Unpackaged C++ app using xaml islands - xbf files are not embeded in pri file

[PetrMinar]

Is there a reason why xbf files are not embeded in pri file? Can I override this behavior? I am using WindowsAppSDK 1.6.
Thank you for response.

[whiskhub]

I have a similar issue, but with C# and packaged: #10308

The XBF files are actually embedded in the PRI file, but the XBF files are still there without any use.

[PetrMinar]

In our project the PRI file only contains links to standalone XBF files in the same directory (and subdirectories for other namespaces). Removing XBF files makes the application non functional.

[whiskhub]

I see, then it's different.

Are you using the "Publish" functionality in Visual Studio to ensure the code is properly optimized?
Some people also had success with setting <DisableEmbeddedXbf>false</DisableEmbeddedXbf> in the project file. Maybe you can try as well.

[PetrMinar]

Unpackaged C++ apps (desktop bridge apps) do not have publish command / step.

[DarranRowe]

Which project template did you use? What configuration did you use (Debug or Release)?

The reason why I ask this is because it is expected that the .pri file will not contain embedded data in the Debug configuration, but it will with the Release configuration.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<PriInfo>
	<ResourceMap name="App3" version="1.0" primary="true">
		<Qualifiers/>
		<ResourceMapSubtree name="Files">
			<NamedResource name="App.xbf" uri="ms-resource://App3/Files/App.xbf">
				<Candidate type="EmbeddedData">
					<Base64Value>[Embedded Binary Data]</Base64Value>
				</Candidate>
			</NamedResource>
			<NamedResource name="MainWindow.xbf" uri="ms-resource://App3/Files/MainWindow.xbf">
				<Candidate type="EmbeddedData">
					<Base64Value>[Embedded Binary Data]</Base64Value>
				</Candidate>
			</NamedResource>
		</ResourceMapSubtree>
	</ResourceMap>
</PriInfo>

Yes, this is with an unpackaged C++ application.

[PetrMinar]

The resulting PRI file is the same in both debug and release configuration.

It is just regular desktop application using MFC, that we try to modernize using XAML island. All the XAML stuff resides in separate dll where we have the problem with PRI file. The dll vcxproj template was "Windows Runtime Component (Win UI)" and it was necessary to modify it manually according to C++ XAML islands samples from Microsoft (some already pretty outdated). The main app vcxproj had to be modified too so WidowsAppSDK bootstrapping works properly.

I'll attach more details once I am by my PC.

[PetrMinar]

It seems I was wrong. The PRI file in release build indeed does have XBF files embeded! Sorry to mislead you... But the application is still not working correcly, when I delete the XBF files - for xaml page is not created / displayed at runtime. That is at least something I can look into more...

PS: Just for reference I leave here, how I have modified the projects.
The MFC app project was manually modified in this way:

<!-- Island-support -->
<WindowsAppSDKSelfContained>true</WindowsAppSDKSelfContained>

<!-- Island-support: We want the app to be unpackaged -->
<WindowsPackageType>None</WindowsPackageType>

The dll project was manually modified in this way:

<!-- Island-support: Needed to generate App.xaml.g.h (e.g. pulls in Microsoft.Cpp.AppContainerApplication.props) -->
<ApplicationType>Windows Store</ApplicationType>

<!-- Island-support: Min version must be at least 17764. (Needed to set RedirectionTarget to 8.21, so we get the correct version of Microsoft.Windows.UI.Xaml.Cpp.targets) -->
<WindowsTargetPlatformMinVersion>10.0.18362.0</WindowsTargetPlatformMinVersion>
<WindowsTargetPlatformVersion>10.0.22621.0</WindowsTargetPlatformVersion>

<!-- Island-support -->
<WindowsAppSDKSelfContained>true</WindowsAppSDKSelfContained>

<!-- Island-support: We want the app to be unpackaged -->
<WindowsPackageType>None</WindowsPackageType>

<!-- Island-support: PlatformToolset & VCToolsVersion are not accessible from UI in this type of project... -->
<PlatformToolset>v143</PlatformToolset>

[PetrMinar]

@DarranRowe Thank you one more time. I will close this issue, because I was clearly wrong and the build process works correctly. The problems lies in runtime when unpackaged c++ app tries to use resources embeded in pri file (I have created new issue for this problem).