VS 2017 sets LastActiveSolutionConfig for a web application on its project load, thus triggering subsequent build of that project, because:
The property is set in the respective .csproj.user file, which is created, if needed.
The .csproj.user file is part of project dependencies
So by creating it, VS causes the project to be built the next time.
Imagine building it all on the command line with msbuild after cleaning up the workspace, then switching back to VS and hitting the build button. And it is building again!
So, there are these stupid auto generated CS files related to workflows, that are generated only by VS, not msbuild (TemporaryGeneratedFile_036C0B5B-1481-4323-8D20-8F5ADCB23D92.cs and friends) - our msbuild generates them on purpose to satisfy VS. Check.
Next we ensure all the Copy to Output Directory files use PreserveNewest - check.
I already forgot what else we had to do to make sure VS does not rebuild code redundantly when switching from msbuild to IDE. Now this one, which is new.
How can I prevent VS 2017 from adding this property? Is it absolutely necessary to have it?
In the mean-time, I will modify the .csproj files by adding it and see if it helps. Nobody builds Release locally at our place and it is always AnyCPU platform, so I do not care about other configurations, except Debug|AnyCPU.
This is what I would do:
Set the build verbosity to Diagnostic.
Build and look for where the msbuild file is located that generates this file:
TemporaryGeneratedFile_036C0B5B-1481-4323-8D20-8F5ADCB23D92.cs
Look for some conditions that you can alter to prevent the file from being
generated.
Set some property to alter the condition and prevent that file from being generated.
My solution is to generate the .csproj.user files if needed with the expected property. Which is incredibly annoying that one has to do it. Here is the build code that can go into your Directory.Build.Targets:
<Target Name="EnsureCSProjUserForWebApplications"
Condition="'$(IsWebApplication)' == True And !Exists('$(MSBuildProjectFullPath).user')">
<ItemGroup>
<CSProjUserContent Include="<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>" />
<CSProjUserContent Include="<Project ToolsVersion="15.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">" />
<CSProjUserContent Include="<PropertyGroup>" />
<CSProjUserContent Include="<LastActiveSolutionConfig>Debug|Any CPU</LastActiveSolutionConfig>" />
<CSProjUserContent Include="</PropertyGroup>" />
<CSProjUserContent Include="</Project>" />
</ItemGroup>
<WriteLinesToFile File="$(MSBuildProjectFullPath).user" Lines="#(CSProjUserContent)" ContinueOnError="true" />
</Target>
IsWebApplication is computed like this:
<IsWebApplication>$(ProjectTypeGuids.Contains('349c5851-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21'))</IsWebApplication>
Finally, the target is part of a larger series of targets that run at the beginning and validate the csproj matches our requirements or ensure certain conditions:
<PropertyGroup>
<EnsureXyzProjectSettingsDependsOn>
AssertIISExpress;
AssertNoAssemblyInfo;
AssertDebugSymbols;
AssertLocalApplicationHostFile;
AssertImportsDFVersioning;
EnsureSharedBinLink;
AssertSharedBinOutputPath;
AssertHintPaths;
EnsureCSProjUserForWebApplications
</EnsureXyzProjectSettingsDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="EnsureXyzProjectSettings"
DependsOnTargets="$(EnsureXyzProjectSettingsDependsOn)"
BeforeTargets="BeforeBuild"
Condition="'$(SuppressStrictXyzTargetsChecks)' != true" />
I'm using Visual Studio 2017 and have a solution with several web projects and webjob projects.
There are some files that I want to include when running locally in the development environment that I want to exclude from being deployed as part of a web publishing package.
I'm attempting to use the process described here http://sedodream.com/2010/05/01/WebDeploymentToolMSDeployBuildPackageIncludingExtraFilesOrExcludingSpecificFiles.aspx and elsewhere, which is:
<ItemGroup>
<ExcludeFromPackageFiles Include="connectionstrings.config">
<FromTarget>Project</FromTarget>
<CopyToOutputDirectory>Always</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</ExcludeFromPackageFiles>
</ItemGroup>
This works perfectly for my web projects - meaning that when building the connectionstrings.config file is copied to my bin\ directory and not included as part of the web deployment package - whereas when implemented in my webjob projects the file is copied to my bin\ directory but also included in the deployment package.
