

1. Dependencies The above project structure manages our dependencies for us,. so the uSync project has a dependency on the uSync.BackOffice and uSync.BackOffice.StaticAssets projects. when you dotnet pack them all, dependencies managed and the versions move up with each other (e.g if we dotnet pack v10.1 then the dependencies on the other projects in the same solution will all be v10.1)

Dependencies on Umbraco come from us having the dependencies on the umbraco packages inside our projects (so for example i think its Umbraco.Cms.BackOffice in uSync's case)

1. You can add extra files in the csproj file : so in uSync.csproj we have:

   <ItemGroup>
      <None Include="readme.md" Pack="true" PackagePath="\" />
     <None Include="readme.txt" Pack="true" PackagePath="\" />
     <None Include="usync-logo.png" Pack="true" PackagePath="\" />
   </ItemGroup>
   

but be aware these readme's don't get shown all the time, if someone does a dotnet add package or adds the reference in their own csproj file this won't cause the readme to open anywhere.

1. Nuspec We did start our v9 packages with nuspecs but moved to the .csproj mainly for the ease or maintenance and it was a simpler build / versioning process for us.

note about .targets files

For all methods (*.csproj or .nuspec) you will need to have a {project}.targets file that copies the contents of App_Plugins over from the package into the developers Umbraco package. this is an unfortunate netcore thing at the moment as it doesn't work the old framework way where content is automatically included in the project when the package is installed.

we do this fairly simply in the uSync.BackOffice.StaticAssets project (https://github.com/KevinJump/uSync/tree/v9/main/uSync.Backoffice.Assets) but i would say is check the version of the targets file that gets generated when you do a dotnet new umbracopackage command as this is probibly the cleanest starting point.

things to note about .target files

1. they must have the same name as your nuget package . e.g if your package id is mysuperpackage your targets file needs to be mysuperpackage.targets.

2. they should to be included in the nuget file in buildTransitive folder

e.g in the csproj file. you have something like this :

<None Include="build\**\*.*">
    <Pack>True</Pack>
   <PackagePath>buildTransitive</PackagePath>
</None>

1. the copy happens when the user builds or runs the site (so dotnet build/dotnet run). not when they install the package, so don't expect your app_plugins files to appear right away.

2. the app_plugins files get overwritten every build/run so don't put anything in there you expect the users to have to edit and those changes can get lost

merging two projects into one nuspec

If you want to It should be possible to include all of your dlls and assets into a single project from two projects. but i think it will involve a little bit of digging.

. At the simplest level you could have something copy the web files into a folder in the dll project and then include them in the package using something like

<Content Include="App_Plugins\MyPlugin\**\*.*">
     <ExcludeFromSingleFile>true</ExcludeFromSingleFile>
     <CopyToPublishDirectory>Always</CopyToPublishDirectory>
</Content>

. the 'Proper' way probably involves doing something special to the project dependency line to include the dll of the dependent project in the parent package files.

 <!-- so there is probably something you can add to a line like this to mean the nuspec file for the project using this will also include the project dll -->
 <ProjectReference Include="..\uSync.BackOffice\uSync.BackOffice.csproj" />

but to be honest this is something i think you would need to lookup.

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