We have a Visual Studio 2010 solution that has over 120 projects that reference each other in some way. All inter-project references are project references and not file references which helps Visual Studio determine the project build order automagically.
Out of 120, we have a few core projects that are not interdependant on each other and these projects are referenced by the rest extensively. Hence these projects are at the top of the project build order. These core projects have references from the .NET framework, Enterprise Library (and some of them have third party dll file references like a zip utility).
I cannot figure out why these core projects are ordered in a specific way.
What is the algorithm for the project build order for non-interdependant projects?
PS: I do understand I can influence this order by creating a fake dependancy using the Dependencies tab of Project Dependencies.
I believe that Visual Studio builds these projects in the order they appears in solution. If you need to adjust the build order of projects you can use Project Dependencies (do not confuse with .NET References). When you add .NET reference from one .NET project to another inside you Visual Studio solution the Visual Studio automatically creates project dependency. To modify project dependencies manually do the following:
Right-click on the solution in Solution Explorer.
Select Project Dependencies
From the drop-down list select project you want to add dependencies to.
Select dependencies for this project.
Also you can view the resulting build order by switching to the tab Build Order.
Related
I have some merge module projects created using advanced installer. I need to integrate them with visual studio. I have done same for MSI projects and they work fine. but I don't know how to achieve continuous integration for MSM using Visual Studio.
Advanced Installer extension for Microsoft Visual Studio allows to create Advanced Installer Projects for Visual Studio. Each such project is a container that can include a single .AIP file.
The Visual Studio Solution can include one or more Advanced Installer Project for Visual Studio, in accordance with your needs.
Note that you need to remove the default project that is created when adding a new Installer Project to the .sln and add the existing project, the project that builds the .msm package.
edit
Indeed, you are right. It was a misunderstanding on our end.
On my machine I have several extensions installed side by side. One of these extensions also supports the build of a merge module project type.
We do not officially support this yet. The option to build other project types (e.g. Merge Module Project, Updates Configuration Project) with our VS extension will be available in a future version of Advanced Installer. I will let you know when we will add support for this.
Until then, you can use a build event as a workaround to build the Merge Module Project within the Visual Studio project.
To build the .msm project you can use a command line as described below:
http://www.advancedinstaller.com/user-guide/command-line.html#build-project
The command line can be something as below:
AdvancedInstaller.com" /build "$(SolutionDir)Merge module sample.aip"
I need to add some references to another project or dll just before the build process in Visual Studio 2015 starts and then I need to remove the reference after build.
Is it possible and what is the best approach for this?
Can I also add shared projects?
When I develop my web applications in Visual Studio 2010 I use tools such as GhostDoc, SandCastle, AJAX Toolkit, Moq, etc...
I usually use these tools in all my projects. When I downloaded the Moq tool for instance, I had a zip file with inside a couple of assemblies. Therefore, after unzipping the file, I added the relevant assemblies within the folder (in the file system) of the project I was currently developing, and then I referenced the dlls from Visual Studio.
Now the problem, or better organizational drawbacks, with this are 2:
1) I placed the assemblies within a specific project folder. That's ugly, since I would like to put the assemblies in one folder common to all the projects. Where do you usually put them?
2) Everytime I start a new project I need to reference all the assemblies over again. This, especially with the Ajax Toolkit is quite annoying. Is there any way to tell Visual Studio to add a set of predefined assemblies everytime I create a new project?
For the popular tools you can use NuGet. It will help you manage both the downloading, updating and removal of tools and referencing the appropriate assemblies.
Of the ones you mention, I found the following ones in the official NuGet packages repo:
Moq
AjaxControlToolkit
In Visual Studio there is a way to have a file in another project that is a shortcut to the first so that it builds in both. How do I do that?
Right-click the project, select Add > Existing Item, and in the dialog drop down the Add button and select Add As Link.
This is not a direct answer but an alternative that may be worth considering in some cases.
You can create a specific kind of project which can "include" a set of files in another project when it is added by reference. This is called a Shared Project which is one of the 'new project' options:
(Since at least Visual Studio 2015 - maybe earlier).
One advantage of this type of project over individual shortcuts is that it includes a set of things as a bundle. So if you have a large # of items, this may be easier and less error prone.
Also it uses the familiar "reference" metahphor in the context of the solution and in that way functions quite similarly to other project references; the difference is that in a shared project the items in the project are added into each referring project, but in a normal project the assemblies (DLLs) end up owning the reference at runtime. Shortcuts may be less familiar to other developers than the reference pattern.
More information: What is the difference between a Shared Project and a Class Library in Visual Studio 2015?
Are you talking about a solution with multiple projects? In that case answer would be using Project Dependencies (within Project menu).
I have 3 .net projects.
Project1.dll is generated by a VS2008 project.
Project2.dll is generated by a VS2005 project that references Project1.dll.
Project3.dll is generated by a VS2008 project that references both Project1.dll and Project2.dll.
Right now, I build Project1.dll, and manually copy it to the place where Project 2 can pick it up.
Then I build Project2.dll and manually copy it and Project1.dll to the place where Project 3 can pick them up.
Obviously I'm doing something wrong (manual). What is the correct way to keep my projects' references up to date?
Updating Project2 to VS2008 and then creating one solution containing all 3 projects is not an option at this time. We have a 3rd party visualstudio plugin that does not yet work in VS2008. Project2 must stay in VS2005
De-updating Project1 and Project3 to VS2005 and then creating one solution is not an option either. We're relying on C# 3.0 and .net 3.5 features in those projects.
Probably the best option would be to have a common build folder for all three projects. This can be done in the Project Properties-> Build -> Output path. Then point the references to the output folder. That way anytime you build any of the lower projects, the higher projects would have the latest versions. You can set the path per configurations (Debug, Release) as well, so you won't need to change that for each type of build.
How about a pre-build event for Project3, that goes out and uses a batch file to build Project1 copy it to Project2 folder and then build project2 and copy it to project3 folder.
I would recommend sharing the csproj/vbproj files between the solutions. The format of the project files is compatible between the two versions of studio (solution files are not, however), and as long as your VS2008 projects are targeting the 2.0 runtime you should have no trouble compiling them. This will allow you to reference the projects, which will take care of dependencies.
The only place where this gets hairy is if you have a web project that needs to work between the two versions of studio. In that case there are some modifications to the project files which will point to the correct MSBuild target files.
We use a build script that handles the dependencies, builds the DLLs and does what you're doing manually.
A trick I have used in the past is to move everything to 2008. Then I setup a special solution in 2005 for project two and use it to work with the addin. Getting this to work just depends on how bad project two behaves in 2008.