When we develop libraries (whether internal or public), it helps to have a rapid ability to make changes and test them in a consuming application.

Building

• Setup the library with automatic versioning and a nuspec
  • Setup library assembly version to auto increment build and revision
    • AssemblyInfo –> [assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.*")]
      • This autoincrements build and revision based on time of build
    • Major & Minor
      • Major should be changed when you have breaking changes
      • Minor should be changed once you have a solid new release
      • During development I don’t increment these
  • Create a nuspec, version this with the code
    • nuspec - set version to <version>$version$</version>
    • This uses the assembly’s version, which is auto-incrementing
• Make changes to code
• Run automated build (ruby/rake)
  • run “rake nuget”
  • nuget task builds nuget package and copies it to a local nuget feed
    • I use an environment variable to point at this so I can change it on a machine level!
    • The nuget command below assumes a nuspec is checked in called Library.nuspec next to the csproj file

  • $projectSolution = 'src\\Library.sln'
    $nugetFeedPath = ENV["NuGetDevFeed"]
    
    msbuild :build => [:clean] do |msb|
      msb.properties :configuration => :Release
      msb.targets :Build
      msb.solution = $projectSolution
    end
    
    task :nuget => [:build] do
      sh "nuget pack src\\Library\\Library.csproj /OutputDirectory " + $nugetFeedPath
    end

• Setup the local nuget feed as a nuget package source (this is only required once per machine)
• Go to the consuming project
• Update the package
  • Update-Package Library
  • or Install-Package

• TLDR
  • change library code
  • run “rake nuget”
  • run “Update-Package library” in the consuming application
  • build/test!

If you manually execute any of this process, especially copying files, you will find it a burden to develop the library and will find yourself dreading it, and even worse, making changes downstream instead of updating the shared library for everyone’s sake.

Publishing

• Once you have a set of changes that you want to release, consider versioning and possibly increment the minor version if needed.
• Pick the package out of your local feed, and copy it to a public / shared feed!
  • I have a script to do this where I can drop the package on a batch file
  • Replace apikey with your nuget feed's apikey
  • Take out the confirm(s) if you don't want them

  • @ECHO off
    echo Upload %1?
    set /P anykey="Hit enter to continue "
    
    nuget push %1 apikey
    
    set /P anykey="Done "

• Note: helps to prune all the unnecessary versions during testing from your local feed once you are done and ready to publish

• TLDR
  • consider version number
  • run command to copy to public feed