I'm trying to create a deployable package from a web api project, and I'm getting the error
error MSB4057: The target "Package" does not exist in the project.
When I try to build a web application running MVC5, I have no issue.
The command to build the MVC5 application is
MSBuild.exe Project.Web.csproj /P:Configuration=Debug /T:Package
The command for the failing web api application is
MSBuild.exe Project.Api.csproj /P:Configuration=Debug /T:Package
I'm assuming that perhaps I need to install something, but I have no idea what. Can anyone tell what I'm doing wrong?
Note: If you need more information let me know.
I read around and saw that I might have to add the property VisualStudioVersion, but whenever I tried it the package still failed.
I was just comparing the csproj files and noticed that the following property group was missing:
<PropertyGroup>
<VisualStudioVersion Condition="'$(VisualStudioVersion)' == ''">10.0</VisualStudioVersion>
<VSToolsPath Condition="'$(VSToolsPath)' == ''">$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)</VSToolsPath>
</PropertyGroup>
Adding this fixes it, so maybe I need both the VisualStudioVersion and VSToolsPath.
After that I quickly ran into deployment issues, which in turn were related to more config differences. This time it was the top-most node Project. The attribute ToolsVersion was set to 4.0 in one project, and 12.0 in the other. Setting them both to 4.0 fixed it, probably because I was compiling with MSBuild 4? I'm not going to lie, it was mostly trial-and-error for a few days to figure this out. God I hope I never have to touch this code again...
Related
I'm trying to share an internal company assembly via NuGet packages and a private source. This assembly targets .NET Framework 4.6.1. I want these NuGet packages to pack automatically from Visual Studio during the release build. I see I can add <GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild> to .csproj. I'm not sure if this is a .NET Standard-specific property but it seems to partially work. However, when I build, I get
error MSB4044: The "GetPackOutputItemsTask" task was not given a value for the required parameter "PackageOutputPath".
I've been trying to learn how to pass this parameter from within Visual Studio but I don't see a lot of documentation on parameters except when calling it from the command line manually. Is there an easy way to do this from within Visual Studio? Am I going about this wrong?
Edit: This is using a .NET Framework class library. I can run the pack command from the command line giving it the required parameters with /p:PackageOutputPath="path\here". It seems this might have been designed for .NET Core and Standard projects and Visual Studio might not handle packing .NET Framework projects.
To enable on-build packing in a "non SDK" project, using old .NET framework (eg:. 4.5.1) and visual studio 2019 without using custom Target. you need to do the following step:
add a first PropertyGroup tag on the csproj
add minimal tags Authors and PackageOutputPath
check that the same PropertyGroup has GeneratePackageOnBuild
Now the variables will be passed to the internally triggered msbuild -t:Pack command.
Here an example of working configuration, please make sure this will be the first <PropertyGroup> of the .csproj:
<PropertyGroup>
<Title>packageid</Title>
<Description>your description</Description>
<Version>1.1.1</Version>
<ReleaseNotes>New package system</ReleaseNotes>
<Authors>authors</Authors>
<Owners>owners</Owners>
<Copyright>your copyrights</Copyright>
<PackageOutputPath>bin\Package</PackageOutputPath>
<GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild>
</PropertyGroup>
If you are looking for the references, here:
how to create a nuget package with msbuild
all possible tags to set on the csproj on the first PropertyGroup
Am I going about this wrong?
This GeneratePackageOnBuild property is not something for .net framework projects. Create a new .net Standard or .net Core class library project, right-click the project you'll see a Pack command(not available for .net framework).
If we click the button, VS will pack that assembly into a nuget package. And if someone doesn't want to click that button every time manually, go Project=>Properties=>Package we can see the Generate Nuget Packages on build checkbox. Enable it, and then the nuget package will be created after every build.
Actually, enabling that checkbox in VS will add statement <GeneratePackageOnBuild>true</GeneratePackageOnBuild> to xx.csproj, but the Pack button or Package tab in Project=>Properties are not available for .net framework projects.
