Build, Package and Push .NET packages

Add steps to build and package a .NET application and then push the package to Azure Artifacts using Harness CI pipelines.

Overview

This article will guide you through the following steps:

1. Building and packaging .NET applications.

2. Pushing packages to Azure Artifacts.

3. Downloading and using packages from Azure Artifacts.

Prerequisites

• Obtain Azure DevOps personal access token (PAT) with repo permissions: To configure, you need access to an Azure DevOps account with the necessary permissions to push packages to Azure Artifacts. For steps, refer to the documentation on creating an Azure DevOps PAT.

• Store the Azure DevOps PAT as a Harness Secret Create a Harness secret to store the obtained Azure DevOps PAT. In the example below, a secret with the identifier Azure_DevOps_PAT is used. If you have already created a secret, update the NUGET_PAT="<+secrets.getValue('Azure_DevOps_PAT')>" line in the pipeline with the secret identifier.

Add the Build, Package, and Push steps to your pipeline

In your pipeline's Build stage, add these Run steps to build, package, and push packages. Here is a YAML example:

The Run steps in this pipeline uses mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:8.0 image, ensuring build environment has the .NET SDK 8.0 binaries. You can specify the required .NET SDK version available in docker-dotnet.

identifier: BuildPackagePush_NET_Packages
name: Build Package and Push .NET Packages
pipeline:
  tags: {}
  stages:
    - stage:
        name: Build and Push .NET Package
        identifier: Pull_and_Push
        description: ""
        type: CI
        spec:
          cloneCodebase: false
          platform:
            os: Linux
            arch: Amd64
          runtime:
            type: Cloud
            spec: {}
          execution:
            steps:
              - step:
                  type: Run
                  name: Build and Package DOTNET
                  identifier: Build_and_Package_DOTNET
                  spec:
                    connectorRef: YOUR_IMAGE_REGISTRY_CONNECTOR
                    image: mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:8.0
                    shell: Sh
                    command: |-
                      dotnet new console --framework net8.0 --use-program-main

                      dotnet build --configuration Release

                      dotnet pack -c Release --version-suffix <+pipeline.sequenceId>
              - step:
                  type: Run
                  name: Push DOTNET Package
                  identifier: Run_1
                  spec:
                    connectorRef: YOUR_IMAGE_REGISTRY_CONNECTOR
                    image: mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:8.0
                    shell: Sh
                    command: |-
                      # Add Azure Artifacts Feed Nuget Source
                      NUGET_PAT="<+secrets.getValue("Azure_DevOps_PAT")>"
                      NUGET_SOURCE="https://pkgs.dev.azure.com/AZURE_ORGANIZATION/_packaging/AZURE_ARTIFACTS_FEED/nuget/v3/index.json"

                      dotnet nuget add source $NUGET_SOURCE -n azuresource -u user -p $NUGET_PAT --store-password-in-clear-text

                      # Push the .NET package
                      dotnet nuget push ./bin/Release/PACKAGE_NAME.1.0.0-<+pipeline.sequenceId>.nupkg --source azuresource --api-key AzureDevOps
              - step:
                  type: Run
                  name: Download DOTNET Package
                  identifier: Run_3
                  spec:
                    connectorRef: YOUR_IMAGE_REGISTRY_CONNECTOR
                    image: mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:8.0
                    shell: Sh
                    command: |-
                      mkdir newproject && cd newproject
                      dotnet new console
                      # Download the .NET package
                      dotnet add package Harness -v 1.0.0-<+pipeline.sequenceId>
          caching:
            enabled: false
            paths: []

This is a sample pipeline, and the dotnet new console command is used here to create a .csproj file. In a production scenario, you may already have the .csproj file present, so this step may not be necessary.

When you run the pipeline, you can observe the step logs on the build details page.

If the steps succeed, you can find the package in your Azure Artifacts feed.