[Comment] .NET Boxed Visual Studio Integration

[RehanSaeed]

https://rehansaeed.com/dotnet-boxed-visual-studio-integration/

[mike1880]

Doesn't work on VS 2019 16.10 for me. Works on 2019 16.11 Preview.

Edit: no, I tell a lie. It doesn't work for me in 16.11 either. It creates a minimal solution file and a project folder then apparently dies without creating any other project files.

[RehanSaeed]

@mike1880 Which project did you try?

[mike1880]

Asp.Net Core API Boxed. No source control, no reverse proxy, no analytics, cloud provider Azure, xml formatter XMLSerializer. I have .Net 6.0 installed which sometimes causes problems (e.g. WinUI projects) if that's any help.

[RehanSaeed]

Thanks @mike1880, that seems like a bug in VS so I raised https://github.com/sayedihashimi/template-sample/issues/29. Lets see what answer we get. In the mean time, you can continue to use the CLI which does work.

[lohithgn]

@RehanSaeed i left a comment on issue https://github.com/sayedihashimi/template-sample/issues/29 ....

basically the template works from VS when we enter values to all the fields...

[oising]

Doesn't appear in the dropdown for project types at all in v16.10 (final). I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the templates (because I had previously installed them for earlier version of VS).

Btw, this might help, but I have both VS 2019 16.10 and 16.11 (preview) installed.

[sayedihashimi]

It should work in 16.10+, when a blank solution is created that happens because the template has a required parameter, that has no default value, and is not provided by the user. We should update Visual Studio to block project creation at that time. @RehanSaeed I would recommend that you provide default values for all required parameters. Even after we block project creation for this case, it won't be a great experience for users, especially since the template has lots of parameters (it may be difficult for the user to find the missing parameter that needs to be filled in).

[RehanSaeed]

This now seems to be fixed in Boxed.Templates version 6.3.3. Thanks for identifying the issue.

[m-meier]

I have the same problem as @oising, none of the templates appear in the new project dialog (16.11 preview). I tried with and without the preview flag (Show all .NET Core templates in the New Project dialog). "dotnet new" shows the templates.

[RehanSaeed]

@oising @m-meier You need the latest version of the template installed for it to be displayed. Can you check that you have the latest installed by running:

dotnet new --update-check
dotnet new --update-apply

Alternatively:

dotnet new --uninstall Boxed.Templates
dotnet new --install Boxed.Templates

[m-meier]

I already had 6.3.3. I tried reinstalling (and even a system reboot), but nothing worked.

PS U:\> dotnet new --update-check
All template packages are up-to-date.
PS U:\> dotnet new --uninstall Boxed.Templates
Success: Boxed.Templates::6.3.3 was uninstalled.
PS U:\> dotnet new --install Boxed.Templates
The following template packages will be installed:
  Boxed.Templates

Success: Boxed.Templates::6.3.3 installed the following templates:
Template Name               Short Name     Language  Tags
--------------------------  -------------  --------  ----------------------------
ASP.NET Core API Boxed      api            [C#]      .NET Boxed/Cloud/Service/Web
ASP.NET Core GraphQL Boxed  graphql        [C#]      .NET Boxed/Cloud/Service/Web
ASP.NET Core Orleans Boxed  orleans        [C#]      .NET Boxed/Cloud/Service/Web
NuGet Package Boxed         nuget          [C#]      .NET Boxed/Library

[RehanSaeed]

@sayedihashimi Can we expect dotnet new templates to work in VS 16.11 preview? If you have 16.11 preview installed, can we expect 16.10 to still work?

[mike1880]

I still don't get the templates appearing in 16.10, only in 16.11. I can generate a solution in 16.11 but it won't build. The projects are generated as .Net 5.0 but it looks to be referencing .Net 6.0 in build; there are around 70 or so CS8032 errors, for example: "An instance of analyzer Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.MakeFieldReadonly.MakeFieldReadonlyDiagnosticAnalyzer cannot be created from C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\6.0.100-preview.4.21255.9\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\codestyle\cs\Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CodeStyle.dll : Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.CodeAnalysis, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, {app name} PublicKeyToken={value}' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.."

[RehanSaeed]

Thanks @mike1880.

@sayedihashimi Is there some way I can stop VS 16.11 retargeting the TFM to .Net 6.0?

[m-meier]

@RehanSaeed: Now the templates appear for me. I added a visual studio feature (IIS debugging), afterwards the templates were available. I guess the installation cleared some cache or something similar.

I got the solution running on kestrel with 16.11 by switching the build target to 6.0, disabling build time code analysis and fixing an error from a non-nullable reference type and access to ActionContext (derefence from a possible null reference).

[sayedihashimi]

@RehanSaeed

@sayedihashimi Is there some way I can stop VS 16.11 retargeting the TFM to .Net 6.0?

Can you explain more what you are seeing? Are you saying that the user selected .NET 5 as the TFM and then VS used .net 6 instead?