Question

is it possible to use nuget to deploy test data instead of dlls?

we have some largish test data files which I don’t want to keep in our git repository and I am wondering if we could deploy these to the test projects during the build by including them in a nuget package which gets installed during the build.

Is this possible?

Answer 1

Yes, but, without knowing a few more details about how your project is structured, it’s difficult to tell you exactly how you would do this.

If you just want to copy your data files into a directory in your test project, you can just put the files in a content folder in a NuGet package, and it will copy them to your project automatically, much in the same way that it would copy DLLs. If this is all you need, you can create a package like this in a few minutes.

If you need to deploy the test data files to a directory outside of your project directory, or manipulate the file names or contents, you can do this as well. I usually create a tools package to do this.

I put the files I want to copy into a tools directory in my package, and then create a simple init.ps1 or install.ps1 script to do whatever copying and file manipulation tasks are required.

If you are intimidated by the prospect of creating packages from scratch, you may find NuGet Package Explorer helpful. You can create a content folder and drag the content you want to deploy into it:

http://npe.codeplex.com/