# Nuget #



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<panel title="Summary">
You really can't get much out of XActLib without first installing Nuget in order to use for the installation heavy lifting. 

What is Nuget? NuGet is a free, open source developer focused package management system for the .NET platform intent on simplifying the process of incorporating third party libraries into a .NET application during development.

The advantages it brings are:

* Let's developers concentrate on their code, 
* Use a myriad of open source libraries
* Packages that depend on other packages, download the dependencies recursively, saving a lot of time.
* Some packages even take care of initial installation and config file changes, easing the learning curve immensely.

XActLib -- being a loosely couple library of Assemblies -- uses Nuget exclusively to transparently install assemblies recursively. An example might be using Nuget to install and Reference [[Projects/XActLib/AD/Design/Assemblies/XAct.Data.Db.EF/]], which in turn will automatically ensure the download and installtion of the required *EntityFramework*, as well as [[Projects/XActLib/AD/Design/Assemblies/XAct.Data.Db/]], [[Projects/XActLib/AD/Design/Assemblies/XAct.Data/]] and [[Projects/XActLib/AD/Design/Assemblies/XAct.Core/]]. All in less than 30 seconds, thereabouts. *That's* why we use Nuget: less friction.


</panel>


## Installation ##
Download *Nuget* from [[nuget.org/]]. It will take you to the Visual Studio Tools site. Note -- you won't see anything change until you restart Visual Studio.

## Usage ## 

### Adding packages to you Projects ###
Using Nuget to install Extensions is extremely easy:
* In Visual Studio, 
* Right click a project, and select *Manage Nuget Packages...*
* Select *Nuget official package source*
* THen type the name of an assembly to add to your project.
   ** Searching for XAct Assemblies is easy as they all start with '*XAct.*'

### Unpacking a project from Source Control ###
Then again, adding assemblies to a Solution is usually done by a Team Lead -- whereas most of the time, developers need to concentrate on joining a team, and getting up to speed quickly. This means checking out code -- that does not References to DLL's that were not source controlled, and are meant to be 'rehydrated' into your project.

Since Nuget 1.6, the rehydration step is backed into a Project's file by Nuget (the Team Lead has to 'prepare' the solution, but that step is trivial), by adding 

<sxh csharp>
#!xml
  <Import Project="$(SolutionDir)\.nuget\nuget.targets" />
</sxh>

to the bottom of the project **.csproj* file, that points to a folder in your solution directory that contains:

<sxh csharp>
#!xml
 <NuGetToolsPath>$(SolutionDir).nuget</NuGetToolsPath>
 <NuGetExePath>$(NuGetToolsPath)\nuget.exe</NuGetExePath>
 <PackagesConfig>$(ProjectDir)packages.config</PackagesConfig>
 ...etc...
</sxh>

Which it can then invoke to check and download assemblies. You get the point (ie, I don't want to go into the nitty gritty here...[[Terminology|JFGI]].

### Refreshing Assemblies ###
Much as I like NuGet, there are still some problems with it, as of version 1.7.  
Currently...you can't. This may change in the future. Keep an eye on this issue [[http/*nuget.codeplex.com/workitem/1779/]]

The current consensus is:

* Will work for first checkout from Source Control
* After that...until the above is done:
   ** Remove the References
   ** Rename 'packages.config' to get it out of the way (eg: 'packages.config.txt')
   ** Nuget in the packages again (referencing the list in 'packages.config.txt' to ensure you get everything.
   ** Then Clean/Rebuild the assembly.
   ** Yes It's annoying, I don't have a better answer just yet, and I can't wait till they get this sorted out.


## TroubleShooting ##
Common issues to watch out for:

* The Team Lead forgot to prepare the Solution (right-click on the Solution, and Select Prepare for ... can't remember exactly what it says, but it adds to the solution the *.nuget* directory.
* The Team Lead forgot to CheckIn the *.nuget*nuget.exe* -- a binary.  Without doing that, devs who checkout the code can't run any scripts. 
   ** A quickfix is to simply copy/paste the nuget.exe file from another Solution, and put it into the *.nuget* directory.
* Strange things...Not all the nuget revision numbers seem to be updating when I use 'update-package' at the *Package Manager Console*...
    * Yeah. That's annoying. It's because *update-package* seems to not be ...imcomplete. At least Nuget 1.6's version of it. It seems to do a *mostly* good job...but fail to update *all* solutions. When downloading a new solution, or simply feel that things are acting wierd, I ensure that each assembly has the latest of each Reference, by invoking 'update-package' on every assembly in the solution. Annoying, but it doesn't really take that long either. Hopefully they'll fix it soon.

<sxh csharp>
update package -project XAct.Examples.SomeApp.Hosts.UnitTests
...
update package -project XAct.Examples.SomeApp.Hosts.Application
...
update package -project XAct.Examples.SomeApp.Hosts.Infrastructure.IoC
...
update package -project XAct.Examples.SomeApp.Hosts.Infrastructure.IoC.K2
...
update package -project XAct.Examples.SomeApp.Hosts.Infrastructure.IoC.UT
...
update package -project XAct.Examples.SomeApp.Hosts.Infrastructure.Services
...
</sxh>


## Resources ##

*[[http/*www.hanselman.com/blog/IntroducingNuGetPackageManagementForNETAnotherPieceOfTheWebStack.aspx/]]
*  [[http/*www.hanselman.com/blog/NuGetForTheEnterpriseNuGetInAContinuousIntegrationAutomatedBuildSystem.aspx/]]