Copy output binaries to custom path for xproj - visual-studio

I have solution with about 50 projects.
The projects have 2 target frameworks: netcore1.1 and .net 4.6.
All the projects are based on xproj.
So as build result I have binaries in bin/$configuration/$targetfw/.
F.ex. in my case I have binaries in bin/debug/netcoreapp and bin/debug/net462 outputs.
But I need to have copy of bin/debug/net462 content in /bin directory too.
How to make it correctly by script in project.json or smth else for all 50 projcts of solution?
And it would be great if fix wont be visible for git source control.
P.s. Why i need it? Because VS code map tool looks for binaries in bin directly
UPD.
<Project ToolsVersion="14.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<VisualStudioVersion Condition="'$(VisualStudioVersion)' == ''">14.0</VisualStudioVersion>
<VSToolsPath Condition="'$(VSToolsPath)' == ''">$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)</VSToolsPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<Import Project="$(VSToolsPath)\DotNet\Microsoft.DotNet.Props" Condition="'$(VSToolsPath)' != ''" />
<PropertyGroup Label="Globals">
<ProjectGuid>9e2d06cb-21aa-4457-ab44-6e67298037e3</ProjectGuid>
<RootNamespace>SmartDoc.Domain.Document</RootNamespace>
<BaseIntermediateOutputPath Condition="'$(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)'=='' ">.\obj</BaseIntermediateOutputPath>
<OutputPath Condition="'$(OutputPath)'=='' ">.\bin\</OutputPath>
<TargetFrameworkVersion>v4.5.2</TargetFrameworkVersion>
<SccProjectName>SAK</SccProjectName>
<SccProvider>SAK</SccProvider>
<SccAuxPath>SAK</SccAuxPath>
<SccLocalPath>SAK</SccLocalPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<SchemaVersion>2.0</SchemaVersion>
</PropertyGroup>
<Import Project="$(VSToolsPath)\DotNet\Microsoft.DotNet.targets" Condition="'$(VSToolsPath)' != ''" />
</Project>

How to make it correctly by script in project.json or smth else for all 50 projcts of solution? And it would be great if fix wont be visible for git source control.
You can add a custom MSBuild task to copy the binaries from bin/$configuration/$targetfw/ to /bin directory.
To accomplish this, unload your project, edit it, add following code before ending tag </Project>:
<ItemGroup>
<MySourceFiles Include="$(ProjectDir)bin\$(Configuration)\**\$(ProjectName).dll"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="TestCopy" AfterTargets="Build">
<Message Text ="Copy file to bin folder." Importance="high"></Message>
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(MySourceFiles)"
DestinationFolder="$(ProjectDir)bin"
/>
</Target>
With this target, VS/MSBuild will copy the .dll file to the /bin directory.
Note: Since we have to modify the project file, this fix have to be visible for git source control.
Update:
Could I modify f.ex. Microsoft.DotNet.Props file and add your fix with
Target there?
Yes, you can. After test, it works fine. But I need to explain that we are not recommend this solution, because it may effect all the project which have Microsoft.DotNet.targets imported. So when you use this method, you should pay more attention and should back up that Microsoft.DotNet.targets.
Hope this helps.

Related

How not to hard code the path of the DocumentationFile path in Visual Studio 2019 .csproj

How to set the DocumentationFile dynamically to reference the current user's home drive? Is there a $ variable to set? I checked in my project to TFS. When another member of my team clones the source code to his workstation, the following node in the .csproj still references to the folder on my hard drive, and fails the compilation. So far we have to manually edit the .csproj file. Thanks.
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Release|AnyCPU'">
<DocumentationFile>C:\Users\myName\source\repos\orgName\solutionName\projectName\.xml</DocumentationFile>
</PropertyGroup>
Thanks for your reply. It leads me to find the $(MSBuildProjectDirectory) variable. Here is the PropertyGroup
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Release|AnyCPU'">
<DocumentationFile>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\.xml</DocumentationFile>
</PropertyGroup>
There is a list of common macros in Visual Studio.
The one you probably want is $(ProjectDir)
You can also use environment variables stored in the registry. See this.
Examples:
<FinalOutput>$(BIN_PATH)\MyAssembly.dll</FinalOutput>
<Project DefaultTargets="FakeBuild">
<PropertyGroup>
<FinalOutput>$(BIN_PATH)\myassembly.dll</FinalOutput>
<ToolsPath Condition=" '$(ToolsPath)' == '' ">
C:\Tools
</ToolsPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="FakeBuild">
<Message Text="Building $(FinalOutput) using the tools at $(ToolsPath)..."/>
</Target>
</Project>

