Visual Studio project with a custom build step only (no default build) - visual-studio

Question

I want to create a Visual Studio project that would allow me to see a bunch of JavaScript and other files and edit them as normal, but would also have a build step that can run any custom commands I want (currently some npm commands, possibly more later). Basically I want 3 features combined:
Be able to browse and edit files just like for any VS project (C#, C++, etc.)
Be able to run a custom build step by selecting "Build" in Visual Studio (including building the whole solution).
Be able to run that same custom build step from the command line (MSBuild).
Using a "shared project" (.shproj) allows me to easily see and edit the files, but there is no Build item in the context menu, even if I manually add a Build target:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="15.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup Label="Globals">
<ProjectGuid>...</ProjectGuid>
</PropertyGroup>
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props" Condition="Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props')" />
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)\CodeSharing\Microsoft.CodeSharing.Common.Default.props" />
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)\CodeSharing\Microsoft.CodeSharing.Common.props" />
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)\CodeSharing\Microsoft.CodeSharing.CSharp.targets" />
<Import Project="MyItems.projitems" Label="Shared" />
<PropertyGroup>
<Configuration>Debug</Configuration>
<Platform>Any CPU</Platform>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="Build">
<Exec Command="ECHO My custom build!" />
</Target>
</Project>
I've also tried using a stripped-down VC++ project (since I don't actually want to run the C++ compiler) and this allows a build to be run from VS, but opening the project logs warnings like error MSB4057: The target "GetProjectDirectories" does not exist in the project. and trying to add files to fails with that error or similar ones.
There must be an easier way to do this!

Answer 1

From your current description, I think you want to create a js project in VS IDE.
However, VS IDE has the node js project template by default. And you should install the workload Node.js development under VS_Installer so that you can use it.
After that, you can create such project.
1) Adding js files or other files by right-click on the project-->Add-->Existing Item so that you can modify the files on VS IDE.
2) If you want to execute a custom build step that does not break the whole build, you should make the custom target depends on the default build.
You can use this:
<Target Name="CustomStep" AfterTargets="Build">
<Exec Command="ECHO My custom build!" />
</Target>
or
<Target Name="CustomStep" BeforeTargets="Build">
<Exec Command="ECHO My custom build!" />
</Target>
Note: If you use
<Target Name="Build">
<Exec Command="ECHO My custom build!" />
</Target>
It will overwrite the system build process and instead, run the command, which breaks the whole default build.
3) If you want to execute the custom build on msbuild command, you should specify the name of the custom target:
msbuild xxx\xxx.proj -t: CustomStep(the name of the custom target)
===============================================
Besides, if you still want to use C++ project template, you could create a empty c++ project which does not contain any clcompile files and then do the same steps.
If you do not want to use C++ compiler, you should only remove any xml node on the vcxproj file like these:
<ClCompile Include="xxx.cpp" />
<ClInclude Include="xxx.h" />
When you use the empty C++ project, you do not have to worry about that.
=========================================
Update 1
If you want to build this project on a build sever without VS IDE, I suggest you could install Build Tool for VS2019 which is an independent, lightweight build command line(It is equivalent to dotnet cli).
Build Tool for VS2019
Under All Downloads-->Tools for Visual Studio 2019--> Build Tools for Visual Studio 2019
Then, you have to install the related build workload such as Node.js Build tools and then we can use the command line to build node.js project on build sever.
The entire installation process is fast.

Answer 2

Inspired by Perry Qian-MSFT's answer, I managed to strip down a Node.js project to the bare minimum that I needed to get Visual Studio to load and build it, but without referencing any external files.
The main trick was VS needs a target named "CoreCompile" to be defined to show the Build menu item! (It also needs a "Build" target, but that one is more obvious.)
My project now looks like this:
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="4.0">
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props" Condition="Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props')" />
<PropertyGroup>
<Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>
<SchemaVersion>2.0</SchemaVersion>
<ProjectGuid>(some guid)</ProjectGuid>
<ProjectHome>.</ProjectHome>
<ProjectTypeGuids>{3AF33F2E-1136-4D97-BBB7-1795711AC8B8};{9092AA53-FB77-4645-B42D-1CCCA6BD08BD}</ProjectTypeGuids>
</PropertyGroup>
<!-- These property groups can be empty, but need to be defined for VS -->
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' ">
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Release' ">
</PropertyGroup>
<Import Project="My.Build.targets" />
<!-- Define empty standard MSBuild targets, since this project doesn't have them. Doing it this way allows My.Build.targets to also be used in a project that does define them. -->
<Target Name="Build" />
<Target Name="ReBuild" />
<Target Name="Clean" />
<!-- NOTE: a target named "CoreCompile" is needed for VS to display the Build menu item. -->
<Target Name="CoreCompile" />
<!-- Files shown in Visual Studio - adding and removing these in the UI works as expected -->
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="myfile..." />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
And My.Build.targets looks like this:
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="MyBuild" AfterTargets="Build">(build steps)</Target>
<Target Name="MyReBuild" AfterTargets="ReBuild">(re-build steps)</Target>
<Target Name="MyClean" AfterTargets="Clean">(clean steps)</Target>
<!-- This target is needed just to suppress "warning NU1503: Skipping restore for project '...'. The project file may be invalid or missing targets
required for restore." -->
<Target Name="_IsProjectRestoreSupported" Returns="#(_ValidProjectsForRestore)">
<ItemGroup>
<_ValidProjectsForRestore Include="$(MSBuildProjectFullPath)" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
</Project>