[cordova-windows] dealing with template/Properties/Default.rd.xml

[brody4hire]

I have uncovered a couple issues with template/Properties/Default.rd.xml:

• CB-14224 - running coho audit-license-headers -r windows gives a message that template/Properties/Default.rd.xml is missing the license header
• CB-14225 - misspelling in sample Namespace serialize attribute name

along with an additional issue that seems to be unsolved:

• CB-13834 - problem building with build with params --release --bundle --archs="x64 x86 arm" on AppVeyor CI

I start to wonder if we should even keep template/Properties/Default.rd.xml in future releases. The following observations indicate to me that xxxx is only needed for projects using C# plugins:

• If I would try generating both a JavaScript UWP project and a C# UWP project then VS 2017 would only add Properties/Default.rd.xml in case of C#.
• Microsoft / Windows-universal-samples keeps its sample Default.rd.xml in a cs directory (Microsoft / Windows-universal-samples / SharedContent / cs / Default.rd.xml

I can think of the following possible alternatives:

• add license text and fix Namespace Serialize attribute name as proposed in CB-14224 Default.rd.xml header fixes cordova-windows#284, CB-14224 Default.rd.xml updates (6.0.x patch) cordova-windows#285, and CB-14225 fix sample Namespace Serialize attribute in template/Properties/Default.rd.xml cordova-windows#286
• configure Apache RAT to skip template/Properties/Default.rd.xml and fix sample Namespace Serialize attribute (CB-14225 fix sample Namespace Serialize attribute in template/Properties/Default.rd.xml cordova-windows#286) (I haven't tried this yet)
• remove template/Properties/Default.rd.xml in upcoming major release
• make it optional to include Properties/Default.rd.xml in generated project
• handle Properties/Default.rd.xml in a plugin (if possible)

[janpio]

I ignored this problem and file with the last release because it was not that easy to find out more about it.

But the PR that added this file indicates it is there for a reason:

CB-12499 UWP: Dependent external libraries specified as resource-file not being referenced in Release mode

Adds Default.rd.xml to Windows 10 project template making an app metadata to be available for reflection at runtime

apache/cordova-windows@d5ddcb4#diff-c54bf1c523e7312aae8e89dc03ae16dd

Original JIRA issue with more context:
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CB-12499

(As cordova-windows has issues, this issue here could very well be placed over there instead of in this unconnected repo)

[brody4hire]

Continued in apache/cordova-windows#228