DalamudPackager

This is an MSBuild task that is designed to simplify creating plugins for Dalamud.

Install the NuGet package DalamudPackager. When you build in release mode, a folder will be placed in your output directory containing your plugin manifest and latest.zip.

Table of contents

• Configuration
• Manifest generation
• YAML manifests
• ~.zip~ file generation
• Task attributes

Configuration

If you need to additionally configure the task, create a file called DalamudPackager.targets in your project and use the template below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project>
    <Target Name="PackagePlugin" AfterTargets="Build" Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Release'">
        <DalamudPackager
                ProjectDir="$(ProjectDir)"
                OutputPath="$(OutputPath)"
                AssemblyName="$(AssemblyName)"
                MakeZip="true"/>
    </Target>
</Project>

Manifest generation

DalamudPackager reduces the amount of keys you need to include in your manifest, filling in the rest from sane defaults or your assembly. You can, of course, specify everything manually.

{
    "Name": "Test Plugin",
    "Author": "You",
    "Description": "This is a test plugin",
    "RepoUrl": "https://example.com/"
}

Notice how keys like AssemblyVersion and DalamudApiLevel are missing. You can include these if you’d like, but DalamudPackager will automatically do it for you when you build your project. If you build a project with this manifest in Release mode, you will find the following JSON file in your output directory.

{
  "Author": "You",
  "Name": "Test Plugin",
  // this will be set to your AssemblyName automatically
  "InternalName": "TestPlugin",
  // this will be set to your assembly's version automatically
  "AssemblyVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "Description": "This is a test plugin - this first line is a summary.\n\nDown here is a more detailed explanation of what the plugin\ndoes, manually wrapped to make sure it stays visible in the\ninstaller.",
  // this will be set to "any" automatically
  "ApplicableVersion": "any",
  "RepoUrl": "https://example.com/",
  // this will be set to 2 automatically
  "DalamudApiLevel": 2,
  // this will be set to 0 automatically
  "LoadPriority": 0
}

YAML manifests

In addition, DalamudPackager allows you to use YAML, a more human-friendly format, for your manifest instead of JSON. YAML uses snake_case for keys instead of PascalCase like JSON. All the features of DalamudPackager work with YAML manifests. Just end your manifest’s file name with .yaml instead of .json to make use of it.

name: Test Plugin
author: You
description: |-
  This is a test plugin - this first line is a summary.

  Down here is a more detailed explanation of what the plugin
  does, manually wrapped to make sure it stays visible in the
  installer.
repo_url: https://example.com/

.zip file generation

DalamudPackager will also create a folder with latest.zip for you if MakeZip is true. Check your output directory for a folder with the name of your assembly. Inside will be your manifest and latest.zip, ready for distribution or PRs.

Note that the entire contents of your output directory will be zipped by default. Either turn off copy local for Dalamud references, set up a task to clean your output directory, or use Exclude or Include if you want to change this.

Task attributes

Attribute	Description	Required	Default
ProjectDir	This is the path where your csproj is located. You must set this to $(ProjectDir).	Yes	None - set to $(ProjectDir)
OutputPath	This is the path that your assemblies are output to after build. You must set this to $(OutputPath).	Yes	None - set to $(OutputPath)
AssemblyName	This is the name of the assembly that Dalamud will be loading. You used to need to specify this in your manifest as InternalName.	Yes	None - set to $(AssemblyName)
ManifestType	You can choose between auto, json, and yaml for your manifest file. auto will use json first, then fall back on yaml.	No	auto
VersionComponents	How many components of the assembly’s version to include in the generated manifest. If you use semantic versioning, set this to 3.	No	4
MakeZip	If this is true, a folder will be created in your OutputPath that contains your generated manifest and latest.zip, reading for PRing.	No	false
Exclude	Files to exclude from the zip if MakeZip is true. Mutually exclusive with Include. Files should be separated by a semicolon (;) and be relative to OutputPath. Files do not need to exist.	No	None
Include	Files to include in the zip if MakeZip is true. Mutually exclusive with Exclude. Files should be separated by a semicolon (;) and be relative to OutputPath. Files must exist.	No	None