VSIX with Project Templates and NuGet Packages

Question

I have been following this post about how to build a VSIX project that will add some custom MVC project types:

http://www.asp.net/mvc/tutorials/mvc-4/custom-mvc-temp

Answer 1

I've made a step by step video on how to make a VSIX that auto downloads nuget packages.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZvsFz41H-E

Since there are many steps and I never wrote them down, I won't type them here. I've definitely tested my VSIX package on other people's machine and it worked so hopefully this will work for you.

Answer 2

To download latest versions of NuGet packages plus all their dependencies add a following class to your vsix:

public class MyProjectWizard : IWizard
{
    IEnumerable<string> _packages;

    public void RunStarted(object automationObject, Dictionary<string, string> replacementsDictionary, WizardRunKind runKind, object[] customParams)
    {
        if (customParams.Length > 0) {
            var vstemplate = XDocument.Load((string)customParams[0]);
            _packages = vstemplate.Root
                .ElementsNoNamespace("WizardData")
                .ElementsNoNamespace("packages")
                .ElementsNoNamespace("package")
                .Select(e => e.Attribute("id").Value)
                .ToList();
        }
    }

    public void ProjectFinishedGenerating(Project project)
    {
        var componentModel = (IComponentModel)Package.GetGlobalService(typeof(SComponentModel));
        var _installer = componentModel.GetService<IVsPackageInstaller2>();

        foreach (var package in _packages) {
            _installer.InstallLatestPackage(null, project, package, false, false);
        }
    }
}

And then use following in vstemplate:

  <WizardExtension>
    <Assembly>MyProjectWizard, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=22c2a1a5fa7b6905</Assembly>
    <FullClassName>MyProjectWizard.MyProjectWizard</FullClassName>
  </WizardExtension>

Answer 3

Check out this link http://samritchie.net/2012/09/17/nuget-packages-in-vs2012-templates/ which helped me. However, I'm still running into the issue where all my references' paths are empty.

Note especially the following comment from the article linked above:

I spent a considerable period of time attempting to work out what the v2 equivalent of CustomExtension was, but to cut a long story short, you don’t need to make any changes to the .vsixmanifest — it’s enough to include all of the packages in the VSIX under a ‘Packages’ directory.