.NET client fails to load on Windows Console App

[megamechanic]

Describe the bug
Client SDK 5.3.0 fails to load in net 8.0 Console App for Windows

To reproduce

• Create .Net 8 Console App
• Select Windows as target OS
• Place the code from hello-dotnet-client
• run App

Expected behavior
It should not fail

Logs
Exception thrown: 'System.IO.FileNotFoundException' in LaunchDarkly.ClientSdk.dll
An unhandled exception of type 'System.IO.FileNotFoundException' occurred in LaunchDarkly.ClientSdk.dll
Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Maui.Essentials, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'.

SDK version
LaunchDarkly.ClientSdk Version="5.3.0"

Language version, developer tools
.NET 8

OS/platform
Windows 10

Additional context

using LaunchDarkly.Sdk;
using LaunchDarkly.Sdk.Client;

namespace LaunchDarklyConsoleBug
{
    internal class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
			var client = LdClient.Init(
				Configuration.Default("key", ConfigurationBuilder.AutoEnvAttributes.Enabled),
				Context.New("key"),
				TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5)
			);

			Console.ReadKey();
		}
    }
}

[tanderson-ld]

Hi @megamechanic, thank you for reporting this. I'll try to investigate this in the next day or two.

[tanderson-ld]

Sorry for the delay. I was able to reproduce the issue just now and I am digging in more.

[tanderson-ld]

We have a possible workaround for you while we refactor some of our packaging logic. Could you try the following in your csproj file? This adds HintPaths to resolve the dependencies to the netstandard2.0 dlls in the distribution.

<ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="LaunchDarkly.ClientSdk" Version="5.3.0" GeneratePathProperty="true" ExcludeAssets="Compile;Runtime;Build"/>
    <PackageReference Include="LaunchDarkly.CommonSdk" Version="7.0.0" GeneratePathProperty="true" ExcludeAssets="Compile;Runtime;Build"/>
    <PackageReference Include="LaunchDarkly.InternalSdk" Version="3.4.0" GeneratePathProperty="true" ExcludeAssets="Compile;Runtime;Build"/>
    <PackageReference Include="LaunchDarkly.Logging" Version="2.0.0" GeneratePathProperty="true" ExcludeAssets="Compile;Runtime;Build"/>
    <PackageReference Include="LaunchDarkly.EventSource" Version="5.0.1" GeneratePathProperty="true" ExcludeAssets="Compile;Runtime;Build"/>
    <Reference Include ="LaunchDarkly.ClientSdk">
          <HintPath>$(PkgLaunchDarkly_ClientSdk)\lib\netstandard2.0\LaunchDarkly.ClientSdk.dll</HintPath>
      </Reference>
      <Reference Include ="LaunchDarkly.CommonSdk">
        <HintPath>$(PkgLaunchDarkly_CommonSdk)\lib\netstandard2.0\LaunchDarkly.CommonSdk.dll</HintPath>
      </Reference>
      <Reference Include ="LaunchDarkly.InternalSdk">
          <HintPath>$(PkgLaunchDarkly_InternalSdk)\lib\netstandard2.0\LaunchDarkly.InternalSdk.dll</HintPath>
      </Reference>
      <Reference Include ="LaunchDarkly.Logging">
          <HintPath>$(PkgLaunchDarkly_Logging)\lib\netstandard2.0\LaunchDarkly.Logging.dll</HintPath>
      </Reference>
      <Reference Include ="LaunchDarkly.EventSource">
          <HintPath>$(PkgLaunchDarkly_EventSource)\lib\netstandard2.0\LaunchDarkly.EventSource.dll</HintPath>
      </Reference>
  </ItemGroup>

[megamechanic]

We have a possible workaround for you while we refactor some of our packaging logic. Could you try the following in your csproj file? This adds HintPaths to resolve the dependencies to the netstandard2.0 dlls in the distribution.

<ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="LaunchDarkly.ClientSdk" Version="5.3.0" GeneratePathProperty="true" ExcludeAssets="Compile;Runtime;Build"/>
    <PackageReference Include="LaunchDarkly.CommonSdk" Version="7.0.0" GeneratePathProperty="true" ExcludeAssets="Compile;Runtime;Build"/>
    <PackageReference Include="LaunchDarkly.InternalSdk" Version="3.4.0" GeneratePathProperty="true" ExcludeAssets="Compile;Runtime;Build"/>
    <PackageReference Include="LaunchDarkly.Logging" Version="2.0.0" GeneratePathProperty="true" ExcludeAssets="Compile;Runtime;Build"/>
    <PackageReference Include="LaunchDarkly.EventSource" Version="5.0.1" GeneratePathProperty="true" ExcludeAssets="Compile;Runtime;Build"/>
    <Reference Include ="LaunchDarkly.ClientSdk">
          <HintPath>$(PkgLaunchDarkly_ClientSdk)\lib\netstandard2.0\LaunchDarkly.ClientSdk.dll</HintPath>
      </Reference>
      <Reference Include ="LaunchDarkly.CommonSdk">
        <HintPath>$(PkgLaunchDarkly_CommonSdk)\lib\netstandard2.0\LaunchDarkly.CommonSdk.dll</HintPath>
      </Reference>
      <Reference Include ="LaunchDarkly.InternalSdk">
          <HintPath>$(PkgLaunchDarkly_InternalSdk)\lib\netstandard2.0\LaunchDarkly.InternalSdk.dll</HintPath>
      </Reference>
      <Reference Include ="LaunchDarkly.Logging">
          <HintPath>$(PkgLaunchDarkly_Logging)\lib\netstandard2.0\LaunchDarkly.Logging.dll</HintPath>
      </Reference>
      <Reference Include ="LaunchDarkly.EventSource">
          <HintPath>$(PkgLaunchDarkly_EventSource)\lib\netstandard2.0\LaunchDarkly.EventSource.dll</HintPath>
      </Reference>
  </ItemGroup>

Yes, it works. Thank you.

[tanderson-ld]

After investigating the project configuration more, we aren't able to properly distinguish non-MAUI targets from MAUI targets and can't remedy this without making breaking changes that could impact existing projects. We will have to postpone addressing this issue until a major version in the future. I am leaving this issue open to help others that may run into this issue find the above workaround.