Question

I try to programmatic add the reference of dll into csproj file at time of installation service through the MSI Installer.

<Reference Include="TestProject">
    <HintPath>..\..\TestProject.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>

I put below line of source code of add node into
protected override void OnAfterInstall(IDictionary savedState) of ProjectInstaller.cs

var refnode = xml.CreateElement("Reference");
var attribute = xml.CreateAttribute("Include", null);
attribute.Value = "TestProject";
refnode.Attributes.Append(attribute);
var hintPath = xml.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Element, "HintPath", null);
hintPath.InnerText = "..\..\TestProject.dll";
refnode.AppendChild(hintPath);
xml.AppendChild(refnode);
xml.Save(file);

Output of code

<Reference Include="TestProject" xmlns="">
    <HintPath>..\..\TestProject.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>

But the source code add xmlns="" more attribute into Reference element. what is wrong in this code how I will remove xmlns="" attribute because csproj file not take custom attribute.

Answer 1

The default namespace for C# project files is xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003". You didn’t specify any namespace so the namespace had to be cleared to be able to add the children you wanted. Set the right namespaces and you probably won’t have a problem.

var ns = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003";
var refnode = xml.CreateElement("Reference", ns);
var attribute = xml.CreateAttribute("Include", ns);
attribute.Value = "TestProject";
refnode.Attributes.Append(attribute);
var hintPath = xml.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Element, "HintPath", ns);
hintPath.InnerText = "..\..\TestProject.dll";
refnode.AppendChild(hintPath);
xml.AppendChild(refnode);
xml.Save(file);