Software Potential NuGet Packages
Whenever you create or update a Permutation or Product definition in your Software Potential service account a set of NuGet packages is generated in the Software Potential NuGet feed. You can use the NuGet Package Manager in Visual Studio to install the packages required to protect and/or license your .NET application.
See the following Getting Started guides for more details on how to protect and license your application using Software Potential:
- Getting Started - Code Protection with Software Potential
- Getting Started - Licensing with Software Potential
The purpose of this document is to guide you through the steps in setting up your Software Potential NuGet package source in NuGet Package Managed in Visual Studio so that you can access the required packages to protect and license your .NET application.
It is not intended as a walk-through on the use of NuGet Package Manager; the following articles provide more details on its use: http://docs.nuget.org/docs/start-here/managing-nuget-packages-using-the-dialog.
If you are building your application in an environment where Visual Studio Package Manager is not available (e.g. using Visual Studio Online, Visual Studio Code, or developing a .Net Core application using a text editor and the dotnet CLI) then please see this article NuGet Package Management Without the Visual Studio Package Manager .
Installing NuGet Package Manager in Visual Studio
NuGet Package Manager ships with Visual Studio 2012 forward. For installation on other versions of Visual Studio please see http://docs.nuget.org/docs/start-here/installing-nuget.
Adding Software Potential NuGet Source
You can download your Software Potential packages from the following NuGet feed: https://srv.softwarepotential.com/NuGet/nuget
(Please note this URL is case sensitive!).
To add this feed to the NuGet Package Manger in Visual Studio:
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Launch NuGet Package Manager (by right clicking the Solution in Solution Explorer in Visual Studio and selecting the Manage NuGet Packages menu option).
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In the Package Manager UI, select Setting → Package Manager → Package Sources and click the + button to add a new feed.
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Set the URL to
https://srv.softwarepotential.com/NuGet/nuget
, name the feed as Software Potential, and then click OK.
The new Software Potential feed should now be listed as one of the Online feeds displayed on the main Package Manager screen.
PackageReference Support
The PackageReference package management format is supported for .NET Core and .NET Standard projects. For all other projects only the packages.config format is supported. From Visual Studio 2019 you can change your default package management format to Package.config by Tools -> NuGet Package Manager -> NuGet Package Manager Settings -> General and select the Package.config option in the Default Package Management Format drop-down list.
Accessing Your NuGet Packages
To access your packages you will need to authenticate to the Software Potential feed using your Software Potential account credentials (username/password).
Authenticating to NuGet Feed
When you first attempt to access the feed Package Manager will typically prompt for the required user credentials.
These credentials are cached by Visual Studio and so need only be entered once per Visual Studio session.
If you don't wish to enter your credentials on each new VS session there are options to store your credentials in an appropriate NuGet config file [see https://docs.nuget.org/consume/nuget-config-file#credentials-for-package-source].
When configuring Package Restore in a build rig (where Visual Studio is not installed) you will need to store the credentials in a NuGet config file such that they will be retrieved automatically when authenticating to the Software Potential feed.
To do this please run the following command in PowerShell with your Software Potential UserName and Password:
.\Nuget.exe Sources [Add|Update] -Name SoftwarePotential -Source https://srv.softwarepotential.com/NuGet/nuget -UserName YOURNAME@EMAIL.COM -Password YOURPASSWORD
If you are adding credentials to the SoftwarePotential source already configured in the Nuget.config file please use the “Update” option rather than "Add" (as duplicate entries for a source are not permitted).
Once authenticated to the Software Potential source you can access your NuGet packages for installation in your projects.
The NuGet feed can serve multiple versions of a given NuGet Permutation package and multiple revisions of each version.
Permutation Package Identification
Each Software Potential NuGet package will be identified by a combination of a * Package Id and a * Package Version. The composition of the Package Id and Package Version depends on the nature of the NuGet package i.e. on whether it is related to a Permutation or Product definition.
For example, - the SoftwarePotential.Protection-<e30c25>, Version 3.2.1945.4
package contains the protection components that correspond to version 3.2.1945 of the Permutation with Short Code e30c25. (This version resulted from the 4th update to the permutation.) - the SoftarePotential.Licensing-MedicalImage_2013, Version 1.0.0.0
package contains Version 1.0 of the product specification of the 2013 Version of the Medical Image product. (This version indicates this is the initial revision of the product specification.)
In all cases the NuGet package with the highest Version is the most up-to-date i.e, generated by the latest update to either the Permutation or Product definition in your Software Potential service account.
View Available Packages
Launch Package Manager from your Visual Studio project and select the Software Potential source to view a list of packages available in your feed.
On the first attempt you will be asked to authenticate to the feed using your Software Potential user credentials. Visual Studio caches these credentials for use in subsequent access attempts.
Packages available for installation will display an Install button. Packages already installed in your project will have a green tick mark.
You can view the details of a selected package in the right hand panel.
Install a Package
Select the package you wish to install and click the Install button. By default NuGet Package Manager will attempt to install all packages on which the selected package has a dependency.
View Installed Packages
In NuGet Package Manager select Installed Packages to view all packages that you have installed from the feed.
Uninstall a Package
In NuGet Package Manager select Installed Packages, then select the package to be uninstalled and click Uninstall.
If the selected package is dependent on one or more packages then you should, when prompted by NuGet Package Manager, also uninstall these packages.
View Package Updates
Each time you update a Permutation or a Product definition a new version of the corresponding NuGet packages will be created in the NuGet feed. In NuGet Package Manager select Updates to view those packages with updates available for download. Click Update to install the updated package.
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