Aspnetcore.docs: ResolveCurrentProjectStaticWebAssetsInputsDependsOn -> MSB4057: The target "TypeScriptCompile" does not exist in the project.

[springy76]

According to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/razor-pages/ui-class?view=aspnetcore-3.0&tabs=visual-studio#create-an-rcl-with-static-assets I added <ResolveCurrentProjectStaticWebAssetsInputsDependsOn>TypeScriptCompile;$(ResolveCurrentProjectStaticWebAssetsInputs)</ResolveCurrentProjectStaticWebAssetsInputsDependsOn> but only get:

C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\3.0.100\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Razor\build\netstandard2.0\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Razor.StaticWebAssets.targets(266,61): error MSB4057: The target "TypeScriptCompile" does not exist in the project.

This single xy.ts file perfectly compiles to wwwroot\xy.js but only gets included after second build -- which CI of course does not.

What is missing? Entire csproj file below:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Razor">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>netstandard2.0</TargetFramework>
    <RazorLangVersion>3.0</RazorLangVersion>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TypeScriptTarget>es2017</TypeScriptTarget>
    <!--<TypeScriptStrict>true</TypeScriptStrict>-->
    <TypeScriptAlwaysStrict>true</TypeScriptAlwaysStrict>
    <TypeScriptPreserveConstEnums>true</TypeScriptPreserveConstEnums>
    <TypeScriptNoEmitOnError>true</TypeScriptNoEmitOnError>
    <TypeScriptRemoveComments>true</TypeScriptRemoveComments>
    <TypeScriptOutDir>wwwroot</TypeScriptOutDir>

    <!-- see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/razor-pages/ui-class?view=aspnetcore-3.0&tabs=visual-studio#create-an-rcl-with-static-assets -->
    <ResolveCurrentProjectStaticWebAssetsInputsDependsOn>TypeScriptCompile;$(ResolveCurrentProjectStaticWebAssetsInputs)</ResolveCurrentProjectStaticWebAssetsInputsDependsOn>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Web" Version="3.0.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.TypeScript.MSBuild" Version="3.6.3">
      <PrivateAssets>all</PrivateAssets>
      <IncludeAssets>runtime; build; native; contentfiles; analyzers; buildtransitive</IncludeAssets>
    </PackageReference>
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

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Document Details

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• ID: 9fd019c7-ceb7-6ef3-26ba-6b44341b6fc5
• Version Independent ID: fd116d00-0dc7-efaf-c714-34d77b345a05
• Content: Reusable Razor UI in class libraries with ASP.NET Core
• Content Source: aspnetcore/razor-pages/ui-class.md
• Product: aspnet-core
• Technology: aspnetcore-razorpages
• GitHub Login: @Rick-Anderson
• Microsoft Alias: riande

[guardrex]

From @javiercn ...

@springy76 You need to have the typescript compiler package installed.

[springy76]

@javiercn What is "typescript compiler package" and what is PackageReference Include="Microsoft.TypeScript.MSBuild" Version="3.6.3" then?

The ts>js compilation is working fine, but the static files are missing (404 in browser) after a clean build (as CI systems do) -- only after second build everything is fine.

[javiercn]

@springy76 That should be the one.

[springy76]

There exists a target named "CompileTypeScript" (found by the use of dotnet msbuild -pp) but if I use this inside ResolveCurrentProjectStaticWebAssetsInputsDependsOn then the .js file still is missing in consuming BlazorServer project after first build and after second build everything is fine.

[springy76]

The output of dotnet msbuild -pp (and searching aspnetcore github repos) clearly shows that TypeScriptCompile are items within an <ItemGroup> and CompileTypeScript is a msbuild target.

So the code on docs is wrong and should be like this:

<ResolveCurrentProjectStaticWebAssetsInputsDependsOn>
  CompileTypeScript;
  $(ResolveCurrentProjectStaticWebAssetsInputs)
</ResolveCurrentProjectStaticWebAssetsInputsDependsOn>

But for (Ctrl+)F5 inside VS (2019) this seems not to be working correctly, even in combination with webHostBuilder.UseStaticWebAssets(); -- maybe it works when executing "publish".

[3x0dv5]

CompileTypeScript instead of TypeScriptCompile got rid of the nasty target not found, thank you @springy76 for that!
In regards to the assets I see that when building in Debug a file {yourWebProjectName}.StaticWebAssets.xml is put next to the DLL files.
In this file I see that it seems to be using some sort of symlinks to the files,

<StaticWebAssets Version="1.0">
  <ContentRoot BasePath="/Identity" Path="C:\Users\usr\.nuget\packages\microsoft.aspnetcore.identity.ui\3.0.0\staticwebassets\V4" />
  <ContentRoot BasePath="_content/Web.RCL" Path="D:\projects\temp\Web.RCL\wwwroot\" />
</StaticWebAssets>

but in any case the <script src="_content/Web.RCL/app.js"></script> seems to work fine.

[javiercn]

@Rick-Anderson Can we update the docs to use CompileTypeScript intead of TypeScriptCompile? This might have been an overlook on my part.

[springy76]

@javiercn The VS experience with the correct setting is still very meh: Publishing works fine but the developer-every-day-use is a PITA. If you have luck then after a Rebuild you only have to do a normal Build afterwards to get the missing pieces from wwwroot get compiled into the assemblies. But sometimes after a Rebuild the wwwroot folder is still missing and so the Build afterwards just does nothing, leaving the final app broken because essential .js/.css files are just missing.
Is this something I should report elsewhere?

[javiercn]

@springy76 I would file an issue in the asp.net core repo with a link to a github repo containing a minimal repro project and detailed steps that describe the issue you are facing. That'll help us understand the scenario and evaluate what we can do about it.