Is Microsoft.VisualStudio.TemplateWizard incompatible with .Net 8.0?

Jaeden Ruiner 126

So, We are updating to VS2022 at work, and have several VSIX template packages that need to be updated to work with VS2022, as the default VS2019 configuration is not compatible.
To that end, we use wizards with a several of these templates, and when updating our primary wizard library to .Net 8.0 as our new standard version, the only available version of Microsoft.VisualStudio.TemplateWizard library is for .Net 4.72.

Has this been updated? Should I continue using it, or is there a replacement? Thanks,
Jaeden "Sifo Dyas" al'Raec Ruiner

Accepted answer

Michael Taylor 54,816 Reputation points

2024-01-29T19:57:55.82+00:00

Visual Studio 2022, like the versions before it, are .NET Framework 4.x apps. As such your template wizard, which runs in the VS process, needs to be .NET 4.x as well. You cannot currently target .NET Core or newer versions. VS doesn't run these. Of course if you are calling external processes to actually do your work then they can be whatever runtime you want, assume it is installed first.
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Jaeden Ruiner 126 Reputation points

2024-01-30T16:48:10.13+00:00

So all VSIX development is still in 4.72, not any of the later versions?
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Michael Taylor 54,816 Reputation points

2024-01-30T19:24:01.2833333+00:00

Inprocess extensions, which includes template wizards must remain on .NET Framework 4.x.

If your extension is not going to run in the VS process then you can use a different version of .NET. Refer to this blog article where it talks about out of process extensions. You can also go to the Extensibility team's Github for more information.

But, AFAIK, template wizards have to run in the VS process and therefore are limited to .NET 4.x at this time.
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Jaeden Ruiner 126 Reputation points

2024-01-31T00:37:19.9866667+00:00

So, then, a standard Visual Studio template that I'm allowed to create, can't Target .Net 8?
I've reviewed the VSTemplate xml specification, and the only thing available is .Net Framework 4.x as the only options when I create my own templates.
I get the in process engine requires it to be Framework 4.x to be compatible with Visual Studio, but My templates need to target .Net 8.
How can I achieve that?

Michael Taylor 54,816 Reputation points

2024-01-31T03:25:14.9433333+00:00

The project template itself is just a zip file, effectively, containing the project file and related source files. When you select that template then it extracts the files, runs the files through a simple templating engine to replace some values as determined by the user and then it is done. As such you can create a project template that generates a project in any target framework you want, in theory. As for the VSTemplate schema I haven't looked too far into it for a while but if you're referring to the RequiredFrameworkVersion then that is an optional element and isn't needed. As far as I know you shouldn't really need anything beyond the basic template metadata and project file contents. I think the easiest way to see what a NET Core template might look like is to create a project using the base template you want and then export the template. Go to the generated zip file and look at the template manifest. Here's a blog article that provides some insight into some of the things you can change.
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Is Microsoft.VisualStudio.TemplateWizard incompatible with .Net 8.0?

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