Similar to this question, except we are not using TeamCity. The error I receive in TFS is:
The project file "xyz.rptproj" is not supported by MSBuild
and cannot be built.
In our old process (TFS 2013 XAML builds) we had to create a custom build template to call the IDE. I cannot seem to find a way to do this with TFS 2017. Is it as easy as having a PowerShell script call it?
Related
Developers use the Visual Studio (VS) GUI to develop their solutions and get their projects all building using a solution file (.SLN). The build teams using vNext then have to automate those builds using MSBuild instead of devenv.exe (the Visual Studio executable file). This is a serious and chronic problem because not only is MSBuild incapable of building several project types, but the build order is defined in a completely different, and complex, way.
Some Microsoft advice (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/msbuild/incorrect-solution-build-ordering-when-using-msbuild-exe) is to switch to explicit dependencies in each .*proj file and remove all dependency specifications in the .SLN file. This sounds like a person who has never worked in a relatively powerless build team trying to get development teams to:
do a lot of what they perceive as time-wasting extra work and to
change how they do things
What build teams need is a way to automate whatever VS allows dev teams to build. If VS is given a SLN to build, then a vNext build needs to be able to use that same SLN in the same way. Instead vNext currently only offers MSBuild as the build tool. MSBuild has many more options than devenv, so that would be great, IF it could be made to use the SLN to govern dependencies in the same way as VS, and would be upgraded to build all the same project types.
There have been prospective efforts, referenced by PatrickLu-MSFT at Build project using devenv.exe in TFS 15RC1 Build Server, to enhance a vNext build step to allow devenv to be used instead of MSBuild, but those efforts seem to have been dropped.
Maybe someone has developed a custom vNext build step to build using devenv?
Here is an existing extension you can reference, which provides a build task in your TFS/VSTS instance that will allow you to build your projects using DevEnv.com (Visual Studio):
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mmajcica.devenv-build
If you want to automatically use TFS/DevOps build whatever solution files our development teams get working using Visual Studio, you could set CI trigger in build pipeline, when the solution build successfully on local, you can check in/commit the changes, and trigger TFS/DevOps builds.
I am attempting to create an extension that will periodically check to see if the user has the latest version of all files in a specific project or branch. This specific project/branch is going to be determined by what item is checked out for editing. The reason for creating this extension is to create reminders every time a file becomes unsynced. This will prevent merging into items that are out of date.
I am also working with Gated Check-ins, so it would be advantageous if I could check for latest version after a gated build succeeds.
I am having trouble finding the APIs for TFS integration when making an extension for visual studio. I am also having trouble finding an API to use to make a direct TFS extension. I am assuming this is because everything that has to do with TFS commands should be done using TFS command line commands.
I am running TFS and VS 2015.
Thanks in advance for the help!
You can use NuGet packages of TFS API:
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Client
Microsoft.TeamFoundationServer.Client
Microsoft.TeamFoundationServer.ExtendedClient
All the DLL's also stored in the following location, you can take them and use in your project:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\TeamFoundation\Team Explorer
A good tutorial on how to use the API you can find here.
We are in the process of upgrading our TFS 2013 server to TFS 2015. In that regard I have run into an issue when trying to perform an application build on a build agent with the new version, using our XAML template build script (which was created in TFS 2013).
Most of our solutions use the above-mentioned template when we build them. The solutions (sadly, still) use setup projects (.vdproj) to generate an MSI package for the application. To build the setup project, and produce an MSI, for a given application; we call the devenv.exe (in our case, it points to Visual Studio 2013) in our template build script:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe /Build "Release|Any CPU" "d:\<path_to_solution>\solution.sln" /Out c:\temp\out.log
However, on our new build agent no MSI is produced, and calling devenv.exe yields neither any output, nor any error messages. If I try to call devenv.com, however, it starts building, but still no MSI is being produced.
When things start to build using devenv.com It seems like it is completely disregarding the setup project (I have checked the build configurations, and the setup project is checked for build on the "Release|Any CPU" configuration).
I have looked at build logs, build process activity logs, and I have also tried to perform the steps manually on the build agent, but I haven't been able to find anything that could point me in the direction as to what might be causing the issue.
Does anyone have an idea what could be the reason for this? Could it be an issue with TFS Build 2015? The only difference between the old setup, and the new - as far as I can tell - is the following:
VS 2013 was installed on C: rather than D: on the new build agent, i.e. the path to devenv would be different, but that should not matter as long as the build script is looking in the right place, and finds it...
We use a different drop location than what we used for the old setup
Appreciate any help and suggestions I can get.
Problem solved, and everything is now building successfully. I did not do a good enough job of looking at the diff between the setup we had on the build agent we used for TFS Build 2013 vs. the one we set up for TFS Build 2015.
Firstly, to be able to build setup projects in VS 2013, one needs to install the Visual Studio 2013 Installer Projects extension on the build agent.
However, there are some bugs with this extension that often causes building setup projects to yield the following error message: "An error occurred while validating. HRESULT = '8000000A'". This error can be fixed by modifying the registry, as described in this SO post.
