How to create a site that references the Orchard Core source code?

[DrewBrasher]

What is the best way to create a site that references the Orchard Core source code instead of NuGet packages?

I know I could clone the source code and just add my web project and any themes and modules to that Orchard Core solution but that doesn't seem like the best option because I need my projects in there own separate folder and git repository. I also may have multiple sites that use orchard and want them to all reference the same source code for orchard.

The other way I thought of was to create my Visual Studio solution as usual, and then use the "Add Existing Project" of visual studio to add all the orchard projects but that's a lot of projects to add.

Is there any better way of doing this?

My main reasons for wanting this so when debugging I can step through the source and if I contribute to Orchard Core I don't have to wait for it to be approved and released to use my changes.

[hishamco]

You can use ProjectReference in case that you want to reference particular projects, but there's another way that I didn't remember at the moment that allows you to reference entire repo if I'm not wrong

[DrewBrasher]

After doing the steps I outlined above, My solution builds without errors but when I try to launch my web project I get a 404 not found error.

[JosNun]

@DrewBrasher Did you ever find a solution to your 404 issues?

[DrewBrasher]

No, I have not found a solution yet but haven't worked on it much after I started getting the 404. The project I was using Orchard Core for got put on hold but I still plan to find a solution when I have time.

[DrewBrasher]

@JosNun I'm working on this again but still haven't got it working yet.

[johnrom]

@DrewBrasher I just ran into this issue. The secret is in the OrchardCore repo, under the example projects. The gist of it is that when Orchard is run, the .props and .targets files listed below perform actions to register each package into the referencing package's assembly definition -- basically to act as though these themes, modules, and the Orchard Core application itself are all a part of your assembly. Or something like that?? Without this, it seems like Orchard doesn't actually reference the version of MVC your application is using when it registers endpoints and things.

I think when you use the Nuget package via <PackageReference /> it automatically includes these .props and .targets, at least that's what I'm inferring from the comments left across Orchard Core's .csproj's.

For your CMS project:

https://github.com/OrchardCMS/OrchardCore/blob/main/src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/OrchardCore.Cms.Web.csproj#L3-L6

https://github.com/OrchardCMS/OrchardCore/blob/main/src/OrchardCore.Cms.Web/OrchardCore.Cms.Web.csproj#L35-L39

For any userland modules referenced by your CMS project:

https://github.com/OrchardCMS/OrchardCore/blob/main/test/OrchardCore.Tests.Modules/ModuleSample/ModuleSample.csproj#L3-L4

https://github.com/OrchardCMS/OrchardCore/blob/main/test/OrchardCore.Tests.Modules/ModuleSample/ModuleSample.csproj#L14-L15

For any userland themes referenced by your CMS project:

https://github.com/OrchardCMS/OrchardCore/blob/main/test/OrchardCore.Tests.Themes/Examples.OrchardCoreThemes.Alpha/Examples.OrchardCoreThemes.Alpha.csproj#L3-L4

https://github.com/OrchardCMS/OrchardCore/blob/main/test/OrchardCore.Tests.Themes/Examples.OrchardCoreThemes.Alpha/Examples.OrchardCoreThemes.Alpha.csproj#L19-L20

So ultimately, what does actually building this into your workflow look like? Well, it looks kind of like this:

\Directory.Build.props or \Your.Project.Web\Your.Project.Web.csproj.user

<Project>
    <!-- this probably shouldn't be checked in to Git, but let each team member decide 
        whether they want to opt into the slower but more debuggable project references -->
    <PropertyGroup>
        <LocalOrchardCoreRoot>C:\path\to\orchard\core</LocalOrchardCoreRoot>
    </PropertyGroup>
</Project>

\Your.Project.Build\OrchardCoreWebsite.props

<Project>
  <Import Condition="'$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)' != ''" Project="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore.Build\Dependencies.props" />
  <Import Condition="'$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)' != ''" Project="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore\OrchardCore.Application.Cms.Core.Targets\OrchardCore.Application.Cms.Core.Targets.props" />
  
  <ItemGroup Condition="'$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)' != ''">
    <ProjectReference Include="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore\OrchardCore.Application.Cms.Targets\OrchardCore.Application.Cms.Targets.csproj" />
    <ProjectReference Include="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore\OrchardCore.Hosting.Console\OrchardCore.Hosting.Console.csproj" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <Import Condition="'$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)' != ''" Project="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore\OrchardCore.Application.Cms.Core.Targets\OrchardCore.Application.Cms.Core.Targets.targets" />
  <Import Condition="'$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)' != ''" Project="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore\OrchardCore.Application.Targets\OrchardCore.Application.Targets.targets" />
  <Import Condition="'$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)' != ''" Project="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore.Build\OrchardCore.Commons.targets" />
</Project>

\Your.Project.Build\OrchardCoreModule.props

<Project>
  <Import Condition="'$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)' != ''" Project="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore.Build\Dependencies.props" />
  <Import Condition="'$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)' != ''" Project="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore\OrchardCore.Module.Targets\OrchardCore.Module.Targets.props" />

