I have a .net core project file (*.csproj) like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" ToolsVersion="15.0">
<!-- Create RS.cs -->
<ItemGroup>
<ResourceGeneratorInputs Include="strings.resx" />
<ResourceGeneratorOutputs Include="RS.cs" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="GenerateTheResourceFile"
BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild"
Inputs="#(ResourceGeneratorInputs)"
Outputs="#(ResourceGeneratorOutputs)">
<Exec Command="ResourceStringGenerator.exe strings.resx RS.cs " />
</Target>
</Project>
This projects has a target that generates a csharp code file called RS.cs, which also must be compiled.
The problem is the file is generated too late. The build engine has already read the list of files in the project directory, and the RS.cs file gets ignored.
I have tried changing the BeforeTargets attribute to various other Targets with no luck at all. (Described here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/csproj#build-events)
I've tried turning off automatic inclusion of files too:
<PropertyGroup>
<EnableDefaultCompileItems>false</EnableDefaultCompileItems>
</PropertyGroup>
and making my own list of files to compile. But that didn't work either. The RS.cs file was still generated too late.
The new project file format seems to be so eager to get the list of files, that it seems to leave no room for auto-generated files.
What is the work-around here?
The static portion of a project file is always evaluated before targets run.
However, you can also add items inside your target:
<Target Name="GenerateTheResourceFile"
BeforeTargets="PrepareForBuild"
Inputs="#(ResourceGeneratorInputs)"
Outputs="#(ResourceGeneratorOutputs)">
<Exec Command="ResourceStringGenerator.exe strings.resx RS.cs " />
<ItemGroup>
<EmbeddedResource Include="strings.resx" Exclude="#(EmbeddedResource)" />
<Compile Include="RS.cs" Exclude="#(Compile)" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
The "exclude" part ensures that the file isn't added twice if it was already picked up during static evaluation (i.e. additional builds)
Related
I am publishing my MVC project with the PublishProfile through visual studio, (through UI, right click project, publish) and ticking the option to clear the destination folder.
But I do not want a specific folder "Downloads" to be cleared
I have spent countless hours trying to make this work, I think I have the exact same code as the person explained here but it still deletes the Downloads folder
Also as example in the below I have the ExcludeFromPackageFiles of "favicon" which works if I deselect the deletion of the destination folder (just to show that my wpp targets is in fact running).
Below is my projectname.wpp.targets file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<!-- this doesnt work -->
<PropertyGroup>
<AfterAddIisSettingAndFileContentsToSourceManifest>AddCustomSkipRules</AfterAddIisSettingAndFileContentsToSourceManifest>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<UseMsDeployExe>true</UseMsDeployExe>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="AddCustomSkipRules">
<Message Text="Adding Custom Skip Rules" />
<ItemGroup>
<MsDeploySkipRules Include="SkipErrorLogFolder1">
<SkipAction>Delete</SkipAction>
<ObjectName>filePath</ObjectName>
<AbsolutePath>ErrorLog</AbsolutePath>
</MsDeploySkipRules>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
<!-- this works! -->
<ItemGroup>
<ExcludeFromPackageFiles Include="favicon.ico">
<FromTarget>ContactManager.Mvc.wpp.targets</FromTarget>
</ExcludeFromPackageFiles>
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
Any Ideas?
(1) The AbsolutePath value in your example is copy/pasted from my skip rule example. You need to change that value to the path of your Downloads folder.
<Target Name="AddCustomSkipRules">
<Message Text="Adding Custom Skip Rules" />
<ItemGroup>
<MsDeploySkipRules Include="SkipDownloadsFolder">
<SkipAction>Delete</SkipAction>
<ObjectName>filePath</ObjectName>
<AbsolutePath>Downloads</AbsolutePath>
</MsDeploySkipRules>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
(2) You cannot use a custom skip rule when publishing from within Visual Studio. You must publish using MSBuild from a command prompt. The nature of my question was about combining the convenience of the publishing profile managed within VS, with the utility of a custom skip rule (which requires the command line), because as of VS 2012 Update 3, the limitation of the command line has not been lifted.
My MSBuild command looks like this:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe My.Website.sln /p:Configuration=Release;DeployOnBuild=true;PublishProfile="Test Server - Web Deploy"
If I attempt to publish from within VS 2012, I get the following error, even though "-verb:sync" is clearly visible in the output:
2>Start Web Deploy Publish the Application/package to http://my.website.example.com/MSDEPLOYAGENTSERVICE ...
2>C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy V3\msdeploy.exe
-source:manifest='C:\inetpub\wwwroot\My.Website\obj\Release\Package\My.Website.SourceManifest.xml'
-dest:auto,ComputerName='http://my.website.example.com/MSDEPLOYAGENTSERVICE',UserName='...',Password="...",IncludeAcls='False',AuthType='NTLM'
-verb:sync
-disableLink:AppPoolExtension
-disableLink:ContentExtension
-disableLink:CertificateExtension
-skip:skipaction='Delete',objectname='filePath',absolutepath='ErrