In the main project of my VS Solution I have a Resources folder with some required external tools. When building and publishing the solution, I get a .\Resources* with all required files there.
So far so good.
However I have to move some files to the parent directory.
My first attempt was do so with the Post Build Events. It works and does move them the correct folder.
Nevertheless in the publish output they still appear in the Resources folder and I need them in the parent one :/
Is there any way to setup the target output path for resources in Visual Studio?
After some research and experimental, I solved my problem.
Still, here's what I learned in the process.
The first attempt was adding the file to the project root and mark it as a resource. After publishing it worked. But having those files in the project root its lame.
Since I needed some *.exe files compiled in another VS solution, added them as a project reference. Gave it a try and it passed the "Publish" test. But still.. not the best way to do it.
After that, with some scripting and a post-build event, I copied the required files to the correct folder. Works.. but after publishing, they don't appear in the package.
However, there is still a possibility with the Mage tool:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/acz3y3te.aspx
This lead to some promissing experiments, however they ended up helping me realize how limited the MS ClickOnce is, so I decided to try other tools.
Here's a good start to follow:
What alternatives are there to ClickOnce?
I had a similar situation once. I found it became more trouble than it was worth to customize output paths and such in Visual Studio, to the extent that I wanted.
I ended up letting Visual Studio do its own thing with regards to file/project structure, and wrote a post-build script to copy everything that was needed into a final, 'publish-ready' directory.
I then set the execution target in Visual Studio to the new location, so I could run/debug as normal, but with the new folder that was organized how I needed it. Careful, I think this is a user project setting; so other developers will need to do this on their machines too, if they so desire.
I do recall changing some output paths and such to make the post-build script more simple. But changing things like that can lead to annoyances when you add new projects to the solution; you might need to configure them to match. It's all a trade-off :)
Two ideas:
Maybe you could move your resources into another project - a project just for resources - and then set their Build Action to Content and Copy To Output to true. Then reference this new project and build the solution. (This may not work as you want, just an idea).
Why not make your resources embedded resources instead. Keep them all within the Resources\ directory and access them programatically?
Related
The project I'm currently working on uses Nant build scripts for the continuous integration server builds. The build file is stored in a folder in the repository.
I find it annoying having to browse to it via windows explorer rather than it being available from the visual studio solution when I need to make changes.
I was wondering if there is any reason not to include it somewhere in the solution for ease of access? If this isn't daft where would you store it in the solution? Would you create a dummy non building project for holding these type of resources?
Thanks,
Neil
Go right ahead and add it to your solution file.
You will either get, or have to create manually, a folder for it, but I think that when you add it you will get a folder called Solution Items.
As far as I have seen, there is no real reason to not have them along with your project solution. In one project, since there were lots of build files, it made sense to create a separate solution for them.
This is not a work-stopper in any way, but I thought I should ask anyway because it is a little annoying. Let's say I create a new project and start putting source files in a directory other than the default that shows up the first time. Afterwords, whenever I open the project, I have to navigate to the source directory once during that session. Like I said, not a big deal (but if solvable, then it's icing on the cake). Quite a few times I absentmindedly put the source file in the default directory and end up committing that file to the SVN and if I am lucky, going through all the files, removing them, then adding them again.
So my question is, is there any way to specify the default source directory on a per project basis?
I have run into the same nuisance. I like to put the public interface header files for a library in a separate directory, but end up with file directory typos because I forget to navigate to the correct directory when saving a new file. Unfortunately, Visual Studio does not offer a setting to change the default directory for new C++ source files.
I had the same problem when I started using build systems (CMake, Premake) which requires me to keep my project files separate from my source files, which hampered my workflow.
Although changing the default source directory seems impossible, if you aren't afraid to spend money, the workaround I found was to use the Visual Assist extension.
You can bind a shortcut of your choise to the Create File command which creates
a new file relative to the directory or your open file.
I'd also recommend to base one's workflow around the wonderful
Create from Usage command (which I think greatly boosts
productivity) which almost eliminates the need to manually create files.
The extension is great, albeit a bit costly. I would love to see Microsoft incorporate these features directly in the IDE eventually as they are found vanilla in a lot of other IDEs e.g. Eclipse, Intellij.
There might be some free extensions available that does the same thing, but I haven't found any.
Changing the Default Project Folder may help. This page demonstrates how to change the default for Visual Studio 2005, and it should be the same for later versions.
I have a couple of different solutions, in which some projects may depend on output from projects in other solutions. To manage this, I've been copying dll files from the /bin/ folder in each project to a shared library location after build, and then copy/reference them from there to the dependent project.
However, as the library solution gets larger, this tends to become unmaintainable. Too much of my time is being spent traversing solution directories in Windows Explorer looking for /bin/ folders, and trying to figure out which one, or which ones, of the dll files from each one I need.
Is there any way to give Visual Studio a hint that I want all projects in a solution to have the same output directory? For example, a /bin/ folder directly under the solution folder, where all projects put their output.
If possible, I'd like to achieve this without hard-coded post-build events that copy the files, since that will fail if a project output changes file name, or adds another file. I'd rather like to change the location of the actual output directory - the location of $(OutDir), if you will.
I know you said you don't want to use post build events, but your reason as to why not intrigued me. It sounds like you might be hard coding the name of the .dll in your post build event. That can easily be avoided.
xcopy "$(TargetDir)*" "c:\common\" /Y
The * would just cause everything in your bin/Debug/ folder to get copied to your common folder. You could also just copy dlls if you want. Or, if you use $(TargetPath), you'll copy just the 1 dll that is the result of the project, and not any other related dependencies.
