Automatically Create Your Project’s NuGet Package Every Time It Builds, Via NuGet

So you’ve got a super awesome library/assembly that you want to share with others, but you’re too lazy to actually use NuGet to package it up and upload it to the gallery; or maybe you don’t know how to create a NuGet package and don’t have the time or desire to learn. Well, my friends, now this can all be handled for you automatically.

A couple weeks ago I posted about a new PowerShell script that I wrote and put up on CodePlex, called New-NuGetPackage PowerShell Script, to make creating new NuGet packages quick and easy. Well, I’ve taken that script one step further and use it in a new NuGet package called Create New NuGet Package From Project After Each Build (real creative name, right) that you can add to your Visual Studio projects. The NuGet package will, you guessed it, pack your project and its dependencies up into a NuGet package (i.e. .nupkg file) and place it in your project’s output directory beside the generated dll/exe file. Now creating your own NuGet package is as easy as adding a NuGet package to your project, which if you’ve never done before is dirt simple.

I show how to add the NuGet package to your Visual Studio project in the New-NuGetPackage PowerShell Script documentation (hint: search for “New NuGet Package” (include quotes) to find it in the VS NuGet Package Manager search results), as well as how you can push your package to the NuGet Gallery in just a few clicks.

Here’s a couple screenshots from the documentation on installing the NuGet Package:

Here you can see the new PostBuildScripts folder it adds to your project, and that when you build your project, a new .nupkg file is created in the project’s Output directory alongside the dll/exe.

So now that packaging your project up in a NuGet package can be fully automated with about 30 seconds of effort, and you can push it to the NuGet Gallery in a few clicks, there is no reason for you to not share all of the awesome libraries you write.

Happy coding!