I have a Visual Studio 2010/2012 solution with several SharePoint 2010 projects. On build or package event I want VS to auto-copy the output WSP and PDB files to a common folder at the root of my solution so I don't have to manually grab them from each project's bin\$(Configuration) folder.
I added the following elements to each project file:
<Target Name="CopyPackage">
<Exec WorkingDirectory="$(PackagePath)" Command="copy "$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).wsp" "$(SolutionDir)Builds\$(TargetName).wsp"" ContinueOnError="False" />
<Exec WorkingDirectory="$(PackagePath)" Command="copy "$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).pdb" "$(SolutionDir)Builds\$(TargetName).pdb"" ContinueOnError="False" />
</Target>
<PropertyGroup>
<BuildDependsOn>$(BuildDependsOn);CreatePackage;CopyPackage</BuildDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
So far so good, that works fine.
Each project Package name controls the name of the output WSP file and can be different than the name of the output assembly DLL file.
Visual Studio SharePoint Project Package Name http://imageshack.us/a/img842/322/vsspprojectpackagename.png
In this example the WSP will be named Acme.Edms.SP.ContentTypes.WSP.
It happens that I want my WSP to use a somewhat different name from the project and assembly. But if I change the Package name it breaks the CopyPackage target which uses $(TargetName) that maps to the assembly name.
Is there an MSBuild macro for the (SharePoint) package name so I can fix the above MSBuild elements in my project files?
More generally, does MSBuild have a set of macros specific to the SharePoint project and item types?
Something equivalent to Macros for Build Commands and Properties.
Thanks
Here is the list of SharePoint specific MSBuild properties and there is nothing about package name. So you have to use workaround for that e.g.
First you get lists of package files and pdb files like that:
<ItemGroup>
<PackageFiles Include="$(BasePackagePath)\*.$(PackageExtension)" />
<PdbFiles Include="$(BasePackagePath)\*.pdb)" />
</ItemGroup>
And then you can use it in regular copy command.
I didn't test it but it should work.
Related
ITNOA
As you can see in Web Deployment Tool (MSDeploy) : Build Package including extra files or excluding specific files and Adding Custom Files to an MSDeploy Package msbuild desired target has property event that name is PipelineCopyAllFilesToOneFolderForMsdeployDependsOn for handling copy desired files into process.
I need something similar for UWP, to add custom file copy to AppX folder during packaging and f5 click in Visual Studio in .csproj file.
thanks
After many working I found solution, AppX Packaging is coordinate from Microsoft.AppxPackage.Targets that exists in Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Enterprise\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v17.0\AppxPackage and all important target for packaging and running (f5 in Visual Studio) exists here.
As you can see in this file, Microsoft create some blank target between important target in build and packaging pipeline, so you can use override these blank targets very cleanly to control procedure of building and packaging AppX, for example you can override blow targets
<!-- Override to specify actions to happen before generating project PRI file. -->
<Target Name="BeforeGenerateProjectPriFile" />
or
<!-- Override to specify actions to happen after generating project PRI file. -->
<Target Name="AfterGenerateProjectPriFile" />
or ...
So for adding custom files into packaging I override BeforeGenerateProjectPriFile target and for adding file, I used PackagingOutputs ItemGroup for adding my file like below
<Target Name="BeforeGenerateProjectPriFile">
<ItemGroup>
<PackagingOutputs Include="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\$(OutputPath)$(AssemblyName).exe.config">
<OutputGroup>ContentFilesProjectOutputGroup</OutputGroup>
<TargetPath>$(AssemblyName).exe.config</TargetPath>
<ProjectName>$(ProjectName)</ProjectName>
</PackagingOutputs>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
If you want this approach in practice, I used this technique in linphone-windows10
My solution creates a Visual Studio Package from multiple projects, using multiple NuGet packages.
All of the Nuget packages are specified in the project files using PackageReference (rather than the older packages.config file). I am using Visual Studio 2019.
I have had a problem, that the DLLs referenced by NuGet Packages are not included in the VSIX installation.
There is a solution to this problem, described in this article by Daniel Cazzulino, by adding the following code to the project file:
<PropertyGroup>
<GetVsixSourceItemsDependsOn>$(GetVsixSourceItemsDependsOn);IncludeNuGetResolvedAssets</GetVsixSourceItemsDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="IncludeNuGetResolvedAssets" DependsOnTargets="ResolveNuGetPackageAssets">
<ItemGroup>
<VSIXCopyLocalReferenceSourceItem Include="#(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths)" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
This does work, but it blows up the size of the installation from about 20MB to about 40MB.
The installation now includes a lot of PDB files, which I don't really need.
More significantly, it brings in about 46MB of Visual Studio DLLs which are not necessary, because they are part of Visual Studio.
Is there a better way to ensure that the referenced NuGet packages are included in the VSIX, without inflating the installation with these other files?
You can use a simple script like this:
<Target Name="IncludeNuGetPackageReferences" AfterTargets="GetVsixSourceItems">
<ItemGroup>
<VSIXSourceItem Include="#(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths)" Condition="'%(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths.NuGetPackageId)' == 'Newtonsoft.Json'" />
<VSIXSourceItem Include="#(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths)" Condition="'%(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths.NuGetPackageId)' == 'xxx'" />
... </ItemGroup>
</Target>
You can specify what assemblies should be included into .vsix . And it won't copy the unnecessary VS assemblies after tests in my machine. Hint from smourier, thanks to him.
Hope it helps:)
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>$(Temp)\obj</IntermediateOutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>
I usually use a bit different approach to work with MSBUILD files from VS:
I use regular csproj file with removed Import ... CSharp.targets part as pure container for my Build projects.
I add actual build files with targets and logic, and all properties, necessary artifacts like XSLT etc using "Include into project", so I can manage hierarchy and change any file from within VS.Net.
I redefine Build / Rebuild targets in csproj file for whatever I need, for example Build may contain minimum output, and while rebuild diagnostic one.
Like this:
<Target Name="Build">
<Exec Command="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\msbuild.exe Builds\build.proj /t:Build /v:m" />
</Target>
<Target Name="Rebuild">
<Exec Command="%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\msbuild.exe Builds\build.proj /t:Build /v:d" />
</Target>
I use Visual Studio 2010 with TFS 2010 on a x64 machine.
I am trying to use the MSBuild Community Tasks target in my build. This target exists in source control. So in my csproj file i am import that particular target but i now get the following error:
error MSB4062: The "MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Attrib" task could not be loaded from the assembly C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSB
uild.Community.Tasks.dll. Could not load file or assembly 'file:///C:\Program F
iles (x86)\MSBuild\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.dll' or one of
its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. Confirm that the
declaration is correct, that the assembly and all its dependencies
are available, and that the task contains a public class that implements Micros
oft.Build.Framework.ITask. [C:\SampleTest\SampleTest.csproj]
Here is my code:
<Import Project="..\..\Builds\Common\MSBuildTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets" />
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<PropertyGroup>
<MyService>ServiceName</MyService>
</PropertyGroup>
<ServiceController ServiceName="$(MyService)" Action="Stop" />-->
</Target>
Any thoughts on the above?
Why is MSBuild trying to look for the dll elsewhere when i have specified it in the project file?
Thanks in advance,
I think the problem comes from within the MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets file - it is this file that actually references the MSBuild.Community.Tasks.dll assembly.
If you open the file you can see a bunch of UsingTask elements, such as:
<UsingTask AssemblyFile="$(MSBuildCommunityTasksLib)" TaskName="MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Attrib" />
The $(MSBuildCommunityTasksLib) property is defined at the top of the file as:
<PropertyGroup>
<MSBuildCommunityTasksPath Condition="'$(MSBuildCommunityTasksPath)' == ''">$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\MSBuildCommunityTasks</MSBuildCommunityTasksPath>
<MSBuildCommunityTasksLib>$(MSBuildCommunityTasksPath)\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.dll</MSBuildCommunityTasksLib>
</PropertyGroup>
So it looks like you need to set the $(MSBuildCommunityTasksPath) property before calling <Import>.
I want to merge one .NET DLL assembly and one C# Class Library project referenced by a VB.NET Console Application project into one command-line console executable.
I can do this with ILMerge from the command-line, but I want to integrate this merging of reference assemblies and projects into the Visual Studio project. From my reading, I understand that I can do this through a MSBuild Task or a Target and just add it to a C#/VB.NET Project file, but I can find no specific example since MSBuild is large topic. Moreover, I find some references that add the ILMerge command to the Post-build event.
How do I integrate ILMerge into a Visual Studio (C#/VB.NET) project, which are just MSBuild projects, to merge all referenced assemblies (copy-local=true) into one assembly?
How does this tie into a possible ILMerge.Targets file?
Is it better to use the Post-build event?
The "MSBuild ILMerge task" (or MSBuild.ILMerge.Task) NuGet package makes this process quite simple. It defaults to merging any "copy local" references into your main assembly.
Note: Although the packages have similar names, this one is different from ILMerge.MSBuild.Tasks that Davide Icardi mentioned in his answer. The one I'm suggesting here was first published in August 2014.
Here an alternative solution:
1) Install ILMerge.MSBuild.Tasks package from nuget
PM> Install-Package ILMerge.MSBuild.Tasks
2) Edit the *.csproj file of the project that you want to merge by adding the code below:
<!-- Code to merge the assemblies into one:setup.exe -->
<UsingTask TaskName="ILMerge.MSBuild.Tasks.ILMerge" AssemblyFile="$(SolutionDir)\packages\ILMerge.MSBuild.Tasks.1.0.0.3\tools\ILMerge.MSBuild.Tasks.dll" />
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<ItemGroup>
<MergeAsm Include="$(OutputPath)$(TargetFileName)" />
<MergeAsm Include="$(OutputPath)LIB1_To_MERGE.dll" />
<MergeAsm Include="$(OutputPath)LIB2_To_MERGE.dll" />
</ItemGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<MergedAssembly>$(ProjectDir)$(OutDir)MERGED_ASSEMBLY_NAME.exe</MergedAssembly>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="ILMerge #(MergeAsm) -> $(MergedAssembly)" Importance="high" />
<ILMerge InputAssemblies="#(MergeAsm)" OutputFile="$(MergedAssembly)" TargetKind="SameAsPrimaryAssembly" />
</Target>
3) Build your project as usual.
Some more information that might be useful to some people implementing Scott Hanselman's solution.
When I first set this up it would complain about not being able to resolve references to System.Core, etc.
It is something to do with .NET 4 support. Including a /lib argument pointing to the .NET 4 Framework directory fixes it (in fact just include the $(MSBuildBinPath)).
/lib:$(MSBuildBinPath)
I then found that IlMerge would hang while merging. It was using a bit of CPU and a lot of RAM but wasn't outputting anything. I found the fix on stackoverflow of course.
/targetplatform:v4
I also found that some of the MSBuild properties used in Scott's blog article relied on executing MsBuild from the project's directory, so I tweaked them a bit.
I then moved the targets & ilmerge.exe to the tools folder of our source tree which required another small tweak to the paths...
I finally ended up with the following Exec element to replace the one in Scott's original article:
<Exec Command=""$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)Ilmerge.exe" /lib:$(MSBuildBinPath) /targetplatform:v4 /out:#(MainAssembly) "$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\#(IntermediateAssembly)" #(IlmergeAssemblies->'"%(FullPath)"', ' ')" />
UPDATE
I also found Logic Labs answer about keeping the CopyLocal behaviour and just excluding ilMerged assemblies from CopyLocal essential if you are using Nuget packages. Otherwise you need to specify a /lib argument for each package directory of referenced assemblies that aren't being merged.
The article Mixing Languages in a Single Assembly in Visual Studio seamlessly with ILMerge and MSBuild at http://www.hanselman.com/blog/MixingLanguagesInASingleAssemblyInVisualStudioSeamlesslyWithILMergeAndMSBuild.aspx demonstrates how to use ILMerge and MSBuild within a Visual Studio Project.
One issue I found with the article at: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/MixingLanguagesInASingleAssemblyInVisualStudioSeamlesslyWithILMergeAndMSBuild.aspx.
If you have any references that you do not wish to ILMerge then the code in the article fails because it overrides the default CopyLocal behaviour to do nothing.
To fix this - Instead of:
<Target Name="_CopyFilesMarkedCopyLocal"/>
Add this entry to the targets file instead (.NET 3.5 only) (to filter out the non-ilmerge copylocal files, and treat them as normal)
<Target Name="AfterResolveReferences">
<Message Text="Filtering out ilmerge assemblies from ReferenceCopyLocalPaths" Importance="High" />
<ItemGroup>
<ReferenceCopyLocalPaths Remove="#(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths)" Condition="'%(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths.IlMerge)'=='true'" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
This is a great article that will show you how to merge your referenced assemblies into the output assembly. It shows exactly how to merge assemblies using msbuild.
My 2 cents - I picked up #Jason's response and made it work for my solution where I wanted to generate the *.exe in the bin/Debug folder with all *.dlls inside the same folder.
<Exec Command=""$(SolutionDir)packages\ILMerge.2.13.0307\Ilmerge.exe" /wildcards /out:"$(SolutionDir)..\$(TargetFileName)" "$(TargetPath)" $(OutDir)*.dll" />
Note: This solution is obviously hardcoded into the ILMerge nuget package version. Please let me know if you have some suggestions to improve.
Edit the *.csproj file of the project that you want to merge by adding the code below:
<Target Name="AfterBuild" Condition=" '$(ConfigurationName)' == 'Release' " BeforeTargets="PostBuildEvent">
<CreateItem Include="#(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths)" Condition="'%(Extension)'=='.dll'">
<Output ItemName="AssembliesToMerge" TaskParameter="Include" />
</CreateItem>
<Exec Command=""$(SolutionDir)packages\ILMerge.3.0.29\tools\net452\ILMerge.exe" /internalize:"$(MSBuildProjectPath)ilmerge.exclude" /ndebug /out:#(MainAssembly) "#(IntermediateAssembly)" #(AssembliesToMerge->'"%(FullPath)"', ' ')" />
<Delete Files="#(ReferenceCopyLocalPaths->'$(OutDir)%(DestinationSubDirectory)%(Filename)%(Extension)')" />
</Target>
Notes:
Replace $(SolutionDir)packages\ILMerge.3.0.29\tools\net452\ILMerge.exe with whatever path you have the ILMerge.exe in.
You can remove the Condition in the target to also merge on Debug but then the Debugger might not work
If you are not excluding anything you can remove: /internalize:"$(MSBuildProjectPath)ilmerge.exclude"
Check out this article by Jomo. He has a quick process to hack ILMerge into the msbuild system
http://blogs.msdn.com/jomo_fisher/archive/2006/03/05/544144.aspx