{"id":32564,"date":"2017-07-24T09:38:03","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T16:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.xamarin.com\/?p=32564"},"modified":"2017-07-24T09:38:03","modified_gmt":"2017-07-24T16:38:03","slug":"building-xamarin-forms-nuget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/xamarin\/building-xamarin-forms-nuget\/","title":{"rendered":"Building the Xamarin.Forms NuGet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tA great way to explore Xamarin.Forms (and grow\u00a0comfortable working in the code) is to clone the repository and run it, especially any of the ControlGallery projects. We know that many of you have done just that, so the next step you can take is to make your own\u00a0customizations to Xamarin.Forms to build and distribute\u00a0your very own NuGet package within your organization. In this post, let\u2019s walk through doing that locally, and then discuss how you can configure the same on Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS).<\/p>\n

The Local Setup<\/h2>\n

Windows to Build it All<\/h3>\n

Building a Xamarin.Forms Nuget locally is most easily done on a Windows machine. You\u2019ll want to use Visual Studio 2015 if you’re including the soon-to-be-deprecated Windows Phone 8 and 8.1, or you can use Visual Studio 2017. The build is quite straight forward:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Select Debug or Release<\/li>\n
  2. Right click the solution and select Build.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I can hear you asking, \u201cBut what about a Mac build host, do I need one?\u201d because I asked the very same question my first time. Because we’re generating a NuGet and not an iOS or Mac application, we don\u2019t need the Mac build host. We’re building against the Xamarin and Windows framework SDKs.<\/p>\n

    Once the solution is done building successfully, you should generate the xml used for displaying documentation within the IDE. Now you’re ready to package the freshly made assemblies into a NuGet package. To accomplish this, we have a handy create-nuget.bat<\/code> script that you execute from the command line by name.<\/p>\n

    if \"%DEBUG_VERSION%\"==\"\" set DEBUG_VERSION=0\nset \/a DEBUG_VERSION=%DEBUG_VERSION%+1\npushd docs\n..\\tools\\mdoc\\mdoc.exe export-msxdoc -o Xamarin.Forms.Core.xml Xamarin.Forms.Core\n..\\tools\\mdoc\\mdoc.exe export-msxdoc -o Xamarin.Forms.Xaml.xml Xamarin.Forms.Xaml\n..\\tools\\mdoc\\mdoc.exe export-msxdoc -o Xamarin.Forms.Maps.xml Xamarin.Forms.Maps\npopd\npushd .nuspec\n..\\.nuget\\NuGet.exe pack Xamarin.Forms.nuspec -properties configuration=debug;platform=anycpu -Version 9.9.%DEBUG_VERSION%\npopd<\/pre>\n
    You can update this directly to use the version and build configuration of your choice. Note, the current script is set to expect the debug<\/code> configuration. Also, notice the docs are being updated first and then the NuGet is being generated.<\/p>\n
    The NuGet package will be in your root directory when it\u2019s complete.<\/p>\n
    Building on OS X<\/h3>\n
    While you can<\/em> build Xamarin.Forms on a Mac, I don\u2019t recommend it. You immediately have to trim out all the Windows targets, meaning any NuGet you create will only work on iOS, Android, and Mac. If you are on a Mac and cannot build on a Windows machine, then building on VSTS is for you!<\/p>\n
    Cloud Building on VSTS<\/h2>\n
    Visual Studio Team Services provides a wealth of tasks to create a very flexible build solution, and for our needs it will:<\/p>\n