microsoft / microsoft/msix-packaging
[BUG] Cannot even build pipeline for WPF / .NET 6 solution
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Description
Project
MSIX Packaging Azure extension
Describe the bug
I used Visual Studio 2022 with latest .Net 6 stable version to create a solution containing a simple WPF project with another MSIX packaging project.
I created a repository on Azure DevOps for this solution and created a build pipeline using the MSIX Build And Package extension as explained in the documentation.
When pipeline is running, it cannot build the solution because even using a windows-latest agent and indicating latest in msbuildVersion parameter. It doesn't recognize project files format.

When looking at the output of the extension, we can see it is not using the latest version of msbuild and msbuildVersion is limited to version 16. Which is not enough for building .NET 6 application.
When I try to reproduce what does the extension using MSBuild extension, I can go further but it fails during compilation with error message below.

[error]C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\dotnet\sdk\6.0.401\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.PackageDependencyResolution.targets(267,5): Error NETSDK1004: Assets file 'D:\a\1\s\Test.Wpf\obj\project.assets.json' not found. Run a NuGet package restore to generate this file.
Here is the pipeline YAML used to build the solution with the MSIX packaging extension:
name: '$(Build.DefinitionName)_$(Build.SourceBranchName)_$(Date:yyyy.M.d).$(Rev:r)'
trigger:
- '*'
pool:
vmImage: windows-latest
steps:
- task: VersionDotNetCoreAssemblies@2
inputs:
Path: '$(Build.SourcesDirectory)'
VersionNumber: '$(Build.BuildNumber)'
Injectversion: False
VersionRegex: '\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+'
FilenamePattern: '.csproj'
AddDefault: true
OutputVersion: 'AppVersion'
- task: UseDotNet@2
inputs:
packageType: 'sdk'
version: '6.x'
- task: MsixPackaging@1
inputs:
outputPath: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
solution: '**/*.sln'
clean: false
generateBundle: false
buildConfiguration: 'release'
buildPlatform: 'Any CPU'
updateAppVersion: true
manifestFile: 'Test.Msix/Package.appxmanifest'
appVersion: '$(Date:yyyy.M.d).$(Rev:r)'
appPackageDistributionMode: 'SideloadOnly'
msbuildLocationMethod: 'version'
msbuildVersion: 'latest'
msbuildArchitecture: 'x64'
And here is the one used to build the solution using VSBuild extension:
name: '$(Build.DefinitionName)_$(Build.SourceBranchName)_$(Date:yyyy.M.d).$(Rev:r)'
trigger:
- '*'
pool:
vmImage: windows-latest
steps:
- task: VersionDotNetCoreAssemblies@2
inputs:
Path: '$(Build.SourcesDirectory)'
VersionNumber: '$(Build.BuildNumber)'
Injectversion: False
VersionRegex: '\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+'
FilenamePattern: '.csproj'
AddDefault: true
OutputVersion: 'AppVersion'
- task: UseDotNet@2
inputs:
packageType: 'sdk'
version: '6.x'
- task: VSBuild@1
inputs:
solution: '**\*.sln'
msbuildArgs: '/p:UapAppxPackageBuildMode=SideloadOnly /p:AppxPackageSigningEnabled=false /p:AppxBundle=Never /p:AppxPackageOutput=$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
configuration: 'Release'
platform: 'Any CPU'
msbuildArchitecture: 'x64'
logProjectEvents: false
Contributor guide
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First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by reproducing the two YAML pipelines using the MsixPackaging@1 and VSBuild@1 tasks on a windows-latest agent with the .NET 6 WPF solution. Compare the selected MSBuild version and the NuGet restore behavior; done means the MSIX packaging pipeline can build the solution without the project-format or missing project.assets.json errors.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- azure, csharp
- Domain
- build-system, ci-cd, desktop
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100