Can't build UWP in release mode

Question

I have a project that is working well in debug mode, but not working at all in release mode.

The solution contains 3 projects

• Shared project

• windows phone 8.1 project

• UWP project

here is the error output

 2>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\.NetNative\x86\ilc\IlcInternals.targets(887,5): error : System.InvalidOperationException: Unable to generate a temporary class (result=1).
2>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\.NetNative\x86\ilc\IlcInternals.targets(887,5): error : error CS0012: The type 'Windows.UI.Xaml.Visibility' is defined in an assembly that is not referenced. You must add a reference to assembly 'Windows.Foundation.UniversalApiContract, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null, ContentType=WindowsRuntime'.
2>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\.NetNative\x86\ilc\IlcInternals.targets(887,5): error : error CS0030: Cannot convert type 'Windows.UI.Xaml.Visibility' to 'Windows.UI.Xaml.Visibility [e:\MyApp\obj\x86\Release\ilc\in\WinMetadata\Windows.winmd]'
2>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\.NetNative\x86\ilc\IlcInternals.targets(887,5): error : error CS0029: Cannot implicitly convert type 'Windows.UI.Xaml.Visibility [e:\MyApp\obj\x86\Release\ilc\in\WinMetadata\Windows.winmd]' to 'Windows.UI.Xaml.Visibility'
2>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\.NetNative\x86\ilc\IlcInternals.targets(887,5): error : 
2>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\.NetNative\x86\ilc\IlcInternals.targets(887,5): error :    at System.Xml.Serialization.Compiler.Compile(String ns, XmlSerializerCompilerParameters xmlParameters, Evidence evidence, String outputDir, String intermediateDir, Boolean loadAssembly)
2>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\.NetNative\x86\ilc\IlcInternals.targets(887,5): error :    at System.Xml.Serialization.TempAssembly.GenerateAssembly(XmlMapping[] xmlMappings, Type[] types, String defaultNamespace, Evidence evidence, XmlSerializerCompilerParameters parameters, Hashtable assemblies, String outputDir, String intermediateDir, Boolean loadAssembly)
2>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\.NetNative\x86\ilc\IlcInternals.targets(887,5): error :    at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.GenerateSerializer(Type[] types, XmlMapping[] mappings, CompilerParameters parameters, String outputDir, String intermediateDir, Boolean loadAssembly)
2>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\.NetNative\x86\ilc\IlcInternals.targets(887,5): error :    at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.GenerateSerializer(Type[] types, String outputDir, String intermediateDir, List`1 wcfSerializers, Boolean loadAssembly)
2>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\.NetNative\x86\ilc\IlcInternals.targets(887,5): error :    at SerializationAssemblyGenerator.Program.Main(String[] args)
2>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\.NetNative\x86\ilc\IlcInternals.targets(887,5): error : Internal compiler error: One or more errors occurred.

The nuget packages I'm using are

    "GoogleAnalyticsSDK": "1.2.12",
    "HockeySDK.UWP": "4.0.0",
    "HtmlAgilityPack": "1.4.9",
    "Microsoft.ApplicationInsights": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.PersistenceChannel": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.WindowsApps": "1.0.0",
    "Microsoft.NETCore.UniversalWindowsPlatform": "5.1.0",
    "MvvmLightLibs": "5.1.1",
    "Newtonsoft.Json": "8.0.3",
    "WriteableBitmapEx": "1.5.0"

Update

I tried to add the Windows.Foundation.UniversalApiContract manually, but got this

Update 2

After I have unchecked the Compile with .Net Native tool chain feature, it worked.

Any way to build it using the .net native tool chain ?

Answer 1

I also hit a very similar issue. I had a type, let's say Foo, referencing a winmd type Windows.UI.Xaml.Visibility, see below.

    public class Foo
    {
        public Windows.UI.Xaml.Visibility Visibility;
    }

I got the exact same error at compile time when I tried to serialize an instance of type Foo using XmlSerializer. It seems that .Net Native tools have problem with generating XmlSerializer for types like Foo.

Here's my workaround. I created my own Visibility type, MyVisibility, and changed the existing Visibility field to a get only property (so that XmlSerializer would not serialize the property).

    public class Foo
    {
        public Windows.UI.Xaml.Visibility Visibility
        {
            get
            {
                return (Visibility)myVisibility;
            }
        }

        public MyVisibility myVisibility;
    }

    public enum MyVisibility
    {
        Visible = 0,
        Collapsed = 1
    }

Here's my test code for serializing a Foo instance,

    public static void Test()
    {
        var foo = new Foo();
        foo.myVisibility = MyVisibility.Collapsed;            
        var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Foo));
        using (var stream = new MemoryStream())
        {
            serializer.Serialize(stream, foo);
            stream.Position = 0;
            var foo1 = (Foo)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
            Assert.True(foo.Visibility == foo1.Visibility);
        }
    }

Hope this helps.