I am building a project file for our application that I am going to execute from our build machine. I was wondering if it is possible for me to open the project file and get the same view visual studio gives me of the solution when I open a solution file.
So here is my Contosa.proj file so far.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" ToolsVersion="12.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)'=='' ">Debug</Configuration>
<RootNamespace>Contosa</RootNamespace>
<AssemblyName>Contosa</AssemblyName>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Projects Include="C:\Users\localuser\Documents\Perforce\Contosa\Branches\Working23\UI\Desktop\ContosaClient\ContosaClient.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
<Target Name="Build">
<PropertyGroup>
<Contosa>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\UI\Desktop\ContosaClient\ContosaClient.csproj</Contosa>
</PropertyGroup>
<MSBuild Projects="$(Contosa)"
Properties="Configuration=QA;
VisualStudioVersion=12.0;
DevEnvDir=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\;
SolutionDir=$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\"/>
</Target>
</Project>
Currently double clicking this file with visual studio as its associated application will open the Contosa.proj for text editing. I would really like it to be possible to associate my Contosa.proj file with visual studio like our Contosa.sln file is. So when developers open it with visual studio they get the same view that you get from the Contosa.sln. I don't understand what parts of a csproj or a sln file make them open as projects or solutions in visual studio.
UPDATE 1
I am looking to do what this user Replace .sln with MSBuild and wrap contained projects into targets did but I want the project file to be able to opened by the user like a solution file. I want the Projects I include to be loaded into the solution explorer.
When visual studio installs, it configures explorer to launch visual studio when a .csproj is doubleclicked (How can I set a file association from a custom file type to a program). Your windows, and your developers windows, don't know what a .proj is. So rename it .csproj or distribute a .sln which references .proj
Related
I would like to add some MsBuild files, which are in different Git repositories, but are always built at the same time, to a common Visual Studio solution. In VS2022, support for multi-repo solutions has been added, which seems like a useful feature for me.
My MsBuild files are quite simple. They do not compile anything; they only run an external tool or print summaries of item lists.
I have renamed the extension of my files from .proj to .msbuildproj, since .proj was not an accepted project format in Visual Studio. Still, Visual Studio will not accept my MsBuild files as project files ("cannot be opened by the project system", "missing some critical imports").
What is the recommended project/solution type to go with in this case? What would a valid .msbuildproj file look like?
Sample MsBuild file:
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" DefaultTargets="Build">
<Import Project="MyFiles.xml"/>
<Target Name="Build" DependsOnTargets="PrintSourceFiles"/>
<Target Name="PrintSourceFiles">
<ItemGroup>
<MyList Include="#(MyFirstFiles);#(OtherTexts);#(TheRestOfTheFiles)"></MyList>
</ItemGroup>
<Message Text="%(MyList.FullPath)" />
</Target>
</Project>
So I have a solution with 70ish projects that I updated to use a Directory.build.props file to use a single bin folder to make our CI process cleaner. Works great and now everything is in 1 locaction
BUT the problem now is when I open Visual Studio 2017 it creates a bunch of extra project folders now that NEVER get used. Anyway to disable this? It's just confusing to people and clutters up everyone's dev repo.
Example:
%sourceroot%\bin\release\ (this is where all the projects get happily binplaced)
%sourceroot%\bin\project1Neverused\ (unwanted folders that just clutter my dev box up)
%sourceroot%\bin\project2neverUsed\
%sourceroot%\bin\project1Neverused\
%sourceroot%\bin\project2neverUsed\
Here's my Directory.build.props file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="15.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<SolutionDir>$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)</SolutionDir>
<OutputPath>$(SolutionDir)bin\$(Configuration)\$(MSBuildProjectName)</OutputPath>
<OutDir>$(OutputPath)</OutDir>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
Now open the sln file in Visual studio and if you look VS will have auto generated those folders even though you haven't built anything yet. I want that to be disabled because it's just generating junk folders that aren't used. Since we use a props file for msbuild to binplace we didn't update each project file from the default of "bin\debug"
Yes, Visual Studio will create those bin/obj folder by default when you create a new project/solution. It seems that there is no direct setting to prevent Visual Studio from generating these folders.
As a workaround, you can try to add a delete task in Directory.build.props file to delete the those folder:
<Target Name="CleanFolder" AfterTargets="Build">
<RemoveDir Directories="$(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)" />
<RemoveDir Directories="$(ProjectDir)bin" />
</Target>
Hope this helps.
