App.config transform files are hidden in VS

[HillBen]

I've got SlowCheetah installed to handle app.config transformation in a VB.NET windows forms application, it created my transform files and they are working as expected. However, the transform files (App.Debug.config, App.Release.config, etc) are only visible when I click "Show All Files" for the project. This may seem like a small annoyance, but I have to share this project others who will find this shoddy. I have seen in SlowCheetah's sample projects that this is not a problem, they all show up collapsed under the App.config file as expected. I'm not sure if it is because your sample project is c# or because it is a WPF application, but I can see these files were added to my vbproj file the same as in their csproj file. Even though the vbproj file appears correct, I tried Add > Existing Items at the project level (no difference), and when Show All Files is selected there is no context many option to "Include in Project" for the transform files (and strangely "Exclude from Project" is greyed out). Any ideas what is wrong here?

<ItemGroup>
  <None Include="App.Debug.config">
    <DependentUpon>App.config</DependentUpon>
    <IsTransformFile>true</IsTransformFile>
  </None>
  <None Include="App.Maintenance.config">
    <DependentUpon>App.config</DependentUpon>
    <IsTransformFile>true</IsTransformFile>
  </None>
  <None Include="App.Release.config">
    <DependentUpon>App.config</DependentUpon>
    <IsTransformFile>true</IsTransformFile>
  </None>
...

[tyler-kearney-pu]

Same issue here. Don't have any ideas yet.

[ChrisMyrick]

Same problem here. VS 2022, VB Winforms project.

[bradleygreer]

I had the same issue using VS 2022 but I don't think it is a new issue. A work-around is click the Show All Files button at the top of the Project Explorer. This automatic file hiding in VB projects affects SlowCheetah transform files associated with their target file as well as .vb code-behind files. I guess it is simply the way VB projects visually handle associated file mappings.

Unfortunately, turning on Show All Files shows ALL files including folders that probably need to remain hidden like the bin folder. I chose to live with the risk of accidentally deleting system generated files, for long enough to edit and preview my Cheetah transforms. I am guessing MS probably won't fix VB project's finer points of file visibility any time soon.