So I'm afraid the answer is negative, you should't use that property for .net framework projects.(I tested the property in VS2017 and VS2019, it all just did nothing, can't reproduce the partial work mentioned in your question)
Is there an easy way to do this from within Visual Studio?
You need to use nuget pack command to do that as Lex Li says. And to do this in VS automatically, you can consider configuring that command in Post-Build-Event or using custom after-build target to run that command.
Since you want these NuGet packages to pack automatically from Visual Studio during the release build. You can try adding this script into your xx.csproj file:
<Target Name="CustomPack" AfterTargets="build" Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='Release'">
<Message Text="Custom Pack command starts ..." Importance="high"/>
<Exec Command="nuget pack $(MSBuildProjectFile) -Properties Configuration=Release"/>
</Target>
To run this script successfully, you need to download the nuget.exe and add the path of it to Environment Variables. Or use the full path like "C:\SomePath\Nuget.exe" pack ...
If the build in release mode succeeds, you'll see a xx.nupkg file in project folder.
In addition:
1.For more details about nuget pack command please see this document.
2.And don't forget to create a xx.nuspec file in project folder to avoid encountering warnings like NU5115(xxx was not specified). Similar issue see here.
I have a unique situation of needing to Register for Com Interop for and older application but also needing to pack for use in other internal applications and development in our company. I actually got this to work for a .NET Framework project from Visual Studio. Manually adding GeneratePackageOnBuild did attempt to make a package for me in VS2017. I was also able to add other .NET Core project properties such as <Authors>,<Description>, etc. I haven't tried VS2019 yet so maybe that is more restricted but I hope not.
The issue is VS2017 doesn't feed the pack target the output parameter (in this type of project). So then I tried to call pack in the After Build events but that causes a recursive loop because packing also attempts to build (dotnet and nuget both seem to call the msbuild pack target which calls a build). I then found an option -p:NoBuild=true for msbuild that allows me to call the pack target without msbuild actually building the project. Therefore I added the following command to <PostBuildEvent> and it works.
"$(MSBuildBinPath)\msbuild" -t:Pack "$(ProjectPath)" -p:PackageOutputPath="$(SolutionDir)..\packages" -p:NoBuild=true
Edit: I eventually used the following in my csproj. Calling nuget directly worked better because I had a nuspec file that was not getting merged or fully used when calling MSBuild directly.
<Target Name="CustomPack" AfterTargets="Build" Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='Release'">
<Message Text="Custom Pack command starts ..." Importance="high" />
<Exec Command=""nuget" pack "$(ProjectPath)" -OutputDirectory "$(ProjectDir)..\..\packages" -Prop Configuration=Release" />
</Target>
Add this to your proj file to use the pack target on .net framework projects.
<PackageReference Include="NuGet.Build.Tasks.Pack" Version="6.4.0">
<PrivateAssets>all</PrivateAssets>
<IncludeAssets>runtime; build; native; contentfiles; analyzers</IncludeAssets>
</PackageReference>
if you want to run from command line then use this:
msbuild -t:restore
I know there have been other references to this issue. But I didn't upgrade from one version of VS to another. I am currently using VS 2013. The project builds fine, and has even deployed successfully in the past. This is a brand new app. So it wasn't something inherited from another project. Where can I start looking? What can I post here that may be helpful for you guys to hopefully help me? It is a web api 2 site. I am using the publish command within VS2013.
Adding the lines below to my .csproj file seems to solve the same error for me:
<PropertyGroup>
<VisualStudioVersion Condition="'$(VisualStudioVersion)' == ''">10.0</VisualStudioVersion>
<VSToolsPath Condition="'$(VSToolsPath)' == ''">$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)</VSToolsPath>
</PropertyGroup>
As part of trying to resolve the issue, I've also installed the MSBuild.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.targets Nuget Package. But I'm still not sure it was necessary in order to resolve the issue.
