Can we use MSBuild without Visual Studio 2012?
Currently, we have a build server where we are compiling and creating deployment copy of one of our projects, it has Visual Studio Professional Edition installed. We are setting up a new build server now. Do we really need Visual Studio 2012 on the new build server?
If yes, then how? I googled it but I couldn't find an answer.
We have spent a lot of time trying to get our Build Servers to work without Visual Studio.
We do not use TFS for builds and therefore I am not sure the license exemption above applies to us. Also not having Visual Studio installed helps you really understand how your software is building and get references correct.
We have seen many examples of solutions with projects that contains references for the same piece of software with some in nuget packages shipped with the solution and others that are pointing to locations in the "program files" path which are not present on machines without Visual Studio installed. Once you attempt to build software without VS installed you can really see how "self-contained" your applications are.
Before I start listing the things you typically need to install, let me just point out that MS Build is now no longer considered part of the .NET framework but is shipped with Visual Studio but can also be installed separately. See this blog post for more: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2013/07/24/msbuild-is-now-part-of-visual-studio.aspx
The following software needs to be installed for most builds, there may be others for example if you are creating portable class libraries.
Microsoft Build Tools 2013
Web Deploy 3.5 (for packaging applications)
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.1 Developer Pack
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 Developer Pack
Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows 8 (You can use the SDK to build applications that target these operating systems: Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008)
The following directories need to be copied:
Reference Assemblies (need to be copied from a machine running Visual Studio from/to directory C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies)
Public Assemblies (need to be copied from a machine running Visual Studio from/to directory C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\PublicAssemblies
We also use Wix and therefore we install the following:
WIX Toolset 3.8
I have a similar set for testing however that was not part of the question so I will leave that off!
Hope this helps someone.
Update: 3rd March 2017
Microsoft recently responded to a long standing user voice request "Support .NET Builds without requiring Visual Studio on the server" for the requirement for Visual Studio to be installed on a build server to be removed.
From the description on the download page "These Build Tools allow you to build native and managed MSBuild-based applications without requiring the Visual Studio IDE." Not tested yet but after RTM I will look at this and provide a further update here.
There is a blog post that promises these build tools install all pre-requisites and can be used to build MS Build based applications.
No, you don't need Visual Studio on your build box. If I recall correctly, msbuild is installed as part of the .NET framework - it certainly used to be.
Depending on what you're building, you may find that there are some things which are easier to get working if you do install Visual Studio though - things like portable class library profiles. While there are usually non-VS installers available, I've found it simpler to install an Express edition of Visual Studio just to get the bundled build targets.
Remember: The easiest way to build your visual studio solutions is to install Visual Studio on the build server. Even Visual Studio Express is often enough.
That said, you can make it work without it. But it it sometimes a lot of work to figure out. You'll need to install the right Windows / .NET Platform SDK. You can install multiple of these SDKs side by side. Now, when you depend, for example, on ASP.NET MVC 5 or Entity Framework 6, you might need to install further SDKs to get your application to compile. The downloads for these all assume that you also have Visual Studio installed, but many of their payloads can also be installed separately. It can become quite a hassle.
Personally I've grown tired of trying to figure out which parts of which installers enable what. But that is also driven by the fact that Microsoft allows you to install Visual Studio on a build server (TFS) with the same license as your development machine as long as you are an MSDN subscriber. Check the Visual Studio License Whitepaper for more details.
Using Visual Studio on the Build Server
If you have one or more licensed users of Visual Studio Ultimate with MSDN, Visual Studio Premium with MSDN, or Visual
Studio Professional with MSDN, then you may also install the Visual Studio software as part of Team Foundation Server
2013 Build Services. This way, you do not need to purchase a Visual Studio license to cover the running of Visual Studio on
the build server for each person whose actions initiate a build.
If you, like me, would prefer this to change in the future, I suggest you make sure you're heard by submitting your request or voting for an existing one over at the Visual Studio User Voice.
Here's just a quick take on this.
Your build machine should decouple development tools as much as is possible. With that said, and as already stated by others here, MSBuild can be run independently of Visual Studio, and it should!
If your build requires Visual Studio to run then there is a very good chance that you have a solution or project architecture problem that ought to be resolved.
Visual Studio doesn't need to be installed. MSBuild is part of the .net SDK.
