Hi,

During development there are a number of FileProviders running on an Umbraco site that take files from different locations and make them look as if they are coming from http://yoursite/app_plugins.

These file providers mean the files don't actually have to live in the wwwroot folder but to the website they still look like they do.

It means if you want to access files in App_Plugins via javascript you can use https://yoursite/App_Plugins but if you want to access them via c# you should use the sites WebRootFileProvider (via IWebHostEnvironment) This will munge all the locations together so it looks like the files exist in one /App_Plugins folder on the site.

App_Plugins locations

As far as i am aware there are three four different locations that the App_Plugins files can be located and at runtime they are all merged.

During development:

• project/App_Plugins
• project/wwwroot/App_Plugins
• nuget-cache/package/.../wwwroot/
• solution/localproject/wwwroot/

These locations are served by three providers :

• /App_Plugins is Umbraco's provider*
• wwwroot/App_Plugins are physical files in the App_Plugins` location that is directly served by the server
• nuget_chache/package/../wwwroot/ is the is pulling files in from Razor Class Library projects to make them appear on the site.
• Files from a local Razor Class Library in your project will work like the files in the NuGet cache

Live Site

When you make a site live (via dotnet publish, The files from the nuget cache are physically copied into the wwwroot/App_Plugins folder of the site and the static assets file provider doesn't run.

• sitefolder/App_Plugins
• sitefolder/wwwroot/App_Plugins

So ?

• These means the package files aren't really in one location, but if you need them to appear as if they are in code you need to use the FileProvider.

• if you are working locally with files - you want to put them in /App_Plugins or you can put your files in a separate razor class library in your project and have them be served from there as your develop.

• Packages that put files in myproject/App_Plugins will do this via a build step, you should avoid manually changing these files in your project because if you run a 'dotnet build' those changes could be overwritten.

phew.

Thanks for your response Kevin. In my local dev environment i use: project/App_Plugins

It works, but when publishing it is not copied to wwwroot. I use Devops build pipelines do i have to set some configuration? In my project file i have this item group:

<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="App_Plugins\NextJsWelcomeDashboard\control.html" />
<Content Include="App_Plugins\NextJsWelcomeDashboard\estilos.css" />
<Content Include="App_Plugins\NextJsWelcomeDashboard\lang\en-US.xml" />
<Content Include="App_Plugins\NextJsWelcomeDashboard\lang\es.xml" />

And this one:

<ItemGroup>
<None Include="App_Plugins\NextJsWelcomeDashboard\controller.js" />
<None Include="App_Plugins\NextJsWelcomeDashboard\package.manifest" />

The are created automatically when creating the plugin.

There are answers, and then there are great answers!!!

Can I suggest you change those to:

<ItemGroup>
    <Folder Include="App_Plugins\**" />
</ItemGroup>

That will include everything in your App_Plugins without having to reference individual files. It should also include the files when you publish. The files will get published at ~/App_Plugins/** as per your local filesystem but as Kevin says they will be available via the /App_Plugins path just as if they were in ~/wwwroot/App_Plugins

Thanks David,

I have several questions:

I have changed that item group and removed the "None Include" lines, what do they do?

So after publishing using Azure devops pipeline, the App_Plugins its published as before, but it its not copied to wwwroot folder so it does not work as i have understood that the FileSystem providers only work in local dev environment.

I can copy the folder via FTP to wwwroot folder, and then it works. But even then i still have a cache issue when modifing the controller js. How should i configure RuntimeMinification in my production site? i have this in appSettings.json:

"RuntimeMinification": { "CacheBuster": "Version", "Version": "1" }

Is that correct for production? should i increment the version and restart the app to bust the cache?

That makes sense. Today I learned... :)

One question. Is there a certain order to the different locations?

For example: I install a package which has a view in it's internal app_plugins (nuget_cache/package/mypackage/wwwroot or something).

Can I override that view locally by creating the same folders/files withing /app_plugins ?

Hi David,

I misundertood Kevin when he wrote:

During development there are a number of FileProviders running on an Umbraco site that take files from different locations and make them look as if they are coming from http://yoursite/app_plugins.

I understood FileProviders only worked when in dev mode.

I have removed your

<Folder Include="App_Plugins\**" />

because with that setting my VS Studio does not let me edit the files, it shows them as folders. Im trying to upload here a screenshot but our.umbraco.com errors. You can view it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nffvPTzXlnDTVf_V75LN3yHSXcHFVmeh/view

So i let this configuration in my csproj which is the automatic generated when creating the folder:

     <ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="App_Plugins\Inscripciones\control.html" />
    <Content Include="App_Plugins\NextJsWelcomeDashboard\control.html" />
    <Content Include="App_Plugins\NextJsWelcomeDashboard\estilos.css" />
    <Content Include="App_Plugins\NextJsWelcomeDashboard\lang\en-US.xml" />
    <Content Include="App_Plugins\NextJsWelcomeDashboard\lang\es.xml" />  
</ItemGroup>
    <ItemGroup>
        <None Include="App_Plugins\Inscripciones\controlador.js" />
        <None Include="App_Plugins\Inscripciones\package.manifest" />
        <None Include="App_Plugins\NextJsWelcomeDashboard\controller.js" />
        <None Include="App_Plugins\NextJsWelcomeDashboard\package.manifest" />
      </ItemGroup>

It seems a cache problem, i have deleted App_Plugins from wwwroot folder in remote server and from root project folder, same with /umbraco/Data/Temp files. Increase version and publish the website.

But it only published the js and manifest files (the ones with the "None" itemgrup), so i have uploaded using ftp the rest of files (html, css and langs) and now it works.

So what do i have to change in my csproj to publish all my files in app_plugins folder? as said your previous conf setting did not work as my visual studio is confused.

I have changed to this:

<ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="App_Plugins\**" />
</ItemGroup>

And now i can view and edit in VS Studio. But when publishing the are not copied to project root.

I have added this:

 <ItemGroup>
    <None Include="App_Plugins\**" />
  </ItemGroup>

But still dont get copied to publish root. I only need App_Plugins to be copied as it is.

As I said in the thread you created, it should not matter, it should look in both

\App_Plugins

and

\wwwroot\App_Plugins