Aspose.Slides for .NET 6 Cross Platform

  1. Cross-platform Aspose.Slides for .NET6 can be used for .NET 7 and future .NET releases.

  2. Prerequisite: To use the cross-platform version Aspose.Slides for .NET 6, you need to download the Aspose.Slides package from the product Release Page. The Aspose.Slides NuGet package is not suitable because it provides cross-platform support for only the .NET Standard.

  3. Requiremens: System Requirements. Please note that Aspose.Slides for .NET 6 and .NET 7 requires Linux x86_x64 with GLIBC 2.23 and higher. CentOS 7 (whose GLIBC version is 2.14) is not supported. To use Slides under CentOS 7 or other systems (like Alpine) that do not meet the requirement, please get Aspose.Slides for .NETStandard.

Get and Use Cross-Platform Aspose.Slides

  1. Download the ZIP package of the latest Aspose.Slides from the Release Page.

  2. Unpack the files from \Aspose.Slides.zip\Aspose.Slides\net6.0\crossplatform and place them in the folder that will be used for dependencies in your project.

  3. Add a reference to Aspose.Slides.dll

    add-project-reference-visual-studio

    In our example (below), the libraries are located in the project folder along this path: ConsoleApp\libs\Aspose.Slides\net6.0\crossplatform...

    browse-console-app

  4. Place the remaining files (that Aspose.Slides depend on) in the output directory by adding instructions to the csproj project file this way:

<ItemGroup>

   <None Update="libs\Aspose.Slides\net6.0\crossplatform\aspose.slides.drawing.capi_vc14x64.dll">
         <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
                  <TargetPath>aspose.slides.drawing.capi_vc14x64.dll</TargetPath>
   </None>

   <None Update="libs\Aspose.Slides\net6.0\crossplatform\aspose.slides.drawing.capi_vc14x86.dll">
         <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
                  <TargetPath>aspose.slides.drawing.capi_vc14x86.dll</TargetPath>
   </None>

   <None Update="libs\Aspose.Slides\net6.0\crossplatform\Aspose.Slides.xml">
         <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
                  <TargetPath>Aspose.Slides.xml</TargetPath>
   </None>

   <None Update="libs\Aspose.Slides\net6.0\crossplatform\libaspose.slides.drawing.capi_appleclang.dylib">
         <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
                  <TargetPath>libaspose.slides.drawing.capi_appleclang.dylib</TargetPath>
   </None>

   <None Update="libs\Aspose.Slides\net6.0\crossplatform\libaspose.slides.drawing.capi_x86_64_libstdcpp_libc2.23.so">
         <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
                  <TargetPath>libaspose.slides.drawing.capi_x86_64_libstdcpp_libc2.23.so</TargetPath>
   </None>

</ItemGroup>

  1. Pay attention to TargetPath.

    By default, <CopyToOutputDirectory> copies files while preserving their relative path, but we need the dependent libraries to go to the same folder where the output is generated (Aspose.Slides.dll location).

Notes

System.Drawing.Common Support for Only Windows

Starting in .NET 6, support for System.Drawing.Common (which provided GDI+ support) is available only in Windows. Aspose.Slides for .NET depends on GDI+. Additionally, Aspose.Slides public API contains types (Bitmap, Metafile, Graphics, etc.) from the System.Drawing.Common package.

Proprietary Graphics Subsystem

To resolve the breaking change problem (that cancels cross-platform support for System.Drawing.Common), Aspose.Slides—starting in version 23.6—uses its own graphics subsystem implementation.

These are the supported systems: Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Aspose.Slides cross-platform is a collection of libraries:

Aspose.Slides.dll Main.NET Assembly Responsible for All Aspose.Slides Logic
aspose.slides.drawing.capi_vc14x64.dll Dependency: graphics subsystem implementation for Win x64
aspose.slides.drawing.capi_vc14x86.dll Dependency: graphics subsystem implementation for Win x64
libaspose.slides.drawing.capi_x86_64_libstdcpp_libc2.23.so Dependency: graphics subsystem implementation for Linux (x86/x64)
libaspose.slides.drawing.capi_appleclang.dylib Dependency: graphics subsystem implementation for macOS

Aspose.Slides.dll uses the library that the system it is running on requires. The libraries are usually located in the same location as Aspose.Slides.dll in any file system.

Aspose.Slides Public API and Types from System.Drawing.Common. Solution to Name Conflicts Problem

Aspose.Slides public API Slides uses types from System.Drawing.Common (Bitmap, Metafile, Graphics, and many others). To facilitate smooth transition to the new Aspose.Slides cross-platform product and to avoid introducing many breaking changes into Slides public API, the proprietary implementation of the graphics subsystem duplicates the types and namespaces from System.Drawing.Common.

Therefore, if you develop or work in a Linux environment, you just have to use Aspose.Slides as a dependency—and the entire API stays the same.

Potential problem: The described setup has its cons. For example, if you develop in Windows and you have projects that use the original System.Drawing.Common, you might encounter conflicts with Aspose.Slides types.

Solution: You can use extern alias to resolve the problem. See Using the System.Drawing.Common package and Slides for .NET6 classes (CS0433: The type exists in both Slides and System.Drawing.Common error).

The Slides team is working on tasks that will result in a simplified and unified public API.

NuGet and ZIP Packages

  • NuGet Aspose.Slides for .NET currently lacks support for cross-platform Aspose.Slides for .NET 6.

  • The NuGet Aspose.Slides for .NET package supports cross-platform for .NET Standard but not for .NET 6.

  • The cross-platform version of Aspose.Slides is available as zip packages provided on the Releases page.

  • The ZIP package contains this folder structure:

    ├───net2.0

    ├───net3.5

    ├───net3.5_ClientProfile

    ├───net4.0

    ├───net4.0_ClientProfile

    ├───net6.0

    │ ├───crossplatform

    │ └───win

    ├───netstandard2.0

    └───netstandard2.1

  • Each folder contains assemblies for their corresponding .NET version. There are two versions for net6.0: win and crossplatform. The latter contains the cross-platform Aspose.Slides.dll and all its dependencies. The unpacked contents of this folder can be used as a dependency addition in a project for cross-platform development and other Aspose.Slides use instances.

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