Automate way to link many files and directories in csproj

Question

I have a .csproj file in Visual Studio 2022, and I have another directory (Dependency\ansible-language-server\out\server\src) in the parent of this project with the below structure:

cd D:\Source\Repos\soroshsabz\visualstudio-ansible\Dependency\ansible-language-server\out\server\src
ls

Output:

Directory: D:\Source\Repos\soroshsabz\visualstudio-ansible\Dependency\ansible-language-server\out\server\src


Mode            LastWriteTime    Length Name
----            -------------    ------ ----
d-----    3/26/2023  11:52 PM           interfaces
d-----    3/26/2023  11:52 PM           providers
d-----    3/26/2023  11:52 PM           services
d-----    3/26/2023  11:52 PM           utils
-a----    3/26/2023  11:52 PM       797 ansibleLanguageService.d.ts
-a----    3/26/2023  11:52 PM     13585 ansibleLanguageService.js
-a----    3/26/2023  11:52 PM      8444 ansibleLanguageService.js.map
-a----    3/26/2023  11:52 PM        11 server.d.ts
-a----    3/26/2023  11:52 PM      2032 server.js
-a----    3/26/2023  11:52 PM      1234 server.js.map

I want to add all of files and folders with a link in my .csproj file, I can do that with a manual approach like below (I write two of files as example):

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>netstandard2.0</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="SpawnServer.js">
      <CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </Content>
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="JavaScriptEngineSwitcher.Core" Version="3.19.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="JavaScriptEngineSwitcher.Jurassic" Version="3.20.5" />
    <PackageReference Include="JavaScriptEngineSwitcher.Node" Version="3.19.0" />
  </ItemGroup>

    <ItemGroup>
        <Content Include="..\..\Dependency\ansible-language-server\out\server\src\server.js">
            <Link>ansible-language-server\server.js</Link>
            <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
            <IncludeInVSIX>true</IncludeInVSIX>
        </Content>
        <Content Include="..\..\Dependency\ansible-language-server\out\server\src\ansibleLanguageService.js">
            <Link>ansible-language-server\ansibleLanguageService.js</Link>
            <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
            <IncludeInVSIX>true</IncludeInVSIX>
        </Content>
    </ItemGroup>

</Project>

But I want a concise and smarter approach to link all of files and folders, any suggestion welcome. (Note: If the suggested approach can track all changes in Dependency\ansible-language-server\out\server\src automatically, I am very happy. For example, when added new files or folder in that directory, I want to do not need any changes in the .csproj file to link the new files and folders)

Answer 1

You are almost there. Just two changes are necessary:

1. use a glob in the Include
2. use LinkBase to set a parent directory for the files resolved from the glob.

It could look like this:

<Project>
    <!-- everything else -->
    <ItemGroup>
        <Content Include="..\..\Dependency\ansible-language-server\out\server\src\**\*">
            <LinkBase>ansible-language-server</LinkBase>
            <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
            <IncludeInVSIX>true</IncludeInVSIX>
        </Content>
    </ItemGroup>
</Project>

Or in short, using attributes instead of elements:

<Content Include="..\..\Dependency\ansible-language-server\out\server\src\**\*" LinkBase="ansible-language-server" CopyToOutputDirectory="PreserveNewest" />

(I am not sure about IncludeInVSIX).

The glob is resolved everytime you build, i.e., new files are automatically picked up.