Note You can check other posts on my personal website: https://hbolajraf.net
Introduction
.NET gives us opportunity to create custom template for future use and GitHub packages registry is most popular now a days to host custom template. In this article, I will show you how to create .net custom template using GitHub packages registry.
Tools and Technology uses
- Visual Studio 2022
- .NET 6
- C#
- GitHub
Implementation
Step 1: Create a personal access token (PAT) from GitHub
- Login into you GitHub
- Go to settings -> Developer Settings -> Personal Access Tokens
- Click “Generate new token” button
- Type Note for the token, expiration days
- Select scope for the token – here I have selected repo, write:packages, delete:packages as shown below.
- Now click “Generate Token” at the bottom of the panel
- Copy the token and store the token for further use because you cannot find it later
Step 2: Add Nuget Source in visual studio
- Type the following command to add source
dotnet nuget add source https://nuget.pkg.github.com/hbolajraf/index.json --name github-hbolajraf --username hbolajraf --password <Your personal Access Token>
You will see a source is added in C:\Users\hbolajraf\AppData\Roaming\NuGet\NuGet.Config file
You can add source from visual studio Tools -> Options -> NuGet Package Manager -> Package Sources
Restart visual studio to get new nuget package source
Step 3: Create template for your application
- Create a project or multiple projects using a solution file.
- Here, I have created a clean architecture template with a solution file and multiple projects
- Create a folder name – “.template.config” in the root directory of your application.
- Create a file template.json in .template.config folder.
- Add the following content to template.json file
template.json
{
"$schema": "http://json.schemastore.org/template",
"author": "hbolajraf Hasan",
"classifications": [
"dotnet",
"CleanArchitecture"
],
"name": "Clean Architecture project template",
"description": "Project template to create project using Clean Architecture",
"identity": "CleanArchitecture",
"shortName": "CleanArchitecture",
"sourceName": "CleanArch",
"tags": {
"language": "C#",
"type": "project"
},
"symbols": {
"Framework": {
"type": "parameter",
"description": "The target framework for the project.",
"datatype": "choice",
"choices": [
{
"choice": "net6.0"
},
{
"choice": "net5.0"
}
],
"defaultValue": "net6.0",
"replaces": "{TargetFramework}"
}
}
}
Step 4: Install and create template locally (Optional)
- Go to one where “.template.config” folder exists.
- Now run the following command. Don’t forgot to add space “.” at the end.
dotnet new --install .
- You will see in the output that template is created. You will see Short Name of template which is used to install template.
- Now go to the directory where you want to install template and type the following command.
dotnet new CleanArchitecture
#or,
dotnet new CleanArchitecture --force
Here CleanArchitecture is short name of the template
- To create template by another name type as follows.
dotnet new CleanArchitecture -o Location
Now projects name will be Location instead of CleanArch as mentioned in the previous json file.
- Now go to the same directory to uninstall the template and type the following command.
dotnet new --uninstall .
```console
## Step 5: Packing a template into a NuGet Package (nupkg file)
* Create a .csproj file one directory up of “.template.config” folder.
* In my case the folder structure as follows
**Add the following content in TemplatePack.csproj project.**
**TemplatePack.csproj**
```xml
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<PackageType>Template</PackageType>
<PackageVersion>1.0.0</PackageVersion>
<PackageId>hbolajraf.CleanArchitecture.Templates</PackageId>
<Title>Clean Architecture Template</Title>
<Authors>hbolajraf Hasan</Authors>
<Description>Clean Architecture Template</Description>
<PackageTags>dotnet-new;templates;clean-architecture</PackageTags>
<TargetFramework>netstandard2.0</TargetFramework>
<IncludeContentInPack>true</IncludeContentInPack>
<IncludeBuildOutput>false</IncludeBuildOutput>
<ContentTargetFolders>content</ContentTargetFolders>
<NoWarn>$(NoWarn);NU5128</NoWarn>
<NoDefaultExcludes>true</NoDefaultExcludes>
<RepositoryUrl>https://github.com/hbolajraf/public-packages</RepositoryUrl>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="CleanArchitecture\**\*" Exclude="CleanArchitecture\**\bin\**;CleanArchitecture\**\obj\**" />
<Compile Remove="..\**\*" />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
- To create package go to the directory where TemplatePack.csproj file exists and type the following command.
dotnet pack
- You will hbolajraf.CleanArchitecture.Templates.1.0.0.nupkg file is created in bin/Debug folder.
Step 6: Now push the package to github package registry
- Go to the directory where hbolajraf.CleanArchitecture.Templates.1.0.0.nupkg is exists.
-
Type the following command to push the package in github package registry
dotnet nuget push .\hbolajraf.CleanArchitecture.Templates.1.0.0.nupkg --api-key --source github-hbolajraf
Here, “github-hbolajraf” is a github source which we have added in step – 2.
Now login your github and you will see a template is uploaded to your package registry.
Step 7: Download template and install in local machine
- Run the following command to install in local machine
dotnet new --install hbolajraf.CleanArchitecture.Templates
hbolajraf.CleanArchitecture.Templates is package Id.
output:
The following template packages will be installed:
hbolajraf.CleanArchitecture.Templates
Success: hbolajraf.CleanArchitecture.Templates::1.0.0 installed the following templates:
Template Name Short Name Language Tags
----------------------------------- ----------------- -------- ------------------------
Clean Architecture project template CleanArchitecture [C#] dotnet/CleanArchitecture
- Now go to the directory where you want to regenerate the template and type the following command.
dotnet new CleanArchitecture
Here CleanArchitecture is the short name of the template
Note
- To see installed template in locally use the following command. You will also see how to uninstall the particular template.
dotnet new --uninstall
- To uninstall a particular template from local machine, use the following command.
dotnet new --uninstall hbolajraf.CleanArchitecture.Templates
dotnet new –uninstall <package id>
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