Skip to main content

Visual Studio: Reference a different DLL depending on your build configuration

For a Windows 8 application we are building, we have to deploy versions that connect to different backends. We could have created different branches  but this would result in lots of merges. Instead we decided to go for a provider model combined with conditional compilation symbols. This allows us to easily switch between providers by changing the build configuration.
This brought us half way there but we had still an issue because we also had to use a different 3th party component depending on the backend. So what we actually want is that when setting the build configuration to QA, the 3thparty.component.QA winmd file was loaded and if we switch to Production the 3thparty.component.Production winmd file was loaded.
This is perfectly possible by changing the project file and editing the underlying MSBuild settings:
  • Unload the project.
  • Choose Edit project and open it using the XML editor.
  • Find the reference to the component you want to change depending on the build configuration.
<Reference Include="3thPartyComponent">
 <HintPath>..\packages\3thPartyComponentQA\lib\winrt45\3thparty.component.QA.winmd</HintPath>
</Reference>

  • Duplicate the reference for each build configuration you want to support. 
<Reference Include="3thPartyComponent">
 <HintPath>..\packages\3thPartyComponentQA\lib\winrt45\3thparty.component.QA.winmd</HintPath>
</Reference>
<Reference Include="3thPartyComponent">
 <HintPath>..\packages\3thPartyComponentProduction\lib\winrt45\3thparty.component.Production.winmd</HintPath>
</Reference>

  • Apply a conditional to the Reference elements.

<Reference Include="3thPartyComponent" Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='QA'">
 <HintPath>..\packages\3thPartyComponentQA\lib\winrt45\3thparty.component.QA.winmd</HintPath>
</Reference>
<Reference Include="3thPartyComponent" Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='Production'">
 <HintPath>..\packages\3thPartyComponentProduction\lib\winrt45\3thparty.component.Production.winmd</HintPath>
</Reference>
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

.NET 8–Keyed/Named Services

A feature that a lot of IoC container libraries support but that was missing in the default DI container provided by Microsoft is the support for Keyed or Named Services. This feature allows you to register the same type multiple times using different names, allowing you to resolve a specific instance based on the circumstances. Although there is some controversy if supporting this feature is a good idea or not, it certainly can be handy. To support this feature a new interface IKeyedServiceProvider got introduced in .NET 8 providing 2 new methods on our ServiceProvider instance: object? GetKeyedService(Type serviceType, object? serviceKey); object GetRequiredKeyedService(Type serviceType, object? serviceKey); To use it, we need to register our service using one of the new extension methods: Resolving the service can be done either through the FromKeyedServices attribute: or by injecting the IKeyedServiceProvider interface and calling the GetRequiredKeyedServic...
Read more

Azure DevOps/ GitHub emoji

I’m really bad at remembering emoji’s. So here is cheat sheet with all emoji’s that can be used in tools that support the github emoji markdown markup: All credits go to rcaviers who created this list.
Read more

Kubernetes–Limit your environmental impact

Reducing the carbon footprint and CO2 emission of our (cloud) workloads, is a responsibility of all of us. If you are running a Kubernetes cluster, have a look at Kube-Green . kube-green is a simple Kubernetes operator that automatically shuts down (some of) your pods when you don't need them. A single pod produces about 11 Kg CO2eq per year( here the calculation). Reason enough to give it a try! Installing kube-green in your cluster The easiest way to install the operator in your cluster is through kubectl. We first need to install a cert-manager: kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.14.5/cert-manager.yaml Remark: Wait a minute before you continue as it can take some time before the cert-manager is up & running inside your cluster. Now we can install the kube-green operator: kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kube-green/kube-green/releases/latest/download/kube-green.yaml Now in the namespace where we want t...
Read more