How-to migrate Wpf projects to the new VS2017 format

Question

I'm migrating my projects to the new visual studio 2017 format which is working nicely for all standard libraries only now I run into problems with my UI libraries where I use Wpf / Xaml.

I cannot figure out howto do this for my user controls. The old item doesn't seem to be valid anymore.

Anybody has an idea howto do this or if it's even possible.

Answer 1

December 13th 2018 - .NET Core 3 Preview 1 was announced

.NET Core 3 will support WPF and WinForms applications. You may try it with Preview version of SDK:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.WindowsDesktop">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.0</TargetFramework>
    <UseWPF>true</UseWPF>
  </PropertyGroup>
</Project>

Previous answer

You can use template below to replace old .csproj with. It resolves couple of issues other people templates had.

1. You don't have to include intermediary *.g.cs files like some suggested to do.
2. No Main not found error will occur.
3. No Unable to run your project. The "RunCommand" property is not defined. error will occur.
4. Includes already configured default Settings and Resources.

Template:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" ToolsVersion="15.0">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <LanguageTargets>$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(VisualStudioVersion)\Bin\Microsoft.CSharp.targets</LanguageTargets>
    <TargetFramework>net47</TargetFramework>
    <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>
    <StartupObject />
  </PropertyGroup>

  <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Debug|AnyCPU'">
    <DebugType>full</DebugType>
    <DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <!-- App.xaml -->
    <ApplicationDefinition Include="App.xaml">
      <SubType>Designer</SubType>
      <Generator>MSBuild:UpdateDesignTimeXaml</Generator>
    </ApplicationDefinition>

    <!-- XAML elements -->
    <Page Include="**\*.xaml" Exclude="App.xaml">
      <SubType>Designer</SubType>
      <Generator>MSBuild:UpdateDesignTimeXaml</Generator>
    </Page>
    <Compile Update="**\*.xaml.cs" SubType="Code" DependentUpon="%(Filename)" />

    <!-- Resources -->
    <EmbeddedResource Update="Properties\Resources.resx" Generator="ResXFileCodeGenerator" LastGenOutput="Resources.Designer.cs" />
    <Compile Update="Properties\Resources.Designer.cs" AutoGen="True" DependentUpon="Resources.resx" DesignTime="True" />

    <!-- Settings -->
    <None Update="Properties\Settings.settings" Generator="SettingsSingleFileGenerator" LastGenOutput="Settings.Designer.cs" />
    <Compile Update="Properties\Settings.Designer.cs" AutoGen="True" DependentUpon="Settings.settings" />

  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <Reference Include="PresentationCore" />
    <Reference Include="PresentationFramework" />
    <Reference Include="System.Xaml" />
    <Reference Include="WindowsBase" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

Answer 2

The above solution works for Wpf dll's, but I reverted it because Resharper and the Visual Studio designer where not functional anymore after this change. Mainly because they couldn't pair the xaml and the code-behind at design time. But the project compiles and works.

For a wpf executable you need to do the following:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <LanguageTargets>$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(VisualStudioVersion)\Bin\Microsoft.CSharp.targets</LanguageTargets>
    <TargetFramework>net451</TargetFramework>
    <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>
    <RootNamespace>MyNamespace</RootNamespace>
    <AssemblyName>MyExe</AssemblyName>
    <ApplicationIcon>MyExe.ico</ApplicationIcon>
    <ApplicationManifest>app.manifest</ApplicationManifest>
    <StartupObject>MyNamespace.App</StartupObject>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <Reference Include="PresentationCore" />
    <Reference Include="PresentationFramework" />
    <Reference Include="System.Xaml" />
    <Reference Include="WindowsBase" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <EmbeddedResource Update="Properties\Resources.resx" Generator="ResXFileCodeGenerator" LastGenOutput="Resources.Designer.cs" />
    <Compile Update="Properties\Resources.Designer.cs" DesignTime="True" AutoGen="True" DependentUpon="Resources.resx" />

    <None Update="Properties\Settings.settings" Generator="SettingsSingleFileGenerator" LastGenOutput="Settings.Designer.cs" />
    <Compile Update="Properties\Settings.Designer.cs" DesignTime="True" AutoGen="True" DependentUpon="Settings.settings" />

    <Page Include="MainWindow.xaml" SubType="Designer" Generator="MSBuild:Compile" />
    <Compile Update="MainWindow.xaml.cs" DependentUpon="MainWindow.xaml" />
    <Resource Include="Images\*.png" />

    <ApplicationDefinition Include="App.xaml" SubType="Designer" Generator="XamlIntelliSenseFileGenerator" />
    <Compile Update="App.xaml.cs" DependentUpon="App.xaml" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <Import Project="$(MSBuildSDKExtrasTargets)" Condition="Exists('$(MSBuildSDKExtrasTargets)')" />
</Project>