Hide files in .csproj without excluding them from build

Question

Is it possible to hide files/folders in .net core csproj without excluding them from build? I have a folder containing generated files which I would rather see they are not visible inside Solution Explorer in Visual Studio.

Gildus

Answer 1

You can set the Visible="false" attribute on the items.

For an SDK-based project (.net core / asp.net core templates), you could add e.g.:

<ItemGroup>
  <Content Update="**/*.css" Visible="false" />
</ItemGroup>

Depending on your project type (=> defaults), you might have to replace Content with None for the particular type, or even Compile for generated code files.

Insignificant

Is it possible to hide folder too? This hides all files in folder Generated, but the empty folder is still visible... <Compile Update="Generated\**" Visible="false" /> – Gildus

To my knowledge, this is not possible. Many new tools try to autogenerate into obj ($(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)) and include the items during the build and not as static ("root level") items using the Link metadata... But yes I also have stray dist / css folders etc. – Insignificant

I find that setting Visible to false means that VS will not trigger a build if one of these files changes. developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/140935/… – Bk

Is this supposed to work with .Net Core projects? I added the Visible tag and the file still shows in solution explorer. – Archpriest

For NetCore and NetStandard It would not work for me unless I used None. <None Remove="**/*.asmdef" Visible="false"/> – Politic

@CodieMorgan there is a difference between hiding files and removing them from the project. <None Remove=".. excludes files from the project (for which you don't need a Visible attribute). – Insignificant

By me it isn't available as attribute only as an element <Visible>False</visible> – Hunnish

Answer 2

Thanks to Martin answer, I found a way to apply it to a whole folder using **\**. For example for an ASP.NET Core wwwroot\Scripts folder which contains files compiled by TypeScript (TypeScriptCompile):

    <ItemGroup>
        <TypeScriptCompile Update="wwwroot\Scripts\**\**" Visible="False" />
        <Content Update="wwwroot\Scripts\**\**" Visible="False" />
    </ItemGroup>

As his answer noted, you can add more type in there like None.

Main