  <ItemGroup Condition="'$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)' == ''">    
    <PackageReference Include="OrchardCore.Module.Targets" Version="$(OrchardCoreVersion)" />
    <PackageReference Include="OrchardCore.ContentManagement" Version="$(OrchardCoreVersion)" />
    <PackageReference Include="OrchardCore.ContentTypes.Abstractions" Version="$(OrchardCoreVersion)" />
    <PackageReference Include="OrchardCore.DisplayManagement" Version="$(OrchardCoreVersion)" />    
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup Condition="'$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)' != ''">
    <ProjectReference Include="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore\OrchardCore.Module.Targets\OrchardCore.Module.Targets.csproj" />
    <ProjectReference Include="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore\OrchardCore.ContentManagement\OrchardCore.ContentManagement.csproj" />
    <ProjectReference Include="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore\OrchardCore.ContentTypes.Abstractions\OrchardCore.ContentTypes.Abstractions.csproj" />
    <ProjectReference Include="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore\OrchardCore.DisplayManagement\OrchardCore.DisplayManagement.csproj" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <Import Condition="'$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)' != ''" Project="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore\OrchardCore.Module.Targets\OrchardCore.Module.Targets.targets" />
</Project>

\Your.Project.Build\OrchardCoreTheme.props

<Project>
  <Import Condition="'$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)' != ''" Project="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore.Build\Dependencies.props" />
  <Import Condition="'$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)' != ''" Project="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore\OrchardCore.Theme.Targets\OrchardCore.Theme.Targets.props" />
  
  <ItemGroup Condition="'$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)' == ''">
    <PackageReference Include="OrchardCore.Theme.Targets" Version="$(OrchardCoreVersion)" />
    <PackageReference Include="OrchardCore.ResourceManagement" Version="$(OrchardCoreVersion)" />
  </ItemGroup>
  
  <ItemGroup Condition="'$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)' != ''">
    <ProjectReference Include="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore\OrchardCore.Theme.Targets\OrchardCore.Theme.Targets.csproj" />
    <ProjectReference Include="$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)\src\OrchardCore\OrchardCore.ResourceManagement\OrchardCore.ResourceManagement.csproj" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

\Your.Project.Web\Your.Project.Web.csproj

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
  <Import Project="..\Your.Project.Build\OrchardCoreWebsite.props" />
  <!-- etc -->
</Project>

\Your.Project.Web\Your.Project.Module.csproj, or any number of modules

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
  <Import Project="..\Your.Project.Build\OrchardCoreModule.props" />
  <!-- etc -->
</Project>

\Your.Project.Web\Your.Project.Theme.csproj, or any number of themes

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
  <Import Project="..\Your.Project.Build\OrchardCoreTheme.props" />
  <!-- etc -->
</Project>

Notes

If you only have one of each, you can obviously add these directly to your csproj, but I kept them separate so I can maintain them all in one place and then forget about them.

I'm not sure if it is an issue to include the .targets in a .props file. Seems to be working fine with my current project. Your mileage may vary.

You may notice in the csproj in the OrchardCore repo, the themes also import the Module.targets and Module.props.. I don't know if that's necessary or a mistake in the projects. I removed them in mine and it seems to work OK.

Recipes: I am actually doing all this to try and debug recipes, and I found that the recipe.json from my module was not actually showing up, so I had to manually add them to the module's csproj. This has been such a rabbit hole that I have no clue if this is the correct thing to do or why it's happening, but once again it's working in my project for now.

  <ItemGroup Condition="'$(LocalOrchardCoreRoot)' != ''">
    <EmbeddedResource Include="Migrations\*.recipe.json" />
  </ItemGroup>

Views: I am not using them for this debug session, but I found that for some reason this setup doesn't copy .Views.dll from any userland themes or modules to .Web\bin\*.Views.dll. I can't figure out why, especially since it copies the Views from the Orchard modules themselves.

[DrewBrasher]

I found how to add a reference to an entire solution here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/habibh/walkthrough-adding-an-existing-visual-studio-solution-to-another-solution

Here are the steps for future reference:

1. Create a solution folder called OrchardCore
2. Right click that folder and go to Add > Existing Project
3. Change the file type to .sln
4. Browse to the Orchard Core source and select the OrchardCore.sln file
5. Change all of your own projects to reference the added Orchard Core projects instead of package references

[DrewBrasher]

That's right, I changed the selected answer to yours.

[hyzx86]

Hi @DrewBrasher ，
I can't find the option of * .sln here.

Create a solution folder called OrchardCore
Right click that folder and go to Add > Existing Project

[DrewBrasher]

@hyzx86 I am using Visual Studio Community Edition 2019. Is that the same as you are using?

[hyzx86]

Visual
Yes I am using VS2019 ，too.

[DrewBrasher]

@hyzx86 I updated to Visual Studio 2022 and now I don't see the option to add a reference to a .sln file either.

[Skrypt]

We are supposed to host the source code through Nuget packages symbols server. It probably doesn't work yet.
But using source code directly is also a solution for now.

[DrewBrasher]

Thank you @Skrypt, creating my own NuGet packages worked! I couldn't get it to work using just my copy of the media module but it worked when I put all the NuGet packages in my local NuGet server.

[Skrypt]

Probably related with the versioning of the Nuget packages. We use Nuget packages with versions on our Cloudsmith server. Good to hear that it worked. 😄

See :

OrchardCore/.github/workflows/release_ci.yml

Line 67 in 6160a34

dotnet pack -c Release --no-restore --no-build -p:Version=${{ steps.get_version.outputs.VERSION }} -p:TreatWarningsAsErrors=false

[Skrypt]

If you want to add a contribution; you are welcome to create a small guide about how to do this as a Markdown file. This is general knowledge but that could be added somewhere in the OC Github Wiki or OC documentation.

[DrewBrasher]

I will do that.

[DrewBrasher]

I created a pull request for the documentation here: #11284
This is how I did it but if you see anything that should have been done different let me know and I can update it.

[hyzx86]

I found a simple and fast way.

Replace DLL & PDB files, and Use attach to process
#10603

[DrewBrasher]

Thanks, I will try that.

[devlife]

You could always use a git submodule to get the source code into your repo. From there it should be relatively easy to add project references as you normally would.