UPDATE
The way we do it is each projects entire bin folder is copied to a subfolder. Suppose you have 2 projects, WebUtil and HtmlParser, where WebUtil depends on HtmlParser. For both projects, use xcopy "$(TargetDir)*" "c:\common\$(ProjectName)" /Y. This will create c:\common\WebUtil\ and c:\common\HtmlParser. In WebUtil, add a reference to c:\common\HtmlParser\HtmlParser.dll. There will now be 2 copies of HtmlParser.dll in c:\common.
c:\common\HtmlParser\HtmlParser.dll // the most recent build.
c:\common\WebUtil\HtmlParser // what was the most recent build when WebUtil was built
This has all kinds of advantages. If you change the API of HtmlParser, WebUtil will continue to work, since it will have the older HtmlParser.dll until you try to rebuild WebUtil (at which point you'll get build errors because of the changed API).
Now, if a 3rd project got in the mix that depended on WebUtil, and you're using some part of WebUtil that exposes classes in HtmlParser, then you'll need to add a reference to both projects from your new project. When you add a reference to HtmlParser.dll, use the one in c:\common\WebUtil. You do this because you're only including it as a necessary requirement of WebUtil. Now you'll always have the version of HtmlParser.dll that matches your current version of WebUtil.dll.
I hope that makes sense. It can definitely be a tricky thing to manage. Just wait till you have to start pulling down all your dependencies using svn:externals =P
You can set the output directory in each project properties.
Right click on the project, select Properties
For C#, it is one of the Build property page, under Output, Output directory.
In VB.Net projects, it is on the Compile tab, in the textbox at the top.
When I right-click my solution in the Solution Explorer and choose Properties I get a dialog where I can select the Startup Project.
I sometimes select Current selection (If it is an experimental solution with lots of projects I jump between), but most often it is a Single startup project selected, which would usually be the main WinForms applications or or Console application.
My problem is that whenever I do a treeclean with the tfpt command (Team Foundation Power Tools 2008) this setting is forgotten. So when I try to run my solution the next time, it has defaulted to some random project and I get an error stating that I cannot run a class library or something like that. Which is obvious of course. But where is this setting stored? Why is it forgotten when I do the treeclean? The solution file is still there, right? Isn't solution properties stored there?
Reference 1
Arian Kulp says:
I was struggling with trying to figure
out why a certain solution of mine
wasn’t starting right. It was in VB
with four projects. Upon initial open
it would set a certain project with a
DLL output as startup. If I set the
EXE as startup project, it was fine,
but when I distribute code I always
clean it by removing *.suo and *.user
files, and bin/obj folders. Upon
opening the “cleaned” version, it
would always revert to the DLL project
and fail to F5 nicely. The fix turned
out to be simple, though I’m curious
as to why I needed to do this at all.
In the solution file, there are a list
of pseudo-XML “Project” entries. It
turns out that whatever is the first
one ends up as the Startup Project,
unless it’s overridden in the suo
file. Argh. I just rearranged the
order in the file and it’s good.
I’m guessing that C# is the same way
but I didn’t test it. I hope that
this helps someone!
Reference 2
Setting the StartUp Project
Which project is the "startup" project only has any relevance for debugging, which means it's user metadata from the point of the solution and the projects. Regardless of which project is the "startup" project, the compiled code is the same.
Because of this, the information is stored as a user setting in the Solution User Options file (solution.suo) which accompanies the Solution file (solution.sln). The .suo file "Records all of the options that you might associate with your solution so that each time you open it, it includes customizations that you have made" according to MSDN.
The .suo file is a binary file. If you want to read or change it programatically, you have to use IVsPersistSolutionOpts.LoadUserOptions from the Microsoft.VisualStudio.Shell.Interop namespace.
I suspect that this setting is saved as part of the .suo file created whenever you edit a solution file. This file contains various user settings, such as breakpoints, watch data etc.
I cannot confirm this but that would be my guess.
Unfortunately its not XML its a binary file and not easily edited.
I just wrote a little command line utility for windows called slnStartupProject to solve this. It sets the Startup Project automatically like this:
slnStartupProject slnFilename projectName
I personally use it to set the project after generating the solution with cmake that always sets a dummy ALL_BUILD project as the first project in the solution.
The source is on github:
https://github.com/michaKFromParis/slnStartupProject
Forks and feedbacks are welcome.
Hope this helps!
I'm trying to build a small VS 2005 solution I've just checked out of source control, and I'm getting this easy to understand error:
...\AssemblyInfo.cs' could not be
opened ('The system cannot find the
file specified. ') (The file is fairly
obviously missing)
Because this file's automatically generated, I've never paid it much heed before, and in VS 2003 (which I still work with day to day - pity me) it never seems to matter if it's missing.
So 2 questions:
1. How can I get VS 2005 to regenerate the file.
2. Could anyone explain to me in a couple of sentences what the assembly info file is all about, why it's generated, why it's a good idea to have an automatically generated file critical to my solution building etc etc.
Thanks - Andrew.
Edit: OK, I've googling some more, and it's probably significant that this is in an Nunit Test Project.
Update: Deleting the reference in solution explorer an Alex suggested did the trick, and the project now builds, but I'm not entirely happy with that as a solution. If the file is so unimportant, why is it generated in the first place? And if the file does perform a vital task, what am I missing out on by just deleting it?
Also, is it even possible to get it back? Either by getting VS to regenerate it, or by manually hacking one up (possibly using another as a template)?
This file contains assembly-wide settings like assembly version, name, etc. It is automatically generated when you change those settings using properties pages of the project. You should have this file in the project with sort of transparent icon (I think it is in resource folder or something like this by default). Locate it in the project tree and delete it. Visual studio will stop looking for it during build.
PS: assuming the path starts with .. and not ... then this file should be located one folder up from the project in the source control. So you can try looking there.