Shared Publish Profiles with User Specific variables - visual-studio

We have a complex visual studio publish profile for developers to deploy files. I want developers to all to use the same publish profile whilst have some variables configurable for each individual user that don't get checked in to source control. Is this possible? If so then how?
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
This file is used by the publish/package process of your Web project. You can customize the behavior of this process
by editing this MSBuild file. In order to learn more about this please visit https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=208121.
-->
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<WebPublishMethod>FileSystem</WebPublishMethod>
<PublishProvider>FileSystem</PublishProvider>
<LastUsedBuildConfiguration>Debug</LastUsedBuildConfiguration>
<LastUsedPlatform>Any CPU</LastUsedPlatform>
<SiteUrlToLaunchAfterPublish />
<LaunchSiteAfterPublish>True</LaunchSiteAfterPublish>
<ExcludeApp_Data>False</ExcludeApp_Data>
<DeleteExistingFiles>False</DeleteExistingFiles>
<PipelineDependsOn>
CopyAssets;
$(PipelineDependsOn);
</PipelineDependsOn>
<publishUrl>C:\inetpub\wwwroot\local.MyApp\Website</publishUrl>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="CopyAssets">
<Message Text="Inside of CopyAssets" Importance="high"/>
<Exec Command="%WINDIR%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -File "$(SolutionDir)Foundation\Scripts\Powershell\CopyAssets.ps1" $(SolutionDir) $(publishUrl)"/>
</Target>
</Project>
This is it in its simplest form. In this example I'd want developers to configure for example publish URL on a per user basis ideally in the .user file if possible or get a variable or parameter from somewhere we can pass into this publish profile.

I resolved this by creating a .wpp.targets file. I created one within the project I am publishing. This allowed me to define the Powershell I am running to run for all publish profiles.
This enabled me to allow developers to define their own publish profiles and still run the script allowing the publish URL value to be individual for each developer.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<PipelineDependsOn>
CopyAssets;
$(PipelineDependsOn);
</PipelineDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="CopyAssets">
<Message Text="Inside of CopyAssets" Importance="high"/>
<Exec Command="%WINDIR%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -File "$(SolutionDir)Foundation\Scripts\Powershell\CopyAssets.ps1" $(SolutionDir) $(publishUrl)"/>
</Target>
</Project>
I removed the PipelineDepndsOn part from my publish profile and did it in the target file as I defined above.

Related

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

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!
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.
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>

How can I use openfiles.exe to disconnect files below a directory

I want to utilise the Microsoft windows command Openfiles in an MsBuild task to disconnect users from DLLs before deploying.
Openfiles.exe /disconnect
The wildcard (*) can be used to disconnect all open files on the specified computer.
I would like to only disconnect locked files BELOW a specific target directory.
However, this isn't explained in the help guide.
Can this be done?
If you want to do it with msbuild project, you can achive this using MSBuild Batching:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<File Include="$(TargetDir)**\*" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="Disconnect">
<Exec Command="openfiles /disconnect "%(File.FullPath)"" />
</Target>
</Project>
This batching will take every file in the folder $(TargetDir) and its subfolers, and for each file will execute the command.

MSBuild attach to Visual Studio Project Build

I am using YUICompressor.Net for minification. The .proj file executes from MSBuild and works fine.
The question is how do I attach the MSBuild action to the build of the main Project?
I know there are some "After Build" events, bud how do I point them to execute my additional MSBuild.
In case it's relevant this is how my MSBuild file looks like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/MsBuild/2003">
<UsingTask TaskName="CssCompressorTask" AssemblyFile="..\bin\Yahoo.Yui.Compressor.Build.MsBuild.dll" />
<UsingTask TaskName="JavaScriptCompressorTask" AssemblyFile="..\bin\Yahoo.Yui.Compressor.Build.MsBuild.dll" />
<Target Name="Minify">
<ItemGroup>
<CssFile_Common Include="../Styles/common.css"/>
<CssFile_Plugins_All Include="../Styles/plugins.all.css"/>
</ItemGroup>
<CssCompressorTask
SourceFiles="#(CssFile_Common)"
DeleteSourceFiles="false"
OutputFile="../Styles/common.min.css"
CompressionType="Standard"
LoggingType="Info"
PreserveComments="false"
LineBreakPosition="-1"
/>
<CssCompressorTask
SourceFiles="#(CssFile_Plugins_All)"
DeleteSourceFiles="false"
OutputFile="../Styles/plugins.all.min.css"
CompressionType="Standard"
LoggingType="Info"
PreserveComments="false"
LineBreakPosition="-1"
/>
</Target>
</Project>
Assuming your sample file is named Minify.proj you would simply need to put something like this at the bottom of your main project file:
<Import Project="Minify.proj" />
<Target Name="BeforeBuild" DependsOnTargets="Minify">
</Target>

Moving compile items in msbuild into a separate file?