If you get this MSB4057 error from a WebJob project using "Publish as Azure WebJob" using Visual Studio 2013/update 4 - you may need to update the NuGet package Microsoft.Web.WebJobs.Publish
Check MyWebJob\packages.config and if the version is 1.0 you need version 1.02 or higher.
From the package manager console run
Install-Package Microsoft.Web.WebJobs.Publish -Version 1.0.2
With VS 2013 Update 4.
There seems to be issues with the template of a Webjob project so that the reference to webjobs.targets is wrong, even though you've installed the Microsoft.Web.WebJobs.Publish package.
Make sure There Import statement at the bottom of of the project is correct in terms of the path, I tested twice and found it was malformed.
<Import Project="..\..\packages\Microsoft.Web.WebJobs.Publish.1.0.2\tools\webjobs.targets" Condition="Exists('..\..\packages\Microsoft.Web.WebJobs.Publish.1.0.2\tools\webjobs.targets')" />
Also, better avoid using the below, since it binds you to a specific VS version.
<PropertyGroup>
<VisualStudioVersion Condition="'$(VisualStudioVersion)' == ''">10.0</VisualStudioVersion>
<VSToolsPath Condition="'$(VSToolsPath)' == ''">$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)</VSToolsPath>
</PropertyGroup>
FYI, same issue on VS2019, same solution:
Install the nuget Microsoft.Web.WebJobs.Publish
Install the nuget MSBuild.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.targets
For those who are deploying a WebJob, this error might also be due to a missing webjob-publish-settings.json file (it should be located in the Properties folder of the WebJob project). Its structure should be e.g:
{
"$schema": "http://schemastore.org/schemas/json/webjob-publish-settings.json",
"webJobName": "MyWebJob",
"startTime": "2017-01-27T03:00:00+00:00",
"endTime": null,
"jobRecurrenceFrequency": "Hour",
"interval": 1,
"runMode": "Scheduled",
"is_singleton": true
}
(this is for an hourly scheduled job).
Having just re-installed VS 2017 (15.5.6) I ran into this with one of three WCF projects. I picked through the csprojs for all three and could find no difference between them, cutting and pasting the various imports, paths etc from the working ones didn't make any difference.
Adding the nuget package MSBuild.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.targets (v14.0.0.3 was the latest, i.e. VS2015) has fixed the problem...for the moment. I can't believe this has gone away for good though.
Just bumped into this exact error with VS 2015 Update 3. The latest Microsoft.Web.WebJobs.Publish was installed, and I tried unstalling and re-installing for good measure. Still didn't work but there was an error on install that I didn't see the first time around:
install.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system.
This is something that most who have ever run a PowerShell script have run into at one time or another and easy to fix (solution is here), but the error message itself is easy to miss.
Just run the below on the project you want to publish ( and make sure your VisualStudio is running as "Administrator" )
install-package Microsoft.Web.WebJobs.Publish
In order to fix the issue for Visual Studio Enterprise 2015 Update 3, I had to install the following packages and edit the Web job's project file as follows.
STEP 01:Install Packages(Run VS as Administrator for script execution)
1. install-package **MSBuild.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.targets**
2. install-package **Microsoft.Web.WebJobs.Publish -Version 1.0.2**
STEP 02: Edit WebJob Project File(Unload the project from VS and Edit/Save .csproj then reload)
<PropertyGroup>
<VisualStudioVersion Condition="'$(VisualStudioVersion)' == ''">10.0</VisualStudioVersion>
<VSToolsPath Condition="'$(VSToolsPath)' == ''">$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)</VSToolsPath>
</PropertyGroup>
I got this error in a project with a project.json for the nuget packages.
When I removed the project.json and used the packages.config everything worked fine.
Mind that I did set the ExecutionPolicy for Windows PowerShell before I tried this, (see solution of #Jon Crowell), this might be necesary too.
If anybody finds a way to solve this with a project.json please let me know!
