Generate C# project using CMake

Question

I'm trying to generate a C# project within an existing C++ CMake code base on Windows. After some research, I could find only two projects that built their own CSharp compilers for CMake: gdcm and kde.

I tried both of them. Unfortunately, the first one failed to generate a C# project. Instead it created a VS C++ project with cs files in it, and because of C++ flags set for linker, the build always failed with errors. After experimenting with the sample project they provided, I wonder whether this could be due to a limitation of the "Visual Studio 8 2005" code generator?

The second project was primarily aimed at Mono, so I wasn't successful with it either.

Has anyone had a positive experience with building C# projects using one of those CMake modules or something else?

Answer 1

As of CMake 3.8.2, CSharp project generation is officially supported by CMake.

To build the default Visual Studio 2017 generated C#/WPF project using CMake, create a CMakeList.txt file as follows.

• Project Declaration

    project(Example VERSION 0.1.0 LANGUAGES CSharp) 

• Include CMake CSharpUtilities if you are planning on using WPF or other designer properties.

    include(CSharpUtilities) 

• Add all cs, xaml, settings, properties

    add_executable(Example       App.config       App.xaml       App.xaml.cs       MainWindow.xaml       MainWindow.xaml.cs        Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs       Properties/Resources.Designer.cs       Properties/Resources.resx       Properties/Settings.Designer.cs       Properties/Settings.settings) 

• Link designer files, xaml files, and other properties files with their corresponding cs files

    csharp_set_designer_cs_properties(       Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs       Properties/Resources.Designer.cs       Properties/Resources.resx       Properties/Settings.Designer.cs       Properties/Settings.settings)    csharp_set_xaml_cs_properties(       App.xaml       App.xaml.cs       MainWindow.xaml       MainWindow.xaml.cs) 

• Set app App.xaml properties file as program entry point (if project is a WPF project)

    set_property(SOURCE App.xaml PROPERTY VS_XAML_TYPE "ApplicationDefinition") 

• Set other csproj file flags

    set_property(TARGET Example PROPERTY VS_DOTNET_TARGET_FRAMEWORK_VERSION "v4.6.1")   set_property(TARGET Example PROPERTY WIN32_EXECUTABLE TRUE)   // ... 

• Add libraries

    set_property(TARGET Example PROPERTY VS_DOTNET_REFERENCES       "Microsoft.CSharp"       "PresentationCore"       "PresentationFramework"       "System"       "System.Core"       "System.Data"       "System.Data.DataSetExtensions"       "System.Net.Http"       "System.Xaml"       "System.Xml"       "System.Xml.Linq"       "WindowsBase") 

For a working WPF example, see https://github.com/bemehiser/cmake_csharp_example

For a WinForms example, see this answer.