A small helper for getting BC .app files into NuGet

bc-nuget-uploader - GitHub Action: Upload BC .app files to NuGet

Bc-nuget-uploader is a small, practical Action I wrote for my employer @Aident because it solved a recurring problem on real projects. If you work with Business Central and you keep getting .app files from different partners, this helps you put them into a NuGet feed with minimal ceremony.

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Why NuGet

NuGet has become a first-class citizen in the Business Central DevOps toolchain. With AL-Go for GitHub now supporting NuGet feeds out-of-the-box and BcContainerHelper providing production-ready cmdlets (New-BcNuGetPackage, Publish-BcNuGetPackageToContainer, etc.), the ecosystem is ready for package-based distribution. Using NuGet means you get proper versioning, dependency resolution, retention policies, and an easy way to share or consume extensions without juggling raw .app files.

Why this exists

Not everyone is running AL-Go for GitHub or another managed DevOps setup. In many customer engagements you need to integrate apps from multiple vendors, and most of the time you’ll just receive compiled .app files (e-mail, download link, etc.). You still want the benefits of NuGet-versioning, retention, dependency resolution-without rebuilding someone else’s code.

One simple way is to create a NuGet feed (GitHub Packages, Azure Artifacts, any v3-compatible feed) and store those apps there. bc-nuget-uploader helps with exactly that: you commit *.app files to a repo and the Action turns them into Business Central NuGet packages and pushes them to your feed(s).

Is storing binaries in a repo ideal? No. It’s a little hacky. But it’s pragmatic and lets project leads upload a new version through the GitHub web UI-quick and obvious.

• Marketplace: https://github.com/marketplace/actions/upload-bc-app-files-to-nuget

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What it does

• Detect .app files under a folder you choose (e.g., /upload) and run on commit.
• Wrap BcContainerHelper cmdlets to build a NuGet package with the expected layout.
• Push to one or many feeds (GitHub, Azure Artifacts, etc.).
• Skip duplicates if the exact version already exists.

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How to use it

Minimal workflow (trimmed for clarity):

name: Process uploaded .app files
on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]
    paths:   [ 'upload/*.app' ]
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  contents: read
  packages: write      # needed for GitHub Packages

jobs:
  upload-apps:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Upload BC apps to NuGet
        uses: AidentErfurt/bc-nuget-uploader@v1
        with:
          feed-map: nuget-feed-map.json     # optional, see below
          fail-on-any-error: true
        env:
          GITHUB_TOKEN:           $
          MY_NUGET_FEED_TOKEN:    $

Multi-feed mapping (optional)

When the app id should go to multiple feeds, add a small JSON map:

{
  "b1755fc0-be57-424a-8e0a-8533dc9122d7": [
    {
      "url":   "https://nuget.pkg.github.com/your-org/index.json",
      "token": "GITHUB_TOKEN"
    },
    {
      "url":   "https://your-azure-artifacts/_packaging/bc/nuget/v3/index.json",
      "token": "MY_NUGET_FEED_TOKEN"
    }
  ]
}

Each GUID is the app’s id from app.json. Add more entries as needed.

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Where it fits

Partner sends .app ──▶ commit to /upload ──▶ bc-nuget-uploader
                                         │
                                         ├─▶ GitHub Packages
                                         ├─▶ Azure Artifacts
                                         └─▶ Any v3 NuGet feed
                                                   │
                                                   ├─▶ AL-Go restore / deploy
                                                   └─▶ BcContainerHelper publish

• Upstream: no need to change your main pipeline. This is a side entrance for third‑party apps.
• Downstream: consumers restore from feeds; no more passing .app files around.
• Governance: use feed policies (scopes, approvals, retention) to keep things tidy.

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Quick start

1. Create or pick a NuGet feed (GitHub Packages or Azure Artifacts).
2. Add the workflow above.
3. Commit an .app to /upload.
4. Check that the package shows up in your feed and reference it like any other NuGet package.