Requirement of an empty directory for unpacking .msapp file

[StevenRasmussen]

It appears that there is a requirement when unpacking an .msapp file that the destination folder must be empty of all files, or contain a 'CanvasManifest.json' file (see here). Is there any way to not make this a requirement? I would like to extract the contents of the app at the root folder of an existing Visual Studio project which will always contain at the very least the '.csproj' file. In order to work around this limitation I would need to extract the contents into a sub-folder which would make the project structure not as convenient.

Another suggestion might be to make an exception if the only file in the folder is a project file?

[StevenRasmussen]

Any thoughts on this?

[StevenRasmussen]

Bueller... Bueller... Is this project still being maintained?

[jt000]

Thank you @StevenRasmussen for the suggestion & the PR. We're not accepting enchancements at this time to focus on stabilizing the pack\unpack component. I've labeled it as an "enhancement" so we can come back to this after we've stabilized to discuss the impact of your change & potentially pull it in at that time.

[StevenRasmussen]

@jt000 - Checking in on this a year and half later. Any updates?

[marcelbf]

@StevenRasmussen Thanks for following up. Project is active, we are working on a new approach for the YAML serialization of canvas app.

We are not addressing your specific scenario, but do you have more details on your use case? How are you using the msapp with the csproj or with the Dataverse solution?

Does pac solution unpack --processCanvasApps address your scenario?