[Component Licensing] SDK needs to make sure that licenses.licx ends up as "EmbeddedResource"

Visual Studio Version:

Summary: The Visual Studio support for Windows Forms licensing was implemented in https://github.com/dotnet/project-system/pull/5468, and works well if you opt out of the globs. VS will automatically add it to EmbeddedResource:

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

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>net472</TargetFramework>
    <EnableDefaultNoneItems>false</EnableDefaultNoneItems>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <Reference Include="C:\Program Files (x86)\DevExpress 19.1\Components\Bin\Framework\*.dll" />
    <Reference Include="System.Windows.Forms" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <EmbeddedResource Include="licenses.licx" />
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

However with globs turned on, we don’t add a specific item if a glob covers it. Based on that, the SDK needs to cover licenses.licx in EmbeddedResource item.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Install DevExpress controls: https://www.devexpress.com/subscriptions/new-2019-1.xml
2. Create a project with the following:

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

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>net472</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <Reference Include="C:\Program Files (x86)\DevExpress 19.1\Components\Bin\Framework\*.dll" />
    <Reference Include="System.Windows.Forms" />
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

1. Add a Form (Windows Forms) to the project
2. Open designer, choose Toolbox -> DX.19.1: Reporting and drag RibbonReportDesigner onto the form

Expected Behavior: Properties\licenses.licx gets created and ends up in EmbeddedResource item

Actual Behavior: Properties\licenses.licx gets created but ends up in None item type

User Impact: Licensed controls don’t work at runtime.

[weltkante]

@vatsan-madhavan LC.exe executes code so controls can generate the license data you are embedding (you are not embedding the literal licx file, its just instructions for LC.exe which controls need a license).

Desktop version of LC.exe won’t be able to execute .NET Core code, so yes, LC.exe needs to be ported if you don’t want to replace the whole licensing mechanism with something different.

Once its clear who will own LC.exe I have some follow-up issues to create for future improvements, historically LC.exe is very fragile and errors are hard to diagnose, but lets first get things actually working. Since WebForms are gone WinForms is probably the only one still using this kind of licensing, but I’m not entirely sure of that.

[OliaG]

My understanding is that we are not bringing LC.ee to .NET Core and instead @terrajobst will work on a newer way of licensing .NET Core apps.