In the msbuild output I see:
Copying file from "C:\Users\me\Documents\Projects\myapp\myapp\webjob1\connectionstrings.config" to "bin\ProdBuildCfg\connectionstrings.config".
which is what I want because it allows me to run/debug locally, and also:
Copying C:\Users\me\Documents\Projects\myapp\myapp\webjob1\bin\ProdBuildCfg\connectionstrings.config to obj\ProdBuildCfg\Package\PackageTmp\app_data\jobs\continuous\webjob1\connectionstrings.config.
which demonstrates the problem - connectionstrings.config is still being copied to the package directory for subsequent publishing/deployment.
The process described in the above article and others applies to web projects, and they indicate you should place the <ItemGroup> under the
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />
line of the project file. Webjob projects don't include that line but rather have something resembling:
<Import Project="..\packages\Microsoft.Web.WebJobs.Publish.1.0.13\tools\webjobs.targets" Condition="Exists('..\packages\Microsoft.Web.WebJobs.Publish.1.0.13\tools\webjobs.targets')" />
I suspect the problem relates to targets - either my project file doesn't include the proper <Import Project="...*.targets')" /> line or I'm not at the right spot in the file.
Next I tried the method mentioned here How do I include webjob files while debugging locally but exclude when publishing a web package?:
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|AnyCPU' ">
<ExcludeFilesFromDeployment>connectionstrings.config</ExcludeFilesFromDeployment>
</PropertyGroup>
I have the connectionstrings.config Build Action set to None and Copy to output directory set to Always (my understanding is that action that results from the Copy to output directory setting is distinctly different from the actions associated with packaging/deployment). Same result. (I've ensured I'm in the right <PropertyGroup> for my build configuration.
Note: I'm deploying either by right-clicking the project in VS and selecting "Publish as Azure webjob" or using an msbuild command to publish like msbuild myproj.csproj /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:Configuration=Release /p:PublishProfile="Prod" /p:VisualStudioVersion=15.0 /p:Password=
How do I include webjob files while debugging locally but exclude when publishing a web package?
To my knowledge, if you do not want to publish any file, you just need to set the file property to "copy to output directory as DO NOT COPY". This way when you will package the application that particular file will not be part of package and will never be on Azure.
Update:
Unfortunately that setting prevents the file from being copied to the
output directory which means I can’t run or debug locally.
When you debugging the project, you can set the "copy to output directory" as "Copy always". When you want to deploy the project, you can manually clean the build and change the value to DO NOT COPY.
If you do not want to do all those manually, I would like provide you a workaround, hope this can help you.
To accomplish this, unload your project. Then at the very end of the project , just before the end-tag, place below scripts:
<Target Name="ExcludeFileFromPackage" BeforeTargets="PipelineCopyAllFilesToOneFolderForMsdeploy">
<Message Text="Delete the connectionstrings.config from Obj folder to exculde this file in the package directory" />
<Delete Files="$(ProjectDir)obj\Release\Package\PackageTmp\connectionstrings.config" />
</Target>
With this target, VS/MSBuild will delete the connectionstrings.config from the obj folder before publish the project as package.
I have a Visual Studio solution containing 30+ projects. There are 2 build configurations, Debug and Release. Ten of the project files (.csproj) are generated reasonably frequently using an external tool and the templates for that generation include the Debug and Release configurations. Modifying the templates to include additional configurations is not really an option.
So the problem I have is that I have a new project that is hosted in AppFabric/IIS. I'm using Web.Config transformations to update the Web.Config for deployment to 4 different environments: Development, Test, Staging, Production. I've add those contexts to the specific project using the Configuration Manager. That works so I can update the Configuration Manager for e.g. the Release build to use the Production context for the project. Right-clicking and building a deployment package for the project results in the appropriate transformation being applied to the Web.Config.
Now I want to automate the process so I have an MSBuild script:
<ItemGroup>
<BuildMode Include="Dev"/>
<BuildMode Include="Test"/>
<BuildMode Include="Staging"/>
<BuildMode Include="Prod"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="Build" DependsOnTargets="Package"></Target>
<!--
Build deployment package for each target environment
-->
<Target Name="Package" Outputs="%(BuildMode.Identity)">
<Message Text="Building %(BuildMode.Identity)"/>
<MSBuild Projects="..\SynchWorkflow\SynchWorkflow.csproj"
Targets="Package"
Properties="Platform=AnyCPU;Configuration=%(BuildMode.Identity);"/>
</Target>
Unfortunately this errors because it is trying to build e.g. a Prod configuration when it doesn't exist - Prod is only a context for the SynchWorkflow project. What I want to do is have the Prod context package generated using the Release configuration. Is that possible using the MSBuild task? Is there an extra setting I can provide to the MSBuild task in the Properties attribute that would allow this?
