Globbed project reference occasionally expand

[richardszalay]

Visual Studio seems to occasionally expand globbed project references. Apparently this can be prevented by defining the globs in a Property and then referencing that property in the Item. Just need to confirm this and update the README.

[richardszalay]

TODO: Update the README with this information

We have a workaround in place that's been working for a few months now without expanding: move project references from the csproj into a Directory.build.props and specify them with properties (though the latter might be optional):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

  <Import Project="$([MSBuild]::GetPathOfFileAbove('Directory.Build.props', '$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)../'))" />

  <PropertyGroup>
    <PublishProfile>Local</PublishProfile>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <PropertyGroup>
    <DynamicProjectReferenceIncludes>$(DynamicProjectReferenceIncludes);..\..\Foundation\*\code\*.csproj</DynamicProjectReferenceIncludes>
    <DynamicProjectReferenceIncludes>$(DynamicProjectReferenceIncludes);..\..\Feature\*\code\*.csproj</DynamicProjectReferenceIncludes>
    <DynamicProjectReferenceIncludes>$(DynamicProjectReferenceIncludes);..\..\Project\*\code\*.csproj</DynamicProjectReferenceIncludes>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <ProjectReference Include="$(DynamicProjectReferenceIncludes)" Exclude="$(DynamicProjectReferenceExcludes)" />
    <!-- Properties prevent VS from expanding the matches when new projects are added -->
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

Some additional notes:

1. DisableFastUpToDateCheck (auto-publish) needs to be in the csproj, it can't be in the Directory.Build.props / wpp.targets
2. We keep the remaining auto-publish stuff in wpp.targets

[richardszalay]

Thanks to @jeneaux for finding a repeatable method of reproducing this problem: renaming a project.

Because of that, I can now confirm that the only thing required to prevent the expansion is having the project references in a separate file.

Even though it can be any file I'm going to add support for optionally importing a file named Helix.props and use it as the official recommendation in the README.

[richardszalay]

Actually this will require some more thought: when using PackageReference the import to the library's targets is added at build time. It's possible that VS will also process it at design time, but it will need some testing.

Failing that we can stick with the Directory.Build.props recommendation.