Summary
Does SourcePath property of a file that is added to a setup project support variables? If yes, How can I ask it to pick the file from the folder corresponding to the current build configuration?
Detail
I'm deploying my VSTO add-in using MSI installer, which requires me to include MyAddin.vsto and MyAddin.dll.manifest files to the application folder. I include them manually using Add File command. The problem however is that if I change build configuration from Debug to Release and build my installer, it will still pick those two files from the Debug folder (becuz their paths are hard-coded in the setup project), potentially bundling an old version of the files in the installer. Therefore I want to use some macro/variable that would evaluate to the current build configuration.
The setup project file (.vdproj) adds files like this:
"SourcePath" = "8:..\\MyAddin\\obj\\Release\\MyAddin.vsto"
The path is relative, but the build configuration is hard-coded. I'm looking forward to something like:
"SourcePath" = "8:..\\MyAddin\\obj\\[$BUILD_CONFIG]\\MyAddin.vsto"
I'm using VS2015 community and .NET Framework 4.5.
Related
I am running the build command like this:
set MSBuildParams=/m:16 /target:Rebuild
/property:Configuration=""Release"";Platform=""x64"" msbuild
%MSBuildParams% C:\path\to\the\sln\Solution.sln
I'm using the following msbuild version:
Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 14.0.25420.1
Solution.sln contains 2 projects,
let's say Project1 and Project2.
Project1 is set as the startup project.
After I build the Solution.sln using this setup, I would like to
rebuild it, but this time using Project2 as the startup project.
Is there a way to do that, without changing the Solution.sln?
What would be the best practice to accomplish that?
You could use the specific command line to build/rebuild the specific project using MSbuild like the following case.
specify project file of a solution using msbuild
But we have to change certain files if you want to change the start up project without using the VS IDE, since the setting was stored into the ".SUO" file.
Actually there is no setting in ".SLN" file for startup project even if you don't want to change it,
In addition, the start up project was the running project of the solution, maybe you don't have to change it:
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsdesktop/en-US/b6347dce-8449-4cbb-a606-7b19407a1026/how-do-i-set-the-startup-project-in-the-sln-file?forum=vcgeneral
I'm using Win10 64bit OS, with Wix3.11RC Toolset installed. My VS2017 have created a Wix v3 installer Project. Our team is using TeamCity9.1 as the CI tool.
Now I want to make the Build Agent in TeamCity to support wixproj build without touch CI server settings(I don't have privilege ). I basically follow some tutorials to checked in all necessary Wix build files(the wix Bin folder, and the wix.targets ) which is put in a relative path to the source code, now I'm blocked with the path issue in editing .wixproj file, the official doc said:
http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/msbuild/daily_builds.html
<PropertyGroup>
<WixToolPath>$(SourceCodeControlRoot)\wix\[[Version]]\</WixToolPath>
<WixTargetsPath>$(WixToolPath)Wix.targets</WixTargetsPath>
<WixTasksPath>$(WixToolPath)wixtasks.dll</WixTasksPath>
</PropertyGroup>
And this is mine:
<PropertyGroup>
<WixToolPath>..\..\wix\3.11\</WixToolPath>
<WixTargetsPath>$(WixToolPath)targetsFile\v3.x\wix.targets</WixTargetsPath>
<WixTasksPath>$(WixToolPath)wixtasks.dll</WixTasksPath>
</PropertyGroup>
The reason I'm using the relative path for WixToolPath is the $(SourceCodeControlRoot) was resolved as D:\ here, but actually the source code will be checked out by CI server and put under a random folder like D:\ABC\f14c7929aa63f1fc. By my configuration, the local build even can't go through, the build error indicates the WixTasksPath had been resolved to a non-existed path: C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\WiX\v3.x\..\..\wix\3.11\wixtasks.dll
So how can I achieve? thanks!
One of the approaches you can try is to change the path in the file to the absolute path using TeamCity-provided references before invoking the tool. In TeamCity settings you can reference the checkout directory path as %system.teamcity.build.checkoutDir% or use ${teamcity.build.checkoutDir} within MSBuild step if run as MSBuild build step.
You can do the replacement in the first build step or just use TeamCity file content replacer to change the old value to new one.
just use
<WixTasksPath>wixtasks.dll</WixTasksPath>
this worked for me.
Using ClickOnce, is it possible to include a file (resource, dll, image, whatever) to be copied to a different location and NOT the app folder?
What I am trying to achieve exactly is to install Microsoft.Web.Publishing.Tasks.dll + Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.dll and their .targets to C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v12.0\Web so those msbuild tasks can be used on workstations that do not have Visual Studio installed.
It was so easy using a Setup Project before VS 2013!!
I repeat: I do NOT want those files to be installed in the app folder (so please don't tell me to set the option Copy to Output = Always" on project files).
Thanks.
No. You can't do it with ClickOnce.
Either deploy the files and write code to copy files when your app starts. Or use some other deployment option, like msi.
My Visual Studio 2013 Custom Build Tool step is failing because the directory in which the step is being executed is not the directory where the project file is (which was by default the case up until recently). I can patch it by adding a cd command to the start of the step to change to the project directory but I was wondering if anyone could tell me
how this directory path is set
how to change it.
The build always assumes the project directory as 'base' directory.
This gives msbuild a set location (Builds to bin\debug is a subfolder off 'Base', reference hint paths and a lot more besides).
I would just change the execute of your tool to be reference based (i.e ....\tool.exe or similar) or make use of the path environment variables ($(OutDir),$(TargetPath),$(ProjectPath),$(TargetDir) etc).
Another option that I make use of is to have a batch file called 'post.bat' that has the necessary steps to execute a custom tool. This is then placed in the project folder and added to the project as an artefact.
Without knowing exactly where your custom tool resides relative to the project (or solution) or what the 'working directory' requirements of the custom tool are I cannot suggest more.
I have a visual C++ project for a DLL and a setup project for it. In the installer i've added the content files of my project.
Is there a way to add a file as a content file depending on if you are compiling debug or release? I want to include boost_date_time-vc100-mt-gd-1_51.dll if I compile under debug and boost_date_time-vc100-mt-1_51.dll if I compile under release.
My additional deps looks like this
Shell32.lib;libzmq.lib;log4cxx.lib;boost_date_time-vc100-mt-gd-1_51.lib;...
Under additional library directories i've added the path to all these .lib files which also contains their respective .dll files
I've tried the following with no success...
Added a Custom build step to run before build that copies the correct dll files to the OutDir and set the Output of this custom build step to be the dll files.
Conditionally include a content file by manually editing the vcxproj file. If configuration was release mode I would set the non-debug version as deployment content and the debug version to false and vice versa for Debug mode. This looked something like this,
<ItemGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='Release'">
<None Include="boost_date_time-vc100-mt-1_51.dll ">
<DeploymentContent>true</DeploymentContent>....
</None></ItemGroup
Neither of these worked however. The second option seemed to always default to debug mode no matter how I built my project.
When you add a dependency, you can add it to one configuration or all configurations:
[This picture is of VS 2012, but 2010 and 2008 look pretty much the same.]
So, you pick the configuration you want to modify at the top-left, then add the library to the additional dependencies. Note that what you add here will be the .lib file associated with a DLL, not the dll itself (the compiler will make the executable depend on the DLL because you link with its .lib file).