PackageReference for NuGet packages in C++ projects - visual-studio-2017

Question

I'm part of a project where we use packages.config files for NuGet packages in Visual Studioe and then include each package dependency through the Import statement in our project files.
This works fine if you always want the packages, but we have some conditional packages that we'd like to exclude if the developer doesn't need/want it. I found the PackageReference tag, that would make the dependency much cleaner and would let us include the packages conditionally.
It seems to be fully supported in C# projects, but I can't figure out if it's supported for C++ projects or not.
I have tried deleting all of our packages.config files and replacing all references with PackageReference tags, but the PackageReference tag doesn't seem to be picked up by the package manager. I've gone through all the "migration tools" that I could find for Visual Studio too, with no luck.
Is it possible to use it for C++ projects? If not, is there a workaround that lets me exclude certain packages conditionally?
I'm using Visual Studio Professional 15.6.7.

Answer 1

Is it possible to use it for C++ projects?
At this moment, PackageReference is not yet supported for C++ projects. NuGet team is evaluating it to support for future releases. You might had made it work through some hacks but if you create a new c++ project and tries to install this package as PackageReference, it won't allow you. So I recommend you to continue using packages.config for your c++ projects and libraries.
Besides, you can add your request or vote for this feature on the Visual Studio UserVoice site: Use PackageReference in vcxproj. When there are enough communities vote and add comments for this feedback, the product team member will take this feedback seriously.
If not, is there a workaround that lets me exclude certain packages conditionally?
You can include the conditional references in the custom targets file and deploy the dlls in the tools folder of the package so they are not added as references by Nuget automatically.
certified: NuGet update and conditional references
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

While not supported, it IS possible to use PackageReference with C++ projects.
If you check the comments at https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/use-packagereference-in-vcxproj/351636, there are a couple examples on how to enable this.
Note, the Visual Studio experience may degrade, but building with MSBuild (command line) has had no issues.
Note, we currently use PackageReference for VCXPROJ projects in ReactNativeWindows.
Being an unsupported feature, a couple hacks are required for Visual Studio compatibility, but all in all it works.
https://github.com/microsoft/react-native-windows

Answer 3

To summarize the other answers and provide some more recent information:
PackageReference is not officially supported in C++ projects, as it's not fully integrated with NuGet and Visual Studio, but:
MSBuild supports PackageReference, and Visual Studio 16.9 and later (this is 2019) have some integration implemented as well.
The full steps are described in a comment of the Make the PackageReference support general purpose for all languages PR, but basically:
above the project folder, create Directory.Build.props file with the following content:
<Project>
<Import Project="$(MSBuildProjectExtensionsPath)$(MSBuildProjectFile).*.props" />
</Project>
and Directory.Build.targets file with the following content:
<Project>
<Import Project="$(MSBuildProjectExtensionsPath)$(MSBuildProjectFile).*.targets" />
</Project>
in the project file add the following in the Project node:
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectCapability Include="PackageReferences" />
</ItemGroup>
and
<PropertyGroup>
<NuGetTargetMoniker Condition="'$(NuGetTargetMoniker)' == ''">native,Version=v0.0</NuGetTargetMoniker>
</PropertyGroup>
(or similar moniker)
Reload the project.
The above will make MSBuild and Package Manager work, with some caveats, e.g. you have to "Save All" after modifying packages through the UI, package references are not shown in the References node in the Solution Explorer, etc.
Note that Augustin Popa, which is PM for the Visual C++ team, gives an explanation why updating projects to the partially supported PackageReference may not be a good idea, because they have other plans for the future:
Our concern there is that if developers do the work to migrate to C++ PackageReference, they would later realize that we don't intend to provide ongoing support and want them to move to something else. I expect that would be a frustrating experience.
The "something else" he's talking about is probably a better integration with vcpkg, as discussed in his comment to the Use PackageReference in vcxproj feature request for Visual Studio:
From our side, we have to consider the needs of a very large user base with diverse requirements, which include support for CMake projects, installing packages for non-Windows platforms, and providing a better story for acquiring libraries that are actually compatible with the executable they attach to and with each other (achieved with vcpkg today). NuGet is not designed to handle these scenarios[...]
And still, even dev teams inside Microsoft are using the PackageReference approach, as seen in this comment for the same feature request:
We have made this work in React Native Windows via the following Pull Request.
As it’s been mentioned, MSBuild can handle this case for C++ (VCXPROJ) projects.
First-class support in the Visual Studio IDE would be highly beneficial for existing projects wanting to drop the traditional NuGet.exe/pakcages.config mechanism but can’t afford to rewrite the whole project to adjust to VCPKG.
At the very least, there is a drive space benefit to using PackageReference, so it’s not only about aesthetics.