I added new solution configurations for each environment (without adding new project configurations) and then used Configuration Manager to set the contexts to Release for the dependent projects. Unfortunately this didn't work because the MSBuild task was building against the project file and not the solution. Resolved using Julien Hoarau's SO answer. Adding the new solution configurations was the correct approach but the linked answer closed the loop for me. The build script has been updated to the following:
<ItemGroup>
<BuildMode Include="Development"/>
<BuildMode Include="Test"/>
<BuildMode Include="Staging"/>
<BuildMode Include="Production"/>
</ItemGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<PackageLocation>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)</PackageLocation>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="Build" DependsOnTargets="Package"></Target>
<!--
Build deployment package for each target environment
-->
<Target Name="Package" Outputs="%(BuildMode.Identity)">
<Message Text="Building %(BuildMode.Identity)"/>
<MSBuild Projects="..\SynchWorkflow.sln"
Properties="Platform=Any CPU;
Configuration=%(BuildMode.Identity);
DeployOnBuild=true;
DeployTarget=Package;
PackageLocation=$(PackageLocation)\SynchWorkflow.%(BuildMode.Identity)Package.zip;"/>
</Target>
The script builds against the solution file and generates the correct package for each target environment. For the purposes of the example script I'm creating the packages in the MSBuildProjectDirectory which is a bit suboptimal.
I have <MvcBuildViews>true</MvcBuildViews> setup in my project files.
Now when I do deployment the first time I get files in obj\release\package\packagetmp. Every subsequent build after this results in a faild build.
Web -> C:\Projects\ProjectX\Web\bin\ProjectX.Web.dll
C:\Projects\ProjectX\Web\obj\release\package\packagetmp\web.config(64):
error ASPCONFIG: It is an error to use a section registered as
allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' beyond application level.
This error can be caused by a virtual directory not being configured as an
application in IIS.
------ Skipped Publish: Project Web, Configuration: Release Any CPU ------
Now if delete the obj folder, I can build fine.
This is rather frustrating to have any build fail after I publish until I manually delete the obj folder. Is there anything I can do to fix this?
Add this to the .csproj file:
<Target Name="AfterBuild" Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='Release'">
<RemoveDir Directories="$(IntermediateOutputPath)" />
</Target>
Seems to delete the files in obj\Release but not the folder itself, at least on my machine.
This problem occurs because MvcBuildViews conflicts with Web Deploy packaging. I got the idea for this solution from http://www.zvolkov.com/clog/2011/02/16/asp-net-razor-lessons-learned/ :
<PropertyGroup>
<PackageDependsOn Condition="'$(DeployOnBuild)'=='true'">
CleanWebsitesPackage;
CleanWebsitesPackageTempDir;
CleanWebsitesTransformParametersFiles;
MvcBuildViews;
$(PackageDependsOn)
</PackageDependsOn>
<BuildDependsOn Condition="'$(DeployOnBuild)'!='true'">
$(BuildDependsOn);
MvcBuildViews
</BuildDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="MvcBuildViews" Condition="'$(MvcBuildViews)'=='true'">
<AspNetCompiler VirtualPath="temp" PhysicalPath="$(WebProjectOutputDir)" />
</Target>
Now AspNetCompiler will run before packaging. This works nicely with the msbuild /p:DeployOnBuild=True /p:DeployTarget=Package approach.
This is a known issue with MVC when you enable the build MVC views feature. Hopefully they get it fixed in the next version.
In the mean time, you can run the "Clean Solution" operation to clear out the obj folder instead of doing it manually. The downside is, your entire solution will be rebuilt every time.
Another option that I haven't done, but have considered if my project gets any bigger, is a pre-compile step in the MVC project to remove the web.config from obj\
I am trying to configure TeamCity 5.0 to run "Publish" target on one of my projects.
When I load the solution in VS 2008 and click publish on the project the website is being build nicely - files on server appearing by themselves etc. Yet when I run the sln file via TeamCity Sln2008 runner the TeamCity returns:
[Project "Portal.csproj" (Publish target(s)):] Skipping unpublishable project.
Has anyone had the same problem?
Filip
You could create your own simple build file. For example:
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" ToolsVersion="3.5" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets"/>
<PropertyGroup>
<PackageFolder>C:\Builds\AppServer\Actual</PackageFolder>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="Build" DependsOnTargets="BeforeBuild">
<MSBuild Projects="TeamWork-AppServer.sln"
Targets="Rebuild"
Properties="Configuration=Debug;OutDir=$(PackageFolder)\;"></MSBuild>
</Target>
</Project>
Or you can use VS 2008 Web Deployment Project. Here is a great turtorial.