Other .net dependencies will need to be installed though, if you are using them. MSTest, or anything that is part of Team foundation will require Visual Studio installed.
I believe you only need MSBuild ( that is part of the .NET framework you're targeting ) .
Make sure you install the proper .NET distribution
the following is a good place for build servers it have the developer tooling.
The .NET Framework 4.5.1 Developer Pack installs the multi-targeting pack for .NET Framework 4.5.1. Developers can build applications targeting the .NET Framework 4.5.1 using either Visual Studio 2012 or third party IDEs. You need to download the web installer instead of this package if you intend to redistribute .NET Framework 4.5.1.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40772
Best of luck.
C++ :
There is a "Build Tools" that contains MSBuild, Visual studio is not required.
From the official doc :
These tools allow you to build C++ libraries and applications
targeting Windows desktop. They are the same tools that you find in
Visual Studio 2015 in a scriptable standalone installer. Now you only
need to download the tools you need to build C++ projects.
Managed :
The same applied : Build Tool Managed
I just installed .NET framework 4.5, the Windows 8 SDK, and the Windows 8 DDK on 2 different machines (one at home managed by me, one at work originally setup by IT) both with Visual Studio 2010 Professional SP1 already installed, and both running Window 7 Professional.
I had an old C++/Win32 application in Windows XP that used both the Windows SDK and DDK. I updated it for Windows 7 and Visual Studio 2010 project settings. However, it would not build because some of the SDK/DDK include and library files are new, and it couldn't find them with Platform Toolset set to "v100" in Visual Studio.
Manually adding the Include and Lib folders to the project made it build and run correctly.
Is there some way that I can add the newly installed SDK and DDK to Visual Studio 2010's "Platform Toolset" list? I thought it was supposed to do this automatically, but neither of the machines I use have it in their list after install and reboot.
After researching this quite a bit, I finally found a solution. It doesn't look like it can be added to "Platform Toolset" via any simple method, but at least you don't have to add the paths on every single project you want to use the API. This worked for me, and allowed me to build Microsoft's "USBView sample application" written for VS2012. The way Microsoft recommends (from the official Microsoft Visual C++ Team blog) is:
For a single project:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2012/03/25/10287354.aspx
This seems to work with the final SDK release as well.
To apply those settings across multiple projects:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2012/11/23/using-the-windows-8-sdk-with-visual-studio-2010-configuring-multiple-projects.aspx
We currently use TFS 2010 and have numerous build definitions for our various version of our software. We want to use VS2012 for our next version(still using TFS 2010) so is it possible to have both versions of VS on a build controller and will the build process know which version of VS to use or will we need one build controller for VS2010 and one for VS2012? Also I have custom build templates will that present any issues? Then what happens when we upgrade to TFS 2012? will we be able to run automated builds using both VS2010 and VS2012??
In general - yes. Actually Visual Studio doesn't build anything. It's the underlying MSBuild engine that handles the build tasks.
Furthermore, you can setup a build machine without Visual Studio at all, provided that your project don't hold direct references to Visual Studio references paths (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\ReferenceAssemblies). If there are such references you can copy them to your 3rd party\lib directory in the source control and have the projects refer to that directory as file references.
Other notes:
But Visual Studio will hardly be your biggest hindrance. It's
multi-targeting .NET that will require some extra caffeine :)
The build templates will work as long as you satisfy their custom
references (GAC can used for that matter)
A build controller can be registered with one server at a time
Use a build server for each target framework\VS version
I want to create setup for my application and I want to know the differences and advantages of creating setup with Visual Studio Installer and InstallShield LE. Which of these is better?
I use visual studio 2010.
See Choosing a Windows Installer Deployment Tool for a comparison of features.
The page also cautions that Visual Studio Installer project templates will not be included in future versions.
I have a big solution file and few projects can not be loaded. I do have all the files in the proper directories. But when I right click and try to load the project, I get the following error:
The project file "C:\myapp.proj" can not be opened. The project type is not supported by this installation.
By the way, these projects are related to Windows Workflow.
Please help.
I am using Visual Studio 2005 on Win7 machine.
It might be a modeling project, test project, silverlight/wpf project etc. It's definetely something that's not supported by your version of Visual Studio, you should use a newer version or a different one (i.e. professional instead of express).
Update: I did not see that it was Windows Workflow Foundation. Check out this link, it's a toolkit for using Workflows in VS2005.