I hit this same problem with a project loaded in Visual Studio 2017. It was previously working on a different machine, but not when I migrated to a new one.
After trying all of the suggestions in the answers here (the question is somewhat duplicated several times on StackOverflow), I finally ran across someone elsewhere who mentioned installing the Azure SDK for VS2015.
This isn't supposed to be needed for VS2017, but it solved the problem for me. I'd previously used 2015 on my old machine but had switched to 2017. Apparently, the SDK bits still mattered.
To add to the answer by #Uri Golani, a switch to the new PackageReference way instead of with the traditional nuget that uses the packages folder, meant it looked like I could delete the packages folder. Whelp, apparently, those references in the csproj to the packages folder (which folder I had deleted) were the problem. I'm not sure how to get the right reference to something else (whatever cache the PackageReferences refer to), so for now, just re-adding a packages folder, with the Microsoft.Bcl.Build.1.0.21 and the Microsoft.Web.WebJobs.Publish.1.1.0 nuget folders seemed to fix this.
I have an ASP.NET MVC 4 app developed in VS 2012. The app consists of a main project (MyProject), a unit-test project (MyProject.Tests), an Azure deployment project (MyProject.Azure), and a couple of general-purpose library projects.
When I right-click on either the solution or the main project and select Manage NuGet Packages, I see a bunch of Microsoft updates that have apparently become available in the last month or so. If I click on the Update All button then the updates are apparently installed without any obvious problems, but when I build the solution I get this error message TWICE:
warning : All projects referencing MyProject.csproj must install nuget package Microsoft.Bcl.Build
Ok, so I have two projects that reference MyProject: MyProject.Tests and MyProject.Azure. I can right-click MyProject.Tests, select ManageNuGet Packages, and add Microsoft.Bcl.Build. That gets rid of one of the two warnings. But VS does not give me an option to manage NuGet packages for the MyProject.Azure project.
How do I add the Microsoft.Bcl.Build package to the Azure deployment project?
EDIT:
Thanks to user swell, I now know that a Microsoft Connect issue for this problem has been opened here.
The answer provided by TheESJ is correct, however the wording wasn't clear to me. Since I cannot comment on the answer, I will provide more details here. Specifically, I was having this problem with an Azure project and the following workaround was required to make the warning go away:
When you double-click the warning in VisualStudio, you will be taken to the BclBuildValidateNugetPackageReferences target in the Microsoft.BclBuild.targets file. Above the actual target element, you should find a large comment block that talks about disabling the project reference checks. Since Azure projects cannot have any library references, it is impossible for those Azure projects to fulfill the requirements of this particular build target.
The solution? Disable reference checking from the Azure project since it is impossible to actually add a nuget package reference.
EXAMPLE
So, assume we have two projects: MyAzureProject.ccproj which references MyProject.csproj. Follow these steps:
Right-click on "MyAzureProject" in the Solution Explorer and select "Edit Project File."
Find the project reference to "MyProject." It should look something like:
<ProjectReference Include="..\MyProject\MyProject.csproj">
<Name>MyProject</Name>
<Project>{1d99490e-d140-4897-9890-238e673a5864}</Project>
...
</ProjectReference>
Add the following element inside of the ProjectReference element:
<Properties>SkipValidatePackageReferences=true</Properties>
Your project reference should now look like this:
<ProjectReference Include="..\MyProject\MyProject.csproj">
<Name>MyProject</Name>
<Project>{1d99490e-d140-4897-9890-238e673a5864}</Project>
...
<Properties>SkipValidatePackageReferences=true</Properties>
</ProjectReference>
Right-click on "MyAzureProject" in Solution Explorer and choose "Reload Project."
You should now be able to rebuild and the error should be gone.
If you double click the warning it gives you instructions for disabling the warning.
It is safe to disable for projectreferences from projects that don't yet support Nuget.
See below portion in bold copied from Microsoft.Bcl.Build.targets.