If it is a WebProject you can use the Microsoft.WebApplication.targets. Unless you have installed the windows SDK on your build agent you will need to copy the targets file into your source control and reference it from your web project by adding:
<Import Project="{path to your tools}\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />
You can find the targets file here (depending on your os):
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v9.0\WebApplications
Now you just need to update your msbuild task to reference the right targets:
<MSBuild Projects="{path to your web project file}"
Targets="Build;ResolveReferences;_CopyWebApplication"
Properties="Configuration=Release;Architecture=Any;WebProjectOutputDir={your web root};OutDir={your web root}\bin\" />
Here is how I modified the .csproj file for an ASP.NET MVC project to deploy via TeamCity 5.1.2. In the .csproj file, replace the AfterBuild target with this XML (If there are already commands in your existing AfterBuild, you will have to merge them into these targets):
<PropertyGroup>
<DeployTarget>0</DeployTarget>
<PublishTarget>0</PublishTarget>
<PublishFolder>..\Deployment\YourWebsiteName</PublishFolder>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="PublishProperties">
<CreateProperty Value="$(PublishFolder)">
<Output TaskParameter="Value" PropertyName="WebProjectOutputDir"/>
</CreateProperty>
<CreateProperty Value="$(PublishFolder)\bin\">
<Output TaskParameter="Value" PropertyName="OutDir"/>
</CreateProperty>
</Target>
<Target Name="WebPublish" DependsOnTargets="BeforeBuild;PublishProperties">
<RemoveDir Directories="$(PublishFolder)"
ContinueOnError="true" />
<CallTarget Targets="ResolveReferences;_CopyWebApplication" />
</Target>
<Target Name="Deploy" DependsOnTargets="WebPublish">
<CreateProperty Value="Path\To\Your\Server" Condition="$(DeployFolder) == ''">
<Output TaskParameter="Value" PropertyName="DeployFolder"/>
</CreateProperty>
<RemoveDir Directories="$(DeployFolder)" Condition="$(CleanDeploy) == 1" />
<ItemGroup>
<DeploymentFiles Include="$(PublishFolder)\**\*.*" />
</ItemGroup>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(DeploymentFiles)"
DestinationFolder="$(DeployFolder)\%(RecursiveDir)" />
</Target>
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<CallTarget Targets="WebPublish" Condition="$(PublishTarget) == 1" />
<CallTarget Targets="Deploy" Condition="$(DeployTarget) == 1" />
</Target>
This script uses the $(PublishTarget) and $(DeployTarget) properties to trigger additional steps after your project is built. The PropertyGroup at the beginning sets the default values to 0, so the extra targets are not run. You can override the default in TeamCity by going to the Properties and Environment Variables page of your build configuration and adding System Properties names "PublishTarget" and "DeployTarget" and setting their value to 1.
The Publish target contains most of the magic. This makes a call to the Visual Studio _CopyWebApplication target to output the website to the PublishFolder. By default the publish folder is "..\Deployment\YourWebsiteName" relative to the project file, but this can also be overridden with a System Property. The Deploy target takes the files output by the Publish target and copies them to the DeployFolder. DeployFolder can be set with a System Property in TeamCity or you can replace the "Path\To\Your\Server" path in the Deploy target.
You could also skip the extra Deploy step by simply setting the PublishFolder to whatever your deployment destination is. This script depends on the "Microsoft.WebApplication.Build.Tasks.Dll" and "Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" files installed by Visual Studio, but you can simply copy the files from your developer workstation to the build server. The default location is "C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications".
I have this same problem, here's what I've tried:
I have a solution file in Visual Studio 2010, committed to a Mercurial repository.
I have setup an FTP server for the root directory of the site to publish to, and publishing from within Visual Studio 2010 locally works nicely, it connects and uploads everything as expected, and the website works.
Now, I wanted to automate this on every push to the central Mercurial repository, and since I'm using TeamCity, I discovered that the field to specify the Target of the build, usually "Rebuild" can also take "Publish", so I specified "Rebuild;Publish", as per the documentation and help.
I have verified that after publishing in Visual Studio, and committing new files, a file named ProjectName.Publish.xml is accompanying my ProjectName.csproj file, and this file is pulled down into the server directory when TeamCity builds.
