I need to create three files several times in a project, with references to each other by a name convention. VS Item Templates seemed like an easy way to escape the hunt-and-peck copy-pasta-rename headache.
According to the docs it's possible to create a multi-file item template. The built-in VS2022 exporter only allows the selection of one file.
So I exported a single file, tried loading that up in VS2022, and it worked.
I then went on a search, found the aforementioned doc, added my other files, reloaded the template, and now it does not appear in the Add -> New Item menu.
<VSTemplate Version="3.0.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/vstemplate/2005" Type="Item">
<TemplateData>
<DefaultName>EfVueMantleMSC.cs</DefaultName>
<Name>EfVueMantleMSC</Name>
<Description>Create Model, Service, and Controller classes for EfVueMantle in one shot</Description>
<ProjectType>CSharp</ProjectType>
<SortOrder>10</SortOrder>
<Icon>__TemplateIcon.ico</Icon>
</TemplateData>
<TemplateContent>
<References />
<ProjectItem SubType="" TargetFileName="$fileinputname$Controller.cs" ReplaceParameters="true">ControllerTemplate.cs</ProjectItem>
<ProjectItem SubType="" TargetFileName="$fileinputname$Model.cs" ReplaceParameters="true">ModelTemplate.cs</ProjectItem>
<ProjectItem SubType="" TargetFileName="$fileinputname$Service.cs" ReplaceParameters="true">ServiceTemplate.cs</ProjectItem>
</TemplateContent>
</VSTemplate>
The .zip folder has all three class files, names matching the above. It's in the right place, I can load/unload single-file templates exported from VS2022 without issue. I've dug through a bunch of Q&A about earlier VS versions with this issue, but everything seems in order.
Is there something obviously wrong? Is there a straightforward way to debug when a template doesn't load, like some sort of log?
Are the MS Docs just lying again?