Packaging Icon, License and Documentation within the nupkg

Status: Incubation

Issue

The work for this feature and the discussion around the spec is tracked by 3 issues

• Icon - Package Icon should be able to come from inside the package #352
• License - Package trust - Licenses #4628
• Documentation - Nuspec - documentation / readme url #6873

Problem

• Icons - loading images from external URLs have security and privacy concerns.
• License - it is possible to update the page contents at the referred license URL raising legal concerns for package consumers.
• Documentation - it is not possible to update the documentation on the package details page without going to NuGet.org. This information is not surfaced in Visual Studio.

Who is the customer?

• NuGet package consumers that consume packages using Visual Studio 2017 (and above) package manager UI from NuGet.org (v3 feed) and folder based feeds
• NuGet package authors that push to NuGet.org.

Key scenarios

• Display package icons, surface license and documentation information when:
  • Browsing packages in PMUI from NuGet.org (v3 feed) or folder based feeds
  • Viewing installed packages in VS PMUI
• nuget pack validations to limit usage of deprecated fields, ensure file paths are correct
• NuGet.org validations on package push

Solution

Packaging Icon within the nupkg

Packaging License within the nupkg

Packaging Documentation within the nupkg