Yet, no publishing is done, and when I check the build log, it says:
[19:01:02]: [Project "Test.sln" (Rebuild;Publish target(s)):] Project "Test.UI.Web.csproj" (Publish target(s)):
[19:01:02]: [Project "Test.UI.Web.csproj" (Publish target(s)):] Skipping unpublishable project.
Exactly as the question here says.
Note that this is a development site, publishing just so that we can let more people test changes, so don't get into a discussion of whether this is actually a good idea or not.
Note: I do not care in which way the files are published, I just need the single TeamCity build-step to actually do it, so if anyone got a MSBuild-like solution that just sidesteps TeamCity, then I would be satisfied
Have you tried to execute Visual Studio directly, rather than relying on MSBuild to publish the project directly. MSBuild can't execute certain kinds of projects. I had a similar problem with getting MSI's built from within Team City.
I'm taking a guess at the exact commandline settings to this, since I don't know your exact setup.
<PropertyGroup>
<buildconfiguration>Release</buildconfiguration>
<DevEnv>C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.com</DevEnv>
</PropertyGroup>
<Exec Command="%22$(DevEnv)%22 /build $(buildconfiguration) $(teamcity_build_checkoutDir)\Test.sln /project Test.UI.Web.csproj"/>
If you're using the Team City solution runner as your build runner, you'll have to switch to MSBuild.
If you want to stay with the Team City runner, you could always try adding a project to your solution that will be the last one built, (or do it on the project that currently gets built last), and do the spawning trick as a post-build command line on the project.
Can TeamCity publish a Web project using the sln2008 build runner
Can TeamCity publish a Web project using the sln2008 build runner?
What type of project are you trying to publish?
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/msbuild/thread/7ec0d942-6354-41c3-9c97-7e7d1f461c29
Taken from above link:
What I discovered is that "Shared-addins" are not publishable
and are distinct and different from document and application level
VSTO addins, which are deployable.
When I rebuilt my application as an application level
VSTO addin, the publish option was available.
http://www.automise.com/Default.aspx?tabid=53&aft=9813
Taken from above link:
Assuming you're using Visual Studio 2008, we're unable to execute the web site
publish feature from FinalBuilder as it's partially implemented by the VS IDE.
You'll need to use to the MSBuild action to compile the application and then
use one of the other actions (FTP, File Copy, etc) in FinalBuilder to perform
the deployment. Visual Studio 2010 has fixed this problem by performing the
entire publish using MSBuild, see this post for more info:
http://www.finalbuilder.com/forums....&afv=topic
Two threads that might help
http://devnet.jetbrains.net/thread/280420;jsessionid=5E8948AE810FFFF251996D85E7EB3FE3
Visual Studio. Publish project from command line
For anyone using Web Application Projects in VS2010, I managed to get TeamCity to package the deliverables and then Web Deploy the package after successfully building the solution.
With a little tweaking, this had the same effect as hitting the 'Publish' button in VS.
My solution has a handful of projects, 1 of which is an ASP.NET MVC Web Application project. I build the solution, package the web app project, and msdeploy the package in 3 steps. I haven't figured out a (better|shorter|simpler|more elegant) way to do this.
I don't have VS installed on my TeamCity server, so I needed to grab both C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\Web and C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\Web Applications and put them both in the same spot on the TeamCity server (the second depends on the first). If you're working w/x64 machines, I'd grab them from both Program Files (x86) and Program Files. You also need to have Web Deploy installed on your machine and (I believe) IIS Management Service (i.e., something listening on https://yourservername:8172/MsDeploy.axd)
There are 3 build steps:
Visusal Studio (sln), Target=Rebuild, Configuration=Debug
MSBuild WebProject.csproj, Targets=Package Commandline=/p:PackageLocation=%teamcity.build.checkoutDir%\Debug.zip /p:Configuration=Debug
Commandline, Executable=%teamcity.build.checkoutDir%\Debug.deploy.cmd, Parameters=
/Y "-setParam:'IIS Web Application Name'='Default Web Site/PreCreatedAppInIis'"
In that last step, 'IIS Web Application Name' is an actual parameter name, don't change it. It's value can either be something like 'Default Web Site' or whatever you named your website in IIS and/or it can be an IIS application path below it. If the application doesn't exist, you may run into errors about the app pool not being configured correctly to host the application. Rather than investigate it, I just created an application in the appropriate app pool. In my case, I'm targeting ASP.NET 4.0 x64 where the default app pool is ASP.NET 2.0 x64.