【.NET】Add files into projects

Intro

This time, I will try adding some files like .csproj, .dll, .resx, .json, and etc.

Environments

• .NET ver.5.0.103

Add references to .csproj files

Situations

1. There are two projects in a solution.
2. One is a xUnit project (AddFileSampleTest.csproj), another one is an ASP.NET Core project (AddFileSample.csproj).
3. I want to make the xUnit project refers the ASP.NET Core project.

What I did

I executed this command.

dotnet add AddFileSampleTest reference AddFileSample

Result

AddFileSampleTest.csproj

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
...

  <ItemGroup>
    <ProjectReference Include="..\AddFileSample\AddFileSample.csproj" />
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

• dotnet add reference command - .NET CLI | Microsoft Docs

Add references to NuGet packages

Situations

1. I want to make the ASP.NET Core project refers ClosedXML(ver.0.95)

What I did

I executed this command.

dotnet add AddFileSample package ClosedXML -v 0.95

Result

AddFileSample.csproj

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
...
  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="ClosedXML" Version="0.95" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

• If I omitted "-v 0.95", the latest version package will be added.
• The case of package name is ignored. So I can write like "dotnet add AddFileSample package closedxml". But the case of the package name in the .csproj file also will be the same.

AddFileSample.csproj

...
  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="closedxml" Version="0.95" />
  </ItemGroup>
...

• dotnet add package command - .NET CLI | Microsoft Docs

Add references to .dll files

Because I couldn't find to add references to .dll file, I edited the .csproj file directly.

AddFileSample.csproj

...
  <ItemGroup>
    <Reference Include="ClosedXML">
      <HintPath>Resources\ClosedXML.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
  </ItemGroup>
...

• For "HintPath", I can use both relative and absolute paths.

• Referencing a .NET DLL directly, using the .NET Core toolchain | by Toni Solarin-Sodara | Medium

Add references to .resx files

I don't need do anything to add references to .resx files.
After I created .resx files what were named like "Controllers.HomeController.en-us.resx", CLI would output "en-us" folder into bin/Debug/net5.0 directory.

To get strings from .resx files, I can use "IStringLocalizer", designer class, and etc.

• Globalization and localization in ASP.NET Core | Microsoft Docs
• c# - How to get the .resx file strings in asp.net core - Stack Overflow

Add references to .json(or .txt etc.) files

I just add the files into the project.
But I have to update the project file to include as an output file.

AddFileSample.csproj

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
...
  <ItemGroup>
    <Content Update="nlog.config">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </Content>
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>