I Have a question about msbuild integration with Visual Studio 2017 Preview.
I have a custom *.csproj:
<Project>
<Target Name="Build">
<Message Text="Hello World" Importance="High"/>
</Target>
</Project>
I want to add this project to Visual Studio, but i have an error:
Project file is incomplete. Expected imports are missing
What i need to add to my custom *.csproj to get my project working in Visual Studio?
First, I suggest you to create a project from Visual Studio or from dotnet cli, and then add your custom target to csproj file.
Anyway, I think that the minimal csproj file looks like this:
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
<TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.2</TargetFramework>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
This is the template from dotnet cli, of course, it depends on your project type (Console, ClassLibrary)
I have a simple MSBuild file that I'm learning with.
Here it is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Clean" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup Label="Globals">
<ProjectGuid>{D5A16164-962E-4A6D-9382-240F31AB6C50}</ProjectGuid>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="Clean">
<ItemGroup>
<BinFiles Include="bin\*.*" />
<fff Include="f\*.*" />
</ItemGroup>
<Delete Files="#(BinFiles)" />
<Delete Files="#(fff)" />
</Target>
</Project>
Now I want to include this in a Visual Studio solution and be able to run the "clean" target from Visual Studio 2012. I tried naming it testproject.msbuildproj like the internet seems to suggest "works", but it doesn't work. When I run the clean command I just get "unexpected error".
If I rename the project to testproject.csproj, it does some unintuitive things like creating compilation directories, but it does actually run my clean command properly. However, this is undesireable because it creates obj and bin/x86/debug type directories. It also looks goofy in Visual Studio because it still gives the References drop down.
How can I use just a plain vanilla MSBuild project from Visual Studio without random errors or false assumptions?
Note I only am having a problem with this from Visual Studio. Using msbuild from the command line it works perfectly
Visual Studio creates bin / obj folders when it opens csproj file. When you click Build / Rebuild / Clean it just uses appropriate targets from the project file.
You cannot stop VS from creating these folders, but you can ask it to create them in say temp folder by setting appropriate properties - refer this MSDN article for details.
So the steps are to rename your project to csproj, and add the following lines into project:
<PropertyGroup>
<OutputPath>$(Temp)\bin</OutputPath>
<IntermediateOutputPath>$(Temp)\obj</IntermediateOutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>
I usually use a bit different approach to work with MSBUILD files from VS:
I use regular csproj file with removed Import ... CSharp.targets part as pure container for my Build projects.
I add actual build files with targets and logic, and all properties, necessary artifacts like XSLT etc using "Include into project", so I can manage hierarchy and change any file from within VS.Net.
I redefine Build / Rebuild targets in csproj file for whatever I need, for example Build may contain minimum output, and while rebuild diagnostic one.
Like this:
<Target Name="Build">
<Exec Command="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\msbuild.exe Builds\build.proj /t:Build /v:m" />
</Target>
<Target Name="Rebuild">
<Exec Command="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\msbuild.exe Builds\build.proj /t:Build /v:d" />
</Target>
From a brand new console application template in visual studio, I edited the .csproj to build another project like this:
...
<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<MSBuild Projects=".\other.mproj"/>
</Target>
...
Where other.mproj is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" DefaultTargets="Build">
<Target Name="Build">
<Message Text="kikou" />
</Target>
</Project>
After a while I discovered that modifying the content of other.mproj (for instance, by introducing errors or changing text kikou to something else) would not be taken into account unless unloading/reloading the project in visual studio.
Building from the command line with 'msbuild myproj.csproj' immediatly detect changes in 'other.mproj'. So it all looks like visual studio is working from a cached version of other.mproj file.
Why is visual studio caching this other script (which is even not included to the project), and how can I solve this issue ?
Update: I also tried this UseHostCompilerIfAvailable, it doesn't work.
NB1: I didn't add other.mproj as a project reference in the .csproj because it is not a .NET project at all (it just creates resources files for the .csproj from other inputs before the build)
NB2: I'm using VS2010 (10.0.10219.1SP1Rel + MSBuild 4.0.30319.1)
Visual Studio caches all MSBuild files, this is done for performance reasons. You will not be able to have an MSBuild only way around this. It may be possible to achieve this via a VS add-in but I'm not 100% sure of that.