WPF template used by dotnet cli should include a glob to add auto-dependency between .xaml and .xaml.cs files

[jongleur1983]

I'd be happy to create a PR for this, but couldn't find where the project template is defined:

In classic .NET Framework WPF applications the XAML files (.xaml) are dependentUpon their code-behind partials (.xaml.cs).
This is reflected in the VS solution explorer.

For WPF on Core3 this is not yet the case. It would be easy to add a glob that wildcards this dependency by default:

<ItemGroup>
  <Compile Update="**\*.xaml.cs" DependentUpon="%(Filename)" />
</ItemGroup>

If someone could point me to the repository and/or location where the wpf project template is defined I'd be happy to issue a PR to add that.

[alejandro5042]

+1

I have temporarily put the below workaround in our Directory.Build.targets file. It is specifically in the .targets file because it has to be done after the csproj file is parsed and all items have been added.

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <Choose>
    <When Condition="'$(UsingMicrosoftNETSdk)' == 'true'">
      <ItemGroup Condition="'$([MSBuild]::IsRunningFromVisualStudio())' == 'true'">
        <!--
          In .NET Core projects, we don't have to specify .cs files because the project imports them automatically. However, the current mechanism does automatically do any Solution Explorer nesting; for example, nesting Dialog.xaml.cs under Dialog.xaml.
        
          In this ItemGroup, we add nesting by updating items that follow pre-determined nesting patterns and giving them DependentUpon metadata. We will only do this in Visual Studio, since this: a) wildcard globbing is CPU/disk expensive; b) this metadata _should_ not affect the build.
        
          Note: We use $(Filename), which is the *basename* of the file, with an optional extension. We do not include any path information since "Path is not supported for [DependentUpon] metadata, it must be a file name, which must be under the same folder." Source: https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/106280/dependentupon-files-in-new-csproj-format-not-group.html
        -->
        
        <!-- Nest .xaml.cs files under their .xaml files. -->
        <Compile Update="**/*.xaml.cs" DependentUpon="%(Filename)" />
      </ItemGroup>
    </When>
  </Choose>
</Project>

Similar code should probably go in this file:

• C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.0.100-preview-010006\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.WindowsDesktop\targets\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.WindowsDesktop.targets

But I have not yet found the sources for this file on GitHub.

Also, we should do this for TT files.

[wjk]

While I agree with this suggestion in theory, @alejandro5042's suggestion is not the correct way to do this. We should instead use the built-in Visual Studio support for dependent file detection. This would require a change in the XAML file defining build metadata for XAML files, not the targets file. However, AFAIK the XAML file we need to modify has not yet been open-sourced.

[alejandro5042]

Awesome! Did not know about CPS, looks interesting.

I have verified that this in our Directory.Build.props:

<ProjectCapability Include="DynamicDependentFile" />
<PropertyPageSchema Include="$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)\ProjectItemsSchema.xaml" />

And the side ProjectItemsSchema.xaml file:

<ProjectSchemaDefinitions xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/build/2009/properties">
  <ContentType Name="PageXaml" DisplayName="XAML Page" ItemType="Page">
    <NameValuePair Name="DependentExtensions" Value=".xaml.cs" />
  </ContentType>
</ProjectSchemaDefinitions>

Works as well, as a workaround until the actual fix is submitted.

[stevenbrix]

The project templates were just added with #489. Is this something that can be done now?

[vatsan-madhavan]

This is not applicable to C# project template. Rather, this is something that applues to the WindowsDedktop Sdk.

We took a fix similar to this recently. Is this still a problem?

/Cc @nguerrera

[rladuca]

This is fixed, please re-open it if you think there is still an issue.