Issues with the WinUICs templates

[mrlacey]

Describe the bug

There are issues with the currently defined WinUI (C#) templates:

• Some tests that validate the templates are failing
• The generated code doesn't run and complains about a missing DLL

To Reproduce

Run test: TemplateStudioForWinUICs.Tests.TemplateFolderValidationTests.VerifyTemplateFolderContents

The output highlights that there are files in the templates folder that are not included. They should be part of the generated code or removed.

'C:\Users\matt\Documents\GitHub\WindowsTemplateStudio\code\TemplateStudioForWinUICs\Templates\Ft\SettingsStorage\Param_ProjectName\appsettings.json' is not used in the template.
'C:\Users\matt\Documents\GitHub\WindowsTemplateStudio\code\TemplateStudioForWinUICs\Templates\Ft\SettingsStorage\Param_ProjectName\Contracts\Services\ILocalSettingsService.cs' is not used in the template.
'C:\Users\matt\Documents\GitHub\WindowsTemplateStudio\code\TemplateStudioForWinUICs\Templates\Ft\SettingsStorage\Param_ProjectName\Models\LocalSettingsOptions.cs' is not used in the template.
'C:\Users\matt\Documents\GitHub\WindowsTemplateStudio\code\TemplateStudioForWinUICs\Templates\Ft\SettingsStorage\Param_ProjectName\Services\LocalSettingsServicePackaged.cs' is not used in the template.
'C:\Users\matt\Documents\GitHub\WindowsTemplateStudio\code\TemplateStudioForWinUICs\Templates\Ft\SettingsStorage\Param_ProjectName\Services\LocalSettingsServiceUnpackaged.cs' is not used in the template.

After shortening all the template paths, I did a quick smoke test to verify everything was still ok.

By creating an app with NavPane and all pages and features, the generated app:

• won't launch the packaged version.
• will launch the unpackaged version but immediately fails with:

System.DllNotFoundException
  HResult=0x80131524
  Message=Unable to load DLL 'Microsoft.ui.xaml.dll' or one of its dependencies: The specified module could not be found. (0x8007007E)
  Source=BlankAdvancedMVVMToolkitAllStyleCop
  StackTrace:
   at BlankAdvancedMVVMToolkitAllStyleCop.Program.XamlCheckProcessRequirements()
   at BlankAdvancedMVVMToolkitAllStyleCop.Program.Main(String[] args) in C:\UIT\MTM\24105055\Proj\BlankAdvancedMVVMToolkitAllStyleCop\BlankAdvancedMVVMToolkitAllStyleCop\obj\x64\Debug\net6.0-windows10.0.19041.0\win10-x64\App.g.i.cs:line 28

Additional context

This is based on #4412 being merged. It's not appropriate to look at that until that is merged.

x-ref #4398

Applies to the following platforms:

• WinUI
• WPF
• UWP

About your setup

• Visual Studio Version: 17.1.2
• Template Studio Wizard Version: current main path
• Windows Build: 10 21H1

[mrlacey]

App not launching issue probably connected with needing to update/reinstall VCRedist. microsoft/WindowsAppSDK#974 (comment)

[mikebattista]

The "unused files" are all used. How do the tests define "unused"?

I can run both packaged and unpackaged projects. Have you tried installing VCRedist to see if that fixes your issue? For unpackaged, you need the WinAppSDK Runtime installed for 1.0.1.

[mrlacey]

The "unused files" are all used. How do the tests define "unused"?

They need to be listed in the template.json file

[mikebattista]

As PrimaryOutputs?

[mrlacey]

As PrimaryOutputs?

Yes.
It may not be the case now, but they used to need to be there to get included in the generated output.
Even if they no longer do, it serves as a useful check to make sure that everything is intentionally included and we don't have any unnecessary files hanging around.

[mikebattista]

Fixed with fe8cddd.