Building the setup projects using devenv.exe, however, still doesn't work. I have not been able to figure out why, yet.
Use the Vnext build in TFS 2015 to build .vdproj. You just need to add one additional build step i.e "command line" then call devenv.com to build.
Such that,
tool :
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.com
arguments :
HelloWorldTestInstaller\HelloWorldTestInstaller.vdproj /build release
This will help you.
I've got a CI build set up to build my solution and run my unit tests. The solution is VS 2010. My test project targets the 4.0 framework. And the 10.0 version of the Unit Test Framework is properly referenced. If I run the tests locally in VS 2010, I have no issues. However, when I run my CI build on the TFS server (which is TFS 2010), I get an error stating:
File not found: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\MSTest.exe
This is the MSTest for VS 2008, and it's not installed on my TFS server. I do have VS 2010 installed on my TFS server including the testing tools but TFS doesn't look for it.
My question: Why would TFS be attempting to use this version of MSTest to run the tests? I can't find this path specified anywhere in any project, solution, or configuration on the server.
The solution and related projects began life as VS 2008 projects and were migrated to VS 2010. These files were pulled into a fresh install of TFS 2010 and a new TFS project. They were not migrated from a 2008 TFS server.
Activity Log
Full Log
Thanks!
Just a follow-up on this because I eventually discovered what was causing my issue and it was not the answer given above. We were referencing a third party assertion utility kind of like "Should" called "SoftwareApproach.TestingExtensions" in this project. This dll was an older one and contained a reference to MSTest 9 (from VS 2008). Because this dll referenced MSTest 9, it was causing this error on the build server, however, the test would run locally. Frankly, not sure why it didn't complain locally as there was no binding redirect and VS 2008 is not installed.
However, updating to a build of the mentioned dll that instead referenced MSTest 10 resolved our issue on the build server.
From looking at the logs, the problem is that MSTest is running here using the wrong version because you have a legacy assembly reference.
Make sure your unit test project and any other projects being executed for test have the correct assembly reference to the new mstest assembly. I am guessing you either missed a reference or added in the new reference and forgot to remove the legacy one.
"I can't find this path specified anywhere in any project, solution, or configuration on the server."
Yeah, you wouldn't see the path anywhere- it will just exec based on what assembly is referenced into the unit test proj.
I'm a solo developer running Visual Studio 2008 and looking into MSBuild to improve my build process.
Almost all of the tutorials I've found so far have plenty of information about writing a build file. However I'm having a lot of trouble finding out how to integrate MSBuild into Visual Studio. Maybe MSBuild is only used with something like CruiseControl but that's overkill for me as a single developer.
Where should the build file live in a Visual Studio project and how can I run it from within the IDE?
Visual Studio executes MSBuild automatically for projects it supports.
If you right click on a project and unload it, you can then edit it in Visual Studio. Reload (right click on project again), force a (re)build to test your changes. An alternative is to edit the project file in an external editor and Visual Studio will detect saves and offer to reload the project for you.
Sounds like you're on the right track, and if you are considering writing Targets or custom MSBuild Tasks, take the time to separate them from your current project so that you can re-use them. Don't re-invent the wheel though, the two main complementary MSBuild projects are MSBuild Community Tasks and MSBuild Extension Pack.
Update: Judging from your comment on Mitch's answer, you might also want to consider adding a new Configuration element or custom properties to a project. A new MSBuild Configuration (something other than the default Debug/Release) could run unit tests, build documentation, or whatever you want automated. A custom MSBuild property would allow you to use normal Debug/Release Configuration and extend it to automate more of your build process, just depends on what you want. Either approach could also be driven from the command line.
As others have noted, MSBuild is already available when you install Visual Studio.
If you want to integrate into VS2008: Running MSBuild from Visual Studio
MSBuild is the build engine used by Visual Studio to process the files included in a project.The Visual Studio project files themselves (**.csproj* for C#, and .vbproj for VB, for example) are in fact MSBuild scripts that are run every time you build a project.
Your .csproj file is a MSBuild file. So you are actually using it already.
You may of course wish to create a separate build file to have more control, especially within a continuous integration or nightly build say.
If you simply wish to edit your project build file then you can use the IDE to edit some settings such as pre and post build actions or edit the Xml itself by unloading project and right click and editing.
You can use your current .vcproj files to build your project with MSBuild. However, as MSBuild is not directly supported (at least for vc++) vcbuild is used instead (internally).
In VS2010 all project files are MSBuild based...
This is an older article about some simple extension points from the msbuild team
How To: Insert Custom Process at Specific Points During Build
Also, don't forget you can use the MSBuild SideKick for developing and debugging your (local) msbuilds, available for free at http://www.attrice.info/msbuild/
I'd suggest you call msbuild as a post build step. Then you can put your build script somewhere in your solution and call it.
<windowsdir>\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild.exe c:\temp\MyProject\mybuildfile.proj
The easiest way is probably to invoke your custom build script using a post-build step. Right click project, choose "Build Events" and call msbuild with your custom msbuild file from there.
I use the msbuild template to intergrate with visual studio
http://msbuildtemplate.codeplex.com/