[Bug] Filter rules ignored after update to .NET 7

[Maarty]

Describe the bug
Custom filterConfig.yml is not working after our projects were updated to .NET 7.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Use DocFx on a C# project which targets .NET 7
2. Have a custom filter enabled

 "metadata": [
    {
       ...
      "filter": "filterConfig.yml"
       ....
    }
  ],

Expected behavior
Custom filter works.

Context:

• OS: Windows 10

• Docfx version: 2.59.4

• .NET version: .NET 7.0

• docfx.json config

{
  "metadata": [
    {
     "src": [
        {
          "files": [
            "**.csproj"
          ],
          "src": "../MyProjectFolder"
        }
      ],
      "dest": "api",
      "disableGitFeatures": false,
      "disableDefaultFilter": false,
      "filter": "filterConfig.yml"
    }
  ],
  "build": {
    "content": [
      {
        "files": [
          "api/**.yml",
          "api/index.md",
          "api/**.md"
        ]
      },
      {
        "files": [
          "articles/**.md",
          "articles/**/toc.yml",
          "toc.yml",
          "*.md"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "resource": [
      {
        "files": [
          "images/**",
          "api/extra/*.jpeg",
          "api/extra/*.png",
          "api/extra/*.gif",
          "api/extra/*.jpg"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "overwrite": [
      {
        "files": [
          "apidoc/**.md"
        ],
        "exclude": [
          "obj/**",
          "_site/**"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "dest": "_site",
    "globalMetadataFiles": [],
    "fileMetadataFiles": [],
    "template": [
      "default",
      "templates/darkfx"
    ],
    "postProcessors": [ "ExtractSearchIndex" ],
    "globalMetadata": {
      "_enableSearch": "true"
    },
    "markdownEngineName": "markdig",
    "noLangKeyword": false,
    "keepFileLink": false,
    "cleanupCacheHistory": false,
    "disableGitFeatures": false
  }
}

• .NET info

.NET SDK:
 Version:   7.0.101
 Commit:    bb24aafa11

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.19044
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\7.0.101\

Host:
  Version:      7.0.1
  Architecture: x64
  Commit:       97203d38ba

.NET SDKs installed:
  2.1.818 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  3.1.426 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  6.0.301 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  6.0.307 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  7.0.101 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

.NET runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.All 2.1.30 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.All]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 2.1.30 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.26 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.32 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 5.0.17 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 6.0.6 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 6.0.12 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 7.0.1 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.0.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.1.30 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.26 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.32 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 5.0.17 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.6 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.12 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 7.0.1 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.26 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.32 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 5.0.17 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 6.0.6 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 6.0.12 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 7.0.1 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]

Other architectures found:
  x86   [C:\Program Files (x86)\dotnet]
    registered at [HKLM\SOFTWARE\dotnet\Setup\InstalledVersions\x86\InstallLocation]

Additional context
We have a custom filterConfig.yml

apiRules:
    - exclude:
        uidRegex: ^System\.Object
        type: Type
attributeRules:
    - include:
          uidRegex: ^System\.Xml\.Serialization
          type: Namespace

to exclude any System.Object inheritance

and to include attributes like XmlElement or XmlAttribute.

Now, after we updated our projects to .NET 7, the filter is not working anymore. DocFx generates all System.Object stuff and XML attributes are ignored. Just like if the custom filter is not there. When projects were targeting .NET 6 everything was working.

I've tried to debug DocFx to at least get a hint of what is going on.

I've set a breakpoint in SymbolVisitorAdapter.cs - GetAttributeInfo(ImmutableArray<AttributeData> attributes)

and here the AttributeClass is of type ErrorType with the message:

thus it does not even evaluate filters.

Now, I tried to adjust docfx.json to use .dll instead of .csproj but it doesn't help. (Although the error changes a bit)

{
  "metadata": [
    {
      "src": [
        {
          "files": [
            "MyProject.dll"
          ],
          "src": "../MyProject/bin/Debug/net7.0"
        }
      ],
...

Is there a way to work around this, or do we have to wait until DocFx supports .NET 7?

[KalleOlaviNiemitalo]

Perhaps it can work if you use dotnet publish --self-contained and tell DocFX to read DLLs from the publish directory, which would then include the .NET 7 DLLs. I did not try.

[yufeih]

Different symptoms but probably the same reason as #8360

[thejonan]

Same problem here. Since I'm currently starting to use DocFX - I don't have previous (successful) experience with filtering, so I even tried putting invalid statements there - no difference at all, it seems like the whole file is ignored. It is crashing if invalid location is provided, though.

[yufeih]

Does running dotnet restore on all projects before running docfx address the problem?

[thejonan]

No, not at all. As I've mentioned - no error message on wrong YAML keys - nothing. It seems totally ignored. The documentation on the filter rules is very scarce as well.

I've tried switching to .NET 6, which I also have installed - no difference:

dotnet --list-sdks
6.0.405 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/sdk]
7.0.102 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/sdk]

I'm running macOS Ventura 13.0 on M1 Pro Apple silicon.

Here's the (slightly obfuscated) filter-config.yml:

apiRules:
- include:
  uidRegex: ^MyCompany\.MyProduct\.Core.+
- exclude:
  uidRegex: _[^.]+$

[CodeCasterNL]

It's a YAML indentation thing, this works:

apiRules:
- exclude:
    uidRegex: ^System\.Object
    type: Type

[thejonan]

It works for types, just like it did in my example. When it comes to methods - this pattern is ignored.