Here are some tips/examples on setting up Visual Studio 2017, that helped me streamline development cycle when working with PackageReference / SDK / .NET Standard project types and building NuGet packages.

The post covers:

• Building multiple targets (in this example: .NET 4.0, .NET 4.5 and .NET Standard)
• Setting different package references for different targets
• Setting documentation XML generation globally (for all build configuration, with dynamic file name)
• Automatically increase NuGet package version number
• Automatically copy build NuGet package to your local NuGet repository/library

The below are excerpts from Visual Studio .csproj XML files:

Setting up multi-target project

<PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFrameworks>netstandard2.0;net45;net40</TargetFrameworks>
...
</PropertyGroup>

  <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(TargetFramework)' == 'netstandard2.0'">
    <DefineConstants>NETCORE;NETSTANDARD;NETSTANDARD2_0</DefineConstants>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(TargetFramework)' == 'net40'">
    <DefineConstants>NET40</DefineConstants>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(TargetFramework)' == 'net45'">
    <DefineConstants>NET45;NETFULL</DefineConstants>
  </PropertyGroup>

The first node (TargetFrameworks) sets the targets. The first in the list will be selected by default for error interpretation/intellisense.  Below, we are introducing compiler flags – so, we can use #if compiler instructions to add target specific source code.

Adding different references for different targets

<ItemGroup Condition="'$(TargetFramework)' == 'net45'">
  <PackageReference Include="System.Drawing.Primitives">
    <Version>4.3.0</Version>
  </PackageReference>
    <PackageReference Include="System.ComponentModel.Annotations">
    <Version>4.4.1</Version>
  </PackageReference>
</ItemGroup>  

<ItemGroup Condition="'$(TargetFramework)' == 'netstandard2.0'">
  <PackageReference Include="System.ComponentModel.Annotations">
    <Version>4.4.1</Version>
  </PackageReference>
  <PackageReference Include="System.Drawing.Primitives">
    <Version>4.3.0</Version>
  </PackageReference>
</ItemGroup>

<ItemGroup Condition="'$(TargetFramework)' == 'net40'">
  <Reference Include="System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations">
    <HintPath>C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.5\System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.dll</HintPath>
  </Reference>
</ItemGroup>

Here are defined references required for imbSCI.Core.

Setting documentation XML generation, for all build configurations, using default name for the XML documentation file

<PropertyGroup>
  <DocumentationFile>$(OutputPath)$(PackageId).xml</DocumentationFile>
</PropertyGroup>

Making copy of output NuGet package to Local NuGet repository automatically, just after package is created:

<Target Name="CopyPackage" AfterTargets="Pack">
  <Copy SourceFiles="$(OutputPath)$(PackageId).$(PackageVersion).nupkg" DestinationFolder="G:\imbVelesOpenSource\LocalNuGet\imbVelesSecondGeneration\" />
</Target>

Increase the Package version on each Release (re)build

Finally, found VS2017 extension for package version auto-increment, that meets my criteria: free, works with SDK/.NET Standard projects and is able to update NuGet package version number .
The last functionality, doesn’t setups well via provided GUI, but see my example from the project file XML and you’ll get the solution.

The extension url:
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=PrecisionInfinity.AutomaticVersions

 

The <UpdatePackageVersion>True</UpdatePackageVersion> custom property is not set by GUI, therefore you’ll have to add it manually – as shown below:

<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(TargetFramework)|$(Platform)'=='Release|netstandard2.0|AnyCPU'">
    <ShouldCreateLogs>True</ShouldCreateLogs>
    <AdvancedSettingsExpanded>True</AdvancedSettingsExpanded>
    <UpdateAssemblyVersion>False</UpdateAssemblyVersion>
    <UpdateAssemblyFileVersion>False</UpdateAssemblyFileVersion>
    <UpdateAssemblyInfoVersion>False</UpdateAssemblyInfoVersion>
    <UpdatePackageVersion>False</UpdatePackageVersion>
    <AssemblyInfoVersionType>SettingsVersion</AssemblyInfoVersionType>
    <InheritWinAppVersionFrom>None</InheritWinAppVersionFrom>
    <WarningLevel>0</WarningLevel>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(TargetFramework)|$(Platform)'=='Debug|netstandard2.0|AnyCPU'">
    <ShouldCreateLogs>True</ShouldCreateLogs>
    <AdvancedSettingsExpanded>True</AdvancedSettingsExpanded>
    <UpdateAssemblyVersion>False</UpdateAssemblyVersion>
    <UpdateAssemblyFileVersion>False</UpdateAssemblyFileVersion>
    <UpdateAssemblyInfoVersion>False</UpdateAssemblyInfoVersion>
    <UpdatePackageVersion>True</UpdatePackageVersion>
    <AssemblyInfoVersionType>SettingsVersion</AssemblyInfoVersionType>
    <InheritWinAppVersionFrom>None</InheritWinAppVersionFrom>
  </PropertyGroup>