Visual Studio + Typescript Reference Paths with IISExpress

I am working with TypeScript across multiple projects. We have a "Core" API which other projects use.
For Development, I wanted to use Reference Paths. So in ProjectB I went to:
Right Click Solution > Add Existing > c:/projectA/myfile.min.js
But when I run my solution, the reference paths are not copied to IIS. Basically, "myfile.min.js" cannot be found.
This makes sense because I guess IISExpress is treating c:/projectB/ as a root directory. And since the Reference Path is actually a blank folder.... C:/projectA/ exists out of scope.
How can this be solved?
Note: Our production version is fine. It is more for easier Dev.
To debug my solution I done this way.
In ProjectAPI.proj
<Project>
...
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug'">
<TypeScriptTarget>ES5</TypeScriptTarget>
<TypeScriptIncludeComments>true</TypeScriptIncludeComments>
<TypeScriptSourceMap>true</TypeScriptSourceMap>
<TypeScriptOutFile>js\Base.js</TypeScriptOutFile>
<TypeScriptModuleKind>none</TypeScriptModuleKind>
<TypeScriptSourceRoot>$(ProjectDir)js/</TypeScriptSourceRoot>
<TypeScriptMapRoot>$(ProjectDir)js/</TypeScriptMapRoot>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<PostBuildEvent>
if $(ConfigurationName)==Debug copy "$(ProjectDir)js\Base.js" "$(ProjectDir)..\..\..\Shared\"
if $(ConfigurationName)==Debug copy "$(ProjectDir)js\Base.js.map" "$(ProjectDir)..\..\..\Shared\"
</PostBuildEvent>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
In PojectWebSite.proj
<Project>
...
<PropertyGroup>
<PreBuildEvent>
if $(ConfigurationName)==Debug copy "$(ProjectDir)..\..\..\Shared\Base.js" "$(ProjectDir)js\"
if $(ConfigurationName)==Debug copy "$(ProjectDir)..\..\..\Shared\Base.js.map" "$(ProjectDir)js\"
</PreBuildEvent>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
TypeScriptMapRoot was the secret to discover.

Copy DLL files to bin directory after one-click publishing in VS2010

I have a web application in VS2010 which has a number of DLLs that need to be copied into the bin directory after doing a publish in VS2010.
I've tried putting the following into my .csproj file (which sits in the root folder of the web applications) but it doesn't seem to work:
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<ItemGroup>
<_CircularDependencies Include="DLLs\Circular\Dependencies\*.dll" />
</ItemGroup>
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(_CircularDependencies)"
DestinationFiles="#(_CircularDependencies->'bin\%(Filename)%(Extension)')"
SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
</Target>
For bonus points, I have another set of DLLs copied to be copied post-publish, but I want to use one set when doing a debug publish (for Win32) and a different set when doing a release publish (x86).
Thanks!
OK, I've managed to get this working fully. Thanks to the answers provided above, I've been able to add some MS Build commands to the .csproj file to copy the appropriate DLLs from various folders into the bin folder based on the current build configuration. However as these are unmanaged DLLs (i.e. not .NET) I can't create normal references to them and they fail to be copied during the publish. I got around this by dynamically adding the files to the project as 'content'.
The solution came in three parts. Firstly, create an item group for the files near the top of the .csproj file (I've tried to use generic filenames here to make it clearer), with conditions based on the current build configuration:
<ItemGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug'">
<_UnmanagedDLLs Include="Win32DLLs\*.dll" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Release'">
<_UnmanagedDLLs Include="x64DLLs\*.dll" />
</ItemGroup>
Then add another item group to include these DLLs (as content, not references) in the build:
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="#(_UnmanagedDLLs->'bin\%(Filename)%(Extension)')" />
</ItemGroup>
Finally, at the bottom of the .csproj file, I do the copy on the AfterBuild target:
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<Copy SourceFiles="#(_UnmanagedDLLs)" DestinationFiles="#(_UnmanagedDLLs->'bin\%(Filename)%(Extension)')" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
</Target>
It means I can do a debug publish for my windows 32 staging box and a release publish for my x64 production box while keeping my bin folder out of SVN.
Once you get the copy working, separate sets for debug/release is easy with a condition:
<ItemGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Release'">
<_CircularDependencies Include="DLLs\Circular\Dependencies\*.dll" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug'">
<_CircularDependencies Include="DebugDLLs\Circular\Dependencies\*.dll" />
<_CircularDependencies Include="DebugDLLs\Circular\Dependencies\*.pdb" />
</ItemGroup>
If you want your copy to happen after publish, not after build you need to change your target from:
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
to
<Target Name="AfterPublish">