BclBuildValidateNugetPackageReferences
This target can be disabled for a project reference by setting SkipValidatePackageReferences=true for the reference:
<ProjectReference Include="..\pcl\pcl.csproj">
<Project>{664a9e98-fac7-4567-a046-0dde95fddb48}</Project>
<Name>pcl</Name>
<Properties>SkipValidatePackageReferences=true</Properties>
</ProjectReference>
I faced the same issue and was trying to update Microsoft.Bcl.Build.targets; which did not help.
After some investigation found that .csproj file of the Azure Service project must be modified to include <Properties>SkipValidatePackageReferences=true</Properties>.
This was not apparent from the answer of #TheESJ and so decided to post separate answer. Thanks to #TheESJ.
I encountered this issue a number of times, and the Properties method does indeed work, but when dealing with a Wix project, I had to do the following instead:
<AdditionalProperties>SkipValidatePackageReferences=true</AdditionalProperties>
When I used the Properties Xml node, I got a new error:
The OutputPath property is not set for project
'MyInstallerProject.csproj'. Please check to make sure that you
have specified a valid combination of Configuration and Platform for
this project. Configuration='Debug' Platform='x86'. This error may
also appear if some other project is trying to follow a
project-to-project reference to this project, this project has been
unloaded or is not included in the solution, and the referencing
project does not build using the same or an equivalent Configuration
or Platform.
After failing to resolve the issues with any of the above answers, I simply followed the instructions contained within the Microsoft.Bcl.Build.targets file (displayed after double clicking on the error in the build output window).
I unloaded my project (referencing Azure packages), encountering the error. Edited the project file and inserted the following...
<PropertyGroup>
<SkipValidatePackageReferences>true</SkipValidatePackageReferences>
</PropertyGroup>
...at the top of the project file before the first PropertyGroup.
The Generate Serialization Assemblies option in Visual Studio creates a MyAssembly.XmlSerializers.dll when my project is built. This question (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/934411/what-is-myassembly-xmlserializers-dll-generated-for) indicates a reason why it's there in the first place, and some of the answers provide ways to turn it off, but my question is why would you choose to turn it off? Does having it turned on cause problems in certain situations (and, if so, what are those situations)?
Only problems you might be facing are with build tools - such as msbuild, because if you use sgen from x32 SDK on assembly that is explicitly x64 it will raise a build-time error (you can easily overcome this by setting correct SGenToolPath path to msbuild or target MSIL instead). IMHO it is better to deal with build time issues and have quicker startup time.
Turning it off stopped the build and run time errors I was getting as a result of upgrading my application to v4.0. I was getting SGEN errors after trying many of the solutions posted online. Doing this solved that issue.
I had to turn it off when I needed to Sign a "ClickOnce" application. I could not successfully deploy it with the Generate Serialization Assemblies on. The MyAssembly.XmlSerializers.dll had reference in the manifest file, but it is was not part of the deployment package.
Right click your project and select Edit.
Next add this inside "Release" property group
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCPU' ">
<GenerateSerializationAssemblies>off</GenerateSerializationAssemblies>
</PropertyGroup>
I am trying to write unit tests for my transformations, so I am running:
msbuild migrated-project.csproj /p:Configuration=Release /T:TransformWebConfig.
This works for a new project I create in VS2010, but doesn't in this project. I'm assuming it's because it was originally a 2008 project. I know this is supposed to run in a webplatformbuild whatever, but what I'm trying to do, is just run the transform, so I can grab the transformed web.config, and run some unit tests to make sure the right values exist.
I don't see TransformWebConfig referenced as a target in either project, so I'm not sure what I'm looking for.
TransformWebConfig is referenced through Microsoft.WebApplication.targets, which references Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets which contains the TransformWebConfig target you're after.
I don't know what's the problem with your project without having a look at your project file. Do you mind to attach it?
Might be worth to check whether the project references the version 10 of Visual Studio WebApplication target:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />)
instead of:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v9.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />