Automate the Cloning of Framework Package Repositories

The ShiftTemplate repository contains a project template and an item template. The project that's used as template is also used as a sample project during framework development. The sample project references all framework packages using both Project References and NuGet References.

Currently, if all the relevant framework package repositories are cloned with the correct folder structure, the sample project automatically uses the local project references. If they are not cloned or the structure is incorrect, the packages are restored from NuGet.

To streamline the developer experience, we could automate the cloning process of these framework package repositories. This way, when someone clones the ShiftTemplates repository, the remaining repositories are automatically cloned alongside it. This would allow the developer to clone just the ShiftTemplates repository, run the sample project, and have a fully functional application.

This automation could be accomplished using specific Git/GitHub techniques or by leveraging .NET/Visual Studio configurations.

The required folder structure for all projects to be referenced locally is as follows:

ShiftSoftware
  |-- AzureFunctionsAspNetCoreAuthorization
  |-- ShiftBlazor
  |-- ShiftEntity
  |-- ShiftFrameworkTestingTools
  |-- ShiftIdentity
  |-- ShiftTemplates
  |-- TypeAuth
  |-- ShiftFrameworkLocalization

The respective remote repository URLs on GitHub are:

https://github.com/ShiftSoftware/AzureFunctionsAspNetCoreAuthorization
https://github.com/ShiftSoftware/ShiftBlazor
https://github.com/ShiftSoftware/ShiftEntity
https://github.com/ShiftSoftware/ShiftFrameworkTestingTools
https://github.com/ShiftSoftware/ShiftIdentity
https://github.com/ShiftSoftware/ShiftTemplates
https://github.com/ShiftSoftware/TypeAuth
https://github.com/ShiftSoftware/ShiftFrameworkLocalization

Review the ShiftTemplate project and item templates, the sample project's local project references, and the listed repository layout. Compare the proposed Git/GitHub and .NET/Visual Studio approaches; done means cloning ShiftTemplates also retrieves the listed repositories into the required structure and the sample project runs using them.