Copy built assemblies (including PDB, .config and XML comment files) to folder post build

Is there a generic way I can get a post-build event to copy the built assembly, and any .config and any .xml comments files to a folder (usually solution relative) without having to write a post-build event on each project in a solution?
The goal is to have a folder that contains the last successful build of an entire solution.
It would be nice to use the same build solution over multiple solutions too, possibly enabling/ disabling certain projects (so don't copy unit tests etc).
Thanks,
Kieron
You can set common OutputPath to build all projects in Sln in one temp dir and copy required files to the latest build folder. In copy action you can set a filter to copy all dlls without "test" in its name.
msbuild.exe 1.sln /p:Configuration=Release;Platform=AnyCPU;OutputPath=..\latest-temp
There exists more complicated and more flexible solution. You can setup a hook for build process using CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets. See this post for example.
Sample targets file can be like that:
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<BuildDependsOn>
$(BuildDependsOn);
PublishToLatest
</BuildDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="PreparePublishingToLatest">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetAssembly>$(TargetPath)</TargetAssembly>
<TargetAssemblyPdb>$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).pdb</TargetAssemblyPdb>
<TargetAssemblyXml>$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).xml</TargetAssemblyXml>
<TargetAssemblyConfig>$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).config</TargetAssemblyConfig>
<TargetAssemblyManifest>$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).manifest</TargetAssemblyManifest>
<IsTestAssembly>$(TargetName.ToUpper().Contains("TEST"))</IsTestAssembly>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<PublishToLatestFiles Include="$(TargetAssembly)" Condition="Exists('$(TargetAssembly)')" />
<PublishToLatestFiles Include="$(TargetAssemblyPdb)" Condition="Exists('$(TargetAssemblyPdb)')" />
<PublishToLatestFiles Include="$(TargetAssemblyXml)" Condition="Exists('$(TargetAssemblyXml)')" />
<PublishToLatestFiles Include="$(TargetAssemblyConfig)" Condition="Exists('$(TargetAssemblyConfig)')" />
<PublishToLatestFiles Include="$(TargetAssemblyManifest)" Condition="Exists('$(TargetAssemblyManifest)')" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
<Target Name="PublishToLatest"
Condition="Exists('$(LatestDir)') AND '$(IsTestAssembly)' == 'False' AND '#(PublishToLatestFiles)' != ''"
DependsOnTargets="PreparePublishingToLatest">
<Copy SourceFiles="#(PublishToLatestFiles)" DestinationFolder="$(LatestDir)" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
</Target>
</Project>
In that targets file you can specify any actions you want.
You can place it here "C:\Program Files\MSBuild\v4.0\Custom.After.Microsoft.Common.targets" or here "C:\Program Files\MSBuild\4.0\Microsoft.Common.targets\ImportAfter\PublishToLatest.targets".
And third variant is to add to every project you want to publish import of custom targets. See How to: Use the Same Target in Multiple Project Files

