NuGet has been slowly becoming one of my favorite development tools. There are a number of third party projects that I use pretty regularly. Rhino Mocks, jQuery, SpecFlow, and Enterprise Library, to name a few. In the past, I’ve kept a repository of these DLLs. When I start a new project that needs one of them, I copy the DLL into the new project directory and add a reference.
NuGet takes care of all that for me. It’s an online repository of packages, and I can add references to the packages using the NuGet Package Manager. It’s awesome because now I don’t have to remember where I saved the newest DLLs. I just install the package I need and move on. It’s great!
If you’re new to NuGet, you should definitely try it out. It’s easy and convenient, perfect for big projects and one-shot throwaways, alike. Want to learn more? Read the overview. But really, you should just try it out. I heard about it long ago, but I didn’t really get it until I started using it.
Here’s my ultra-quick-start guide:
- Install the Visual Studio Extension
- Right-click your project’s References > Manage NuGet Packages
- Search for and install packages
That’s it! The package will be installed, relevant files will be created in a packages sub-directory in the solution directory, and references and files will be copied into the project. Try it out; I guarantee you’ll love it!
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