This is probably a FAQ, but we weren't able to find a solution even after a lot of searching.
We have a number of msbuild files that all operate on the same set of source files. (It's not particularly relevant but they compile to completely different platforms.) To make managing these a little simpler, we'd like to move the <Compile> source file names to a separate file and reference that from all the msbuild files.
We tried cutting the <ItemGroup> containing the <Compile> items and pasting it into a new file, and surrounding it with
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" ToolsVersion="3.5" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
and then referencing that file from the original with
<Import Project="Common.files.csproj" />
but that does not work - the solution opens (with a warning since we hacked the default config), but no items appear in the Solution Explorer.
What are we doing wrong?
Tried with Visual Studio 2010:
1) Create your external .proj (or .target) file and add your files (I used a different item name but that shouldn't matter)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<ExternalCompile Include="Program.cs" />
<ExternalCompile Include="Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs" />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
2) Import your external .proj file at the top of your Visual Studio project file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Import Project="MyExternalSources.proj" />
<PropertyGroup>
...
and modify the Compile ItemGroup like this:
...
<ItemGroup>
<Compile Include="#(ExternalCompile)" />
</ItemGroup>
...
Warning: You'll have to add new items/files to your external .proj file - all items/files added from within Visual Studio will end up like this:
...
<ItemGroup>
<Compile Include="#(ExternalCompile)" />
<Compile Include="MyNewClass.cs" />
</ItemGroup>
...
I've never seen "include" files work with MSBuild. Obviously Targets files work this way, but I haven't seen a partial msbuild file included in another. COuld you use a method such as illustrated in this?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171454(VS.80).aspx
Using wildcards is how I've addressed this in the past.

MSBuild pre clean customization

I am working with Visual Studio 2010. I have directed project output to a specific folder which will contain all the DLLs and EXEs when built. However when I clean the solution, the folder is not getting cleaned, and the DLLs are still present in it.
Can anyone tell me how to handle the clean solution command to clear out the folders I want to clean? I tried working with MSBuild and handling the BeforeClean and AfterClean targets, but it did not provide the desired result.
The answer from Sergio should work but I think it could be cleaner to override the BeforeClean/AfterClean targets. These are hooks into the build/clean process provided by microsoft. When you do a clean, VS do call the targets : BeforeClean;Clean;AfterClean and by default the first and the last do nothing.
In one of your existing .csproj file you can add the following :
<Target Name="BeforeClean">
<!-- DO YOUR STUFF HERE -->
</Target>
You can add to your VS .sln file special target named let's say BuildCustomAction.csproj:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="3.5" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>
<Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">AnyCPU</Platform>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<CleanOutCatalogFiles Include="..\..\bin\$(Configuration)\**\*.dll">
<Visible>false</Visible>
</CleanOutCatalogFiles>
<CleanOutCatalogFiles Include="..\..\bin\$(Configuration)\**\*.exe">
<Visible>false</Visible>
</CleanOutCatalogFiles>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="Build">
</Target>
<Target Name="Rebuild"
DependsOnTargets="Clean;Build">
</Target>
<Target Name="Clean"
Condition="'#(CleanOutCatalogFiles)'!=''">
<Message Text="Cleaning Output Dlls and EXEs" Importance="high" />
<Delete Files="#(CleanOutCatalogFiles)" />
</Target>
</Project>
Place it everywhere you want and specify relative path to the output catalog for your binaries. Add in VS this project as existing. That's all. With this you can do own custom actions for three common actions in VS: Build, Rebuild, Clean.
There exists more complex way to customize build process using CustomBeforeMicrosoftCommonTargets and CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets but it requires to be very good in MSBuild.
Hope this helps.

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