Is there such a thing as a "content/data only project" in visual studio

I have a bunch of ancillary XML and XSLT files that I want to edit and manage in visual studio.
The files do not logically belong under any code project in my solution and so in order to group them neatly, I have created a "dummy" C# dll project in visual studio and disabled it from building in Debug / release builds).
I wondered if there was a nicer way of achieving the same result (i.e. having all the files visible in solution explorer). What I think really want is a visual studio project type of "content only" but such a thing does not exist (or have I not looked hard enough?).
I have toyed with the idea of adding the files as solution items but then they seem harder to manage because creating a new "solution item folder" does not actually create a folder on disk.
Any one have any ideas?
Visual Studio 2015 has a project type called "Shared Project" which is essentially a content only project with no targets. It's listed under Visual C# but it can be used for any files.
A work colleague has come up with a solution.
He has suggested hand editing the project to remove the DefaultTargets from the Project (and delete a load of now unused properties).
MSBuild complains if there are no targets in the project so he has added three empty targets.
The final project looks something like this
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="3.5" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>
<Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">AnyCPU</Platform>
<ProductVersion>9.0.30729</ProductVersion>
<SchemaVersion>2.0</SchemaVersion>
<ProjectGuid>{541463A7-7CFA-4F62-B839-6367178B16BD}</ProjectGuid>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
... files ...
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
... files ...
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="Build"/>
<Target Name="Rebuild"/>
<Target Name="Clean"/>
</Project>
Admittedly, this solution requires more fiddling that I would have liked but seems to achieve what I was after: namely a project that does not aattempt to produce any build output.
Andy posted a link with a solution that's mostly worked for me; basically delete the following line from the project file:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
and add the following lines:
<Target Name="Build">
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(Content)"
DestinationFiles="#(Content->'$(OutputPath)%(RelativeDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')" />
</Target>
<Target Name="Clean">
<Exec Command="rd /s /q $(OutputPath)" Condition="Exists($(OutputPath))" />
</Target>
<Target Name="Rebuild" DependsOnTargets="Clean;Build">
</Target>
I also found that disabling the project Debug property "Enable the Visual Studio hosting process" (for each configuration) prevented the MyProject.vshost.exe file from being generated.
As David I. McIntosh pointed out in a comment on this answer, if your project is part of a solution with multiple projects and any other projects use the same output path as the content-only project, the above Clean target will delete all of the files in the output path, i.e. the build output of other projects, and would thus only be correct if the content-only project is the first project built (among those sharing the same build output path). The following is a safer and friendlier Clean target for this scenario:
<Target Name="Clean">
<Delete Files="#(Content->'$(OutputPath)%(RelativeDir)%(Filename)%(E‌​xtension)')"/>
</Target>
Then, try creating a Blank solution. Create Empty project. Have your files in respective folders with in the solution folder. From property window, use the Show all files, include those folders into the project. There is no better solution other then this. I hope.
This answer is just a convenient consolidation of the answers above given by Chris Fewtrell and Kenny Evitt, along with the slight modification in my comments above, and a bit more detail on what the declaration of the content items should/could look like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="12.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>
<Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">AnyCPU</Platform>
<ProjectGuid>{541463A7-7CFA-4F62-B839-6367178B16BD}</ProjectGuid>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == '64-bit|AnyCPU'">
<PlatformTarget>x64</PlatformTarget>
<OutputPath>..\builds\$(Configuration)\</OutputPath>
<IntermediateOutputPath>..\builds\$(Configuration)\Intermediate\YourProjectName\</IntermediateOutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="fileInProjectFolder.csv" />
<Content Include="SubDir\fileInSubdir.txt" />
<Content Include="..\actualSourceDirectoryOfFile\app.log.basic.config">
<Link>targetSubdirInOutputDir\app.log.basic.config</Link>
</Content>
<Content Include="..\actualSourceDirectoryOfFile\yetAnotherFile.config">
<Link>yetAnotherFile.config</Link>
</Content>
... more files ...
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="Build">
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(Content)"
DestinationFiles="#(Content->'$(OutputPath)%(RelativeDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')" />
</Target>
<Target Name="Clean">
<Delete Files="#(Content->'$(OutputPath)%(RelativeDir)%(Filename)%(E‌​xtension)')"/>
</Target>
<Target Name="Rebuild" DependsOnTargets="Clean;Build">
</Target>
</Project>
Note that this always copies all the "content" files to the output directory - the options "Copy If Newer", "Copy Always" and "Do Not Copy", as presented in the visual studio GUI ( appears as, for example, <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory> in the .csproj file) are ignored.
In my situation, I needed to have a set of configuration files that would be common to many projects. To simply achieve this, I performed the following steps:
Create a Class Library project named "Configuration"
Delete all *.cs files from Configuration project
Put configuration files in a "Configuration" folder in the Configuration project
Copy configuration files to required projects in the post-build event. In Configuration project's Properties > Build Events > Post-build event:
xcopy "$(TargetDir)Configuration\*" "$(SolutionDir)TARGET_PROJECT\$(OutDir)" /i /v /q /s /y
In the above, replace TARGET_PROJECT with your actual project
This will copy all the files in the Configurations folder to the output directory of the project that needs the configuration files (eg. MyProject/bin/Debug, etc).

Resources