Boilerplate Guide to Creating a Source Generator - Part 6

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Table of Contents

• Part 1 - Introduction / Preparing to Create a Source Generator
• Part 2 - Create the Basic Infrastructure of the Source Generator
• Part 3 - Implementing the Source Generator
• Part 4 - Debugging the Source Generator
• Part 5 - Packaging the Source Generator into a NuGet Package
• Part 6 - How to use the NuGet Source Generator

How to Use the NuGet Source Generator

There are plenty of videos and articles out there on how to import a NuGet Package that you can view, but I will show you an easy way to test locally without the need to publish it somewhere.

Setup

• Create a location on your local hard drive. I'm using D:\Temp\NuGet.
• In Visual Studio, select Tools -> Options -> NuGet Package Manager -> Package Sources
  • Click the "+" button in the top right corner and fill in the information:
    • Name: Local Repository
    • Source: D:\Temp\NuGet
  • Click the "Ok" button at the bottom.
  • Close all other windows.

Add the NuGet Package

• Copy the output file from Step 5 - Packaging to the new folder.
• Create a clone of the test application and add it to the solution:
  • Remove the reference to the Source Generator.
  • Go through the process of adding a NuGet package using the local repository as the source.
• Shutdown Visual Studio.
• Restart the solution.
• Do a full rebuild all of the solution.

Your classes should still be generated and you can view them using one of the methods described in Step 3 - Implementing.

You should now be able to:

• Uncomment the body of the PersonBuilder class, see that there is a build error.
• Uncomment the attribute and see the error go away.
• Right click on PersonBuilder, select "Go to definition (F12)", select the one that implements the generic Builder<t> and see what was generated.

History

• 18^th January, 2024: Initial version