I'm developing a DNN module using Visual Studio 2022 (Community Edition). Everything works fine until I add a new .ascx view file to the project (e.g., Indicateurs1.ascx) and reference it in the .dnn manifest:


                
                DesktopModules/Indicateurs/Indicateurs.ascx
                True
                Indicateurs View
                View
                
                
                0


- 

After doing this and building the project, the ZIP is generated as expected, but:

• The module becomes impossible to upload via the DNN extension installer

However, I confirmed the file exists in the project, and its properties are set to:

• Build Action: Content

• Copy to Output Directory: Copy Always

🧪 What I’ve tried:

• Verified file is in the ZIP

• Checked .dnn file paths

• Compared against working modules

• Checked IIS permissions

• Tried different controlKey values

• Recreated the .ascx file from scratch

• Verified Visual Studio workloads (ASP.NET Desktop, Web)

Why does adding a simple .ascx file manually break the module ZIP packaging — even if the file physically exists — and only works after enabling this specific workload? Is there an internal dependency on MSBuild items that Visual Studio adds only when the template is used?

Thanks for your help!