I'm having the next problem:
I am trying to invoke a custom msbuild task from a .csproj file and I need to set a parameter (something like $(ProjectDir) ) indicating the TFS path that the project has mapped.
I don't know if it's possible or not; I couldn't find any macro in this link:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/c02as0cs(v=vs.80).aspx
Just in case, this is the invocation from the .csproj file to my custom task:
<UsingTask TaskName="MyTask"
AssemblyFile="MyTask.dll" />
<Target Name="AfterBuild" Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Test' ">
<DbBuildTask ConfigFile="$(ProjectDir)config\properties.config"
XPath="/configuration/properties/nhConnectionString"
PathTfs="........" />
</Target>
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!
Related
Using MSBuild how do i copy a file based on configuration of the build i.e. if the build configuration is Staging vs Release. I need to be able to copy FolderA\FileA if the build configuration is Staging and FolderB\FileB for production. Also the file when it gets copied should be at the root of the output directory instead in a folder as FolderA or FolderB. Using task is throwing errors during project load.
MSBuild - How to copy files based on condition
You can use Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'xxx' " for your copy task in the project file.
To accomplish this, unload your project. Then at the very end of the project, just before the end-tag </Project>, place below scripts:
<ItemGroup>
<MySourceFilesA Include="FolderA\FileA.txt" />
<MySourceFilesB Include="FolderB\FileB.txt" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="CopyFiles" AfterTargets="Build">
<Copy SourceFiles="#(MySourceFilesA)" DestinationFolder="$(OutDir)" Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Staging' " />
<Copy SourceFiles="#(MySourceFilesB)" DestinationFolder="$(OutDir)" Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Release' " />
</Target>
You can modify the paht of SourceFiles and DestinationFolder according to your needs, just make sure the path is correct.
Hope this helps.
I have a long afterbuild process on my Visual Studio project file's after build target, as show below.
The issue is that it always runs the AfterBuild target when I hit build even when the actual source code has not changed and the project is not compiled.
How can I have this only run when the project has been compiled and the physical binary is written or update on the disk?
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<Exec Command=""$(ProgramFiles)\Microsoft\ILMerge\ILMerge.exe" /copyattrs /log /target:library /targetplatform:4,C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319 /Lib:"$(TargetDir)\" /keyfile:"$(ProjectDir)\Plugin.snk" /out:"$(TargetDir)\$(AssemblyName).merged.dll" "$(AssemblyName).dll" "PluginCommandCommon.dll" "Common.dll"" />
<Copy SourceFiles="$(TargetDir)\$(AssemblyName).merged.dll" DestinationFolder="$(ProjectDir)..\PluginPackage\bin\$(Configuration)\" />
</Target>
Option 1:
Instead of AfterBuild use AfterRebuild (one of MSBuild's many undocumented features):
<Target Name="AfterRebuild" >...</Target>
Option 2:
Hook up one of the incremental build's conditions:
<Target Name="AfterBuild" Condition=" '#(_SourceItemsToCopyToOutputDirectory)' != '' " >
UPDATE:
Using MSBuild Extension Pack's ILMerge task will allow better control, I.E check for each file existence:
<Target Name="ILMergeItems">
<ItemGroup>
<Input Include="C:\b\MSBuild.ExtensionPack.dll"/>
<Input Include="C:\b\Ionic.Zip.dll"/>
</ItemGroup>
<MSBuild.ExtensionPack.Framework.ILMerge
Condition="Exists('%(Input.FullPath)')"
InputAssemblies="#(Input)"
OutputFile="C:\a\MyNewAssembly.dll"/>
</Target>
There is a ComboBox in Properties>>Build Events>>Run the post-build event...if this is what you mean.
Is there a generic way I can get a post-build event to copy the built assembly, and any .config and any .xml comments files to a folder (usually solution relative) without having to write a post-build event on each project in a solution?
The goal is to have a folder that contains the last successful build of an entire solution.
It would be nice to use the same build solution over multiple solutions too, possibly enabling/ disabling certain projects (so don't copy unit tests etc).
Thanks,
Kieron
You can set common OutputPath to build all projects in Sln in one temp dir and copy required files to the latest build folder. In copy action you can set a filter to copy all dlls without "test" in its name.
msbuild.exe 1.sln /p:Configuration=Release;Platform=AnyCPU;OutputPath=..\latest-temp
There exists more complicated and more flexible solution. You can setup a hook for build process using CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets. See this post for example.
Sample targets file can be like that:
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<BuildDependsOn>
$(BuildDependsOn);
PublishToLatest
</BuildDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="PreparePublishingToLatest">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetAssembly>$(TargetPath)</TargetAssembly>
<TargetAssemblyPdb>$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).pdb</TargetAssemblyPdb>
<TargetAssemblyXml>$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).xml</TargetAssemblyXml>
<TargetAssemblyConfig>$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).config</TargetAssemblyConfig>
<TargetAssemblyManifest>$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).manifest</TargetAssemblyManifest>
<IsTestAssembly>$(TargetName.ToUpper().Contains("TEST"))</IsTestAssembly>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<PublishToLatestFiles Include="$(TargetAssembly)" Condition="Exists('$(TargetAssembly)')" />
<PublishToLatestFiles Include="$(TargetAssemblyPdb)" Condition="Exists('$(TargetAssemblyPdb)')" />
<PublishToLatestFiles Include="$(TargetAssemblyXml)" Condition="Exists('$(TargetAssemblyXml)')" />
<PublishToLatestFiles Include="$(TargetAssemblyConfig)" Condition="Exists('$(TargetAssemblyConfig)')" />
<PublishToLatestFiles Include="$(TargetAssemblyManifest)" Condition="Exists('$(TargetAssemblyManifest)')" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
<Target Name="PublishToLatest"
Condition="Exists('$(LatestDir)') AND '$(IsTestAssembly)' == 'False' AND '#(PublishToLatestFiles)' != ''"
DependsOnTargets="PreparePublishingToLatest">
<Copy SourceFiles="#(PublishToLatestFiles)" DestinationFolder="$(LatestDir)" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
</Target>
</Project>
In that targets file you can specify any actions you want.
You can place it here "C:\Program Files\MSBuild\v4.0\Custom.After.Microsoft.Common.targets" or here "C:\Program Files\MSBuild\4.0\Microsoft.Common.targets\ImportAfter\PublishToLatest.targets".
And third variant is to add to every project you want to publish import of custom targets. See How to: Use the Same Target in Multiple Project Files
I have a bunch of ancillary XML and XSLT files that I want to edit and manage in visual studio.
The files do not logically belong under any code project in my solution and so in order to group them neatly, I have created a "dummy" C# dll project in visual studio and disabled it from building in Debug / release builds).
I wondered if there was a nicer way of achieving the same result (i.e. having all the files visible in solution explorer). What I think really want is a visual studio project type of "content only" but such a thing does not exist (or have I not looked hard enough?).
I have toyed with the idea of adding the files as solution items but then they seem harder to manage because creating a new "solution item folder" does not actually create a folder on disk.
Any one have any ideas?
Visual Studio 2015 has a project type called "Shared Project" which is essentially a content only project with no targets. It's listed under Visual C# but it can be used for any files.
A work colleague has come up with a solution.
He has suggested hand editing the project to remove the DefaultTargets from the Project (and delete a load of now unused properties).
MSBuild complains if there are no targets in the project so he has added three empty targets.
The final project looks something like this
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="3.5" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>
<Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">AnyCPU</Platform>
<ProductVersion>9.0.30729</ProductVersion>
<SchemaVersion>2.0</SchemaVersion>
<ProjectGuid>{541463A7-7CFA-4F62-B839-6367178B16BD}</ProjectGuid>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
... files ...
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
... files ...
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="Build"/>
<Target Name="Rebuild"/>
<Target Name="Clean"/>
</Project>
Admittedly, this solution requires more fiddling that I would have liked but seems to achieve what I was after: namely a project that does not aattempt to produce any build output.
Andy posted a link with a solution that's mostly worked for me; basically delete the following line from the project file:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
and add the following lines:
<Target Name="Build">
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(Content)"
DestinationFiles="#(Content->'$(OutputPath)%(RelativeDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')" />
</Target>
<Target Name="Clean">
<Exec Command="rd /s /q $(OutputPath)" Condition="Exists($(OutputPath))" />
</Target>
<Target Name="Rebuild" DependsOnTargets="Clean;Build">
</Target>
I also found that disabling the project Debug property "Enable the Visual Studio hosting process" (for each configuration) prevented the MyProject.vshost.exe file from being generated.
As David I. McIntosh pointed out in a comment on this answer, if your project is part of a solution with multiple projects and any other projects use the same output path as the content-only project, the above Clean target will delete all of the files in the output path, i.e. the build output of other projects, and would thus only be correct if the content-only project is the first project built (among those sharing the same build output path). The following is a safer and friendlier Clean target for this scenario:
<Target Name="Clean">
<Delete Files="#(Content->'$(OutputPath)%(RelativeDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')"/>
</Target>
Then, try creating a Blank solution. Create Empty project. Have your files in respective folders with in the solution folder. From property window, use the Show all files, include those folders into the project. There is no better solution other then this. I hope.
This answer is just a convenient consolidation of the answers above given by Chris Fewtrell and Kenny Evitt, along with the slight modification in my comments above, and a bit more detail on what the declaration of the content items should/could look like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="12.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>
<Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">AnyCPU</Platform>
<ProjectGuid>{541463A7-7CFA-4F62-B839-6367178B16BD}</ProjectGuid>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == '64-bit|AnyCPU'">
<PlatformTarget>x64</PlatformTarget>
<OutputPath>..\builds\$(Configuration)\</OutputPath>
<IntermediateOutputPath>..\builds\$(Configuration)\Intermediate\YourProjectName\</IntermediateOutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="fileInProjectFolder.csv" />
<Content Include="SubDir\fileInSubdir.txt" />
<Content Include="..\actualSourceDirectoryOfFile\app.log.basic.config">
<Link>targetSubdirInOutputDir\app.log.basic.config</Link>
</Content>
<Content Include="..\actualSourceDirectoryOfFile\yetAnotherFile.config">
<Link>yetAnotherFile.config</Link>
</Content>
... more files ...
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="Build">
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(Content)"
DestinationFiles="#(Content->'$(OutputPath)%(RelativeDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')" />
</Target>
<Target Name="Clean">
<Delete Files="#(Content->'$(OutputPath)%(RelativeDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')"/>
</Target>
<Target Name="Rebuild" DependsOnTargets="Clean;Build">
</Target>
</Project>
Note that this always copies all the "content" files to the output directory - the options "Copy If Newer", "Copy Always" and "Do Not Copy", as presented in the visual studio GUI ( appears as, for example, <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory> in the .csproj file) are ignored.
In my situation, I needed to have a set of configuration files that would be common to many projects. To simply achieve this, I performed the following steps:
Create a Class Library project named "Configuration"
Delete all *.cs files from Configuration project
Put configuration files in a "Configuration" folder in the Configuration project
Copy configuration files to required projects in the post-build event. In Configuration project's Properties > Build Events > Post-build event:
xcopy "$(TargetDir)Configuration\*" "$(SolutionDir)TARGET_PROJECT\$(OutDir)" /i /v /q /s /y
In the above, replace TARGET_PROJECT with your actual project
This will copy all the files in the Configurations folder to the output directory of the project that needs the configuration files (eg. MyProject/bin/Debug, etc).
Is there a way to automatically use a separate app.config when building in release mode?
In other words, I want to test with one app.config, and release with another.
Currently, I keep a separate copy called app.config.production, and manually overwrite bin\Release\Application.exe.config after building for release.
Unload the project in Solution Explorer via the context menu.
Edit the .csproj file via the context menu and add this:
<PropertyGroup>
<AppConfig>App.$(Configuration).config</AppConfig>
</PropertyGroup>
I have recently posted a supremely belated response to a similar SO topic:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/27546685/2798367
I will repeat it here for clarity:
This is somewhat late to the party, but I stumbled upon a nice way of implementing the web.transform approach for app.config files. (i.e. it makes use of the namespace http://schemas.microsoft.com/XML-Document-Transform)
I think it is "nice" because it is a pure xml approach and doesn't require 3rd party software.
A parent / default App.config file is descended from, according to your various build configurations.
These descendants then only override what they need to.
In my opinion this is much more sophisticated and robust than having to maintain x number of config files which get copied in their entirety, such as in other answers.
A walkthrough has been posted here: http://mitasoft.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/multipleappconfig/
Look, Mom - No explicit post-build events in my IDE!
A clean solution is to group 2 files App.Debug.config and App.Release.config into App.config and change the good file into App.config depending on the configuration at compile time:
<ItemGroup>
<None Include="App.config" />
<None Include="App.Debug.config">
<DependentUpon>App.config</DependentUpon>
</None>
<None Include="App.Release.config">
<DependentUpon>App.config</DependentUpon>
</None>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="SetAppConfig" BeforeTargets="Compile">
<Copy SourceFiles="App.Debug.config" DestinationFiles="App.config" OverwriteReadOnlyFiles="true" Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' " />
<Copy SourceFiles="App.Release.config" DestinationFiles="App.config" OverwriteReadOnlyFiles="true" Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Release' " />
</Target>
With this solution you will get something like this in Visual Studio:
A simple and fast way is to create a second file "App.release.config" and insert this pre-build event:
IF $(ConfigurationName) == Release COPY /Y "$(ProjectDir)App.config" "$(ProjectDir)App.debug.config"
IF $(ConfigurationName) == Release COPY /Y "$(ProjectDir)App.release.config" "$(ProjectDir)App.config"
And this post build event:
IF $(ConfigurationName) == Release COPY /Y "$(ProjectDir)App.debug.config" "$(ProjectDir)App.config"
This might be a bit odd, but it will allow you to keep using the .Settings files as debug settings, that are still linked to the App.config. The App.release.config must be build by hand, but it's pretty easy to switch this functionality.
I highly recommend SlowCheetah for app.config transformations. Visit this nuget gem here Visual Studio Gallery
Similar to top answer but with this approach you can see the actual file if preferred and intellisense doesn't complain in csproj file:
<Target Name="SetAppConfig" BeforeTargets="Compile">
<Copy SourceFiles="debug.config" DestinationFiles="app.config" OverwriteReadOnlyFiles="true" Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|AnyCPU' " />
<Copy SourceFiles="release.config" DestinationFiles="app.config" OverwriteReadOnlyFiles="true" Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCPU' " />
</Target>
I don't know if this helps, but app.config will recognise the standard MSBUILD substitution strings such as $(Configuration).