How to include neccessary files to the output of independent client project?

Question

My solution consists of:

Client - startup project, UI layer. Depends on: App

App - library, application layer, assembler. Depends on: Lib1, ...

Lib1 - library, business logic layer. Needs a specific file to work properly: ThirdParty.dll

I've added ThirdParty.dll to the Lib1 project (Add > Existing Item... > Add) and set Copy to Output Directory property of dll file to Copy Always. Now the dll file is copied to the Lib1 output and to the App output, but not to the Client output where I need it to be.

What is the right (simple? obvious?) way to copy ThirdParty.dll to the output of Client on each solution build?

UPD ThirdParty.dll is not a reference. Actually, that's another reference dependence. My question is applied to any file that needs to be in the folder of running application.

Recorded video to be sure I'm doing it right: http://youtu.be/QwS2tOIc5yQ

Answer 1

Add Existing Item as Link:

I had a similar issue in VS2010 and I kinda ended up adding the file as Link and updating its property to Copy Always.

In your case, in CLIENT project, add ThirdParty.dll as Link (Add > Existing Item > Add as Link) and set Copy to Output Directory property of dll file to Copy Always. Note: It would copy the folder hierarchy from Project Node.

Just for Reference: I was actually using an open source LibGit2Sharp which required a dll (libGit2.dll) to be available in the output directory. Therefore, in the UI layer, which had added application layer containing LibGit2Sharp.dll as reference; I had to add libGit2.dll as a Link + Copy Always. This was recommended solution.

Post Build:

The other option could be to write a post build scripts for CLIENT

To know how the Copy on MSBuild works, you could refer to Microsoft.Common.targets file (should be available @ C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets in your system)

<Target
        Name="CopyFilesToOutputDirectory"
        DependsOnTargets="
            ComputeIntermediateSatelliteAssemblies;
            _CopyFilesMarkedCopyLocal;
            _CopySourceItemsToOutputDirectory;
            _CopyAppConfigFile;
            _CopyManifestFiles;
            _CheckForCompileOutputs;
            _SGenCheckForOutputs">