GitHub | Deploy .net core NuGet Packages in GitHub Packages Registry

Note

You can check other posts on my personal website: https://hbolajraf.net

Note
You can check other posts on my personal website: https://hbolajraf.net

Introduction

GitHub packages registries is most popular now a days. It offers different packages registries for most used package managers, such as NuGet, npm, Docker etc. In this article, I will show you how to host a .net core NuGet Package in GitHub Packages Registry.

Tools and Technology uses

Visual Studio 2022
.NET 6
C#
GitHub

Implementation

Step 1: Create a personal access token (PAT) from GitHub

Login into you GitHub
Go to settings -> Developer Settings -> Personal Access Tokens
Click “Generate new token” button
Type Note for the token, expiration days
Select scope for the token – here I have selected repo, write:packages, delete:packages as shown below.
Now click “Generate Toke” at the bottom of the panel
Copy the token and store the token for further use because you cannot find it later

Step 2: Add Nuget Source in visual studio

Type the following command to add source



dotnet nuget add source https://nuget.pkg.github.com/hbolajraf/index.json --name github-hbolajraf --username hbolajraf --password <Your personal Access Token>

You will see a source is added in C:\Users\hbolajraf\AppData\Roaming\NuGet\NuGet.Config file
Optional: You can also add source from visual studio Tools -> Options -> NuGet Package Manager -> Package Sources
Restart visual studio to get new nuget package source

Step 3: Create a class library to publish in GitHub Packages

Create a class library name – ‘CryptoEngine”
Create a class CryptoGenerator as follows



    using System.Security.Cryptography;
    using System.Text;

    namespace CryptoEngine
    {
        public class CryptoGenerator
        {
            public static string GenerateSha256Hash(string plainText)
            {
                // Create a SHA256   
                using (SHA256 sha256Hash = SHA256.Create())
                {
                    // ComputeHash - returns byte array  
                    byte[] bytes = sha256Hash.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(plainText));

                    // Convert byte array to a string   
                    StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
                    for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; i++)
                    {
                        builder.Append(bytes[i].ToString("x2"));
                    }
                    return builder.ToString();
                }
            }
        }
    }

Click right button on class library project -> Package -> General
Mark “Produce a package file during build operations”
Type Package ID, Package Version, Authors, Company, Product, Description
Type repository URL – A github repository and save
Now you will see the csproj file as follows

CryptoEngine.csproj



    <Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">    
      <PropertyGroup>
        <TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework>
        <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
        <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
        <GeneratePackageOnBuild>True</GeneratePackageOnBuild>
        <PackageId>hbolajraf.CryptoEngine</PackageId>
        <Version>1.0.0</Version>
        <Authors>hbolajraf hasan</Authors>
        <Company>hbolajraf.NET</Company>
        <Product>CryptoEngine</Product>
        <Description>Chipper text generator</Description>
        <RepositoryUrl>https://github.com/hbolajraf/public-packages</RepositoryUrl>
      </PropertyGroup>    
    </Project>

Step 4: Create a NuGet Package

Click right button on project and select Pack
A NuGet package will be generated in bin/Debug folder – In this case the nuget package name is hbolajraf.CryptoEngine.1.0.0.nupkg
Or, Go to the directory where .csproj file exists and right the following command to generate nuget package



dotnet pack

Step 5: Push NuGet package to GitHub Package Registry

Go to the directory where package generated – bin/Debug in this case.
Type following command



dotnet nuget push .\hbolajraf.CryptoEngine.1.0.0.nupkg --api-key <your github access token> --source github-hbolajraf

Here github-hbolajraf is my nuget source name for visual studio. Already added in step 2.

Now login to your Github account and go to Packages tab, you will see a package is uploaded. In this case package name is hbolajraf.CryptoEngine

Step 6: Use already uploaded package in a project

If Nuget package source is not added, add it using step – 2
Go to package manager console
Select Package Source as “github-hbolajraf” and type following command



PM> Install-Package hbolajraf.CryptoEngine

Or right button on project -> Manage Nuget Packages
Select Package source “github-hbolajraf”
Browse and install package hbolajraf.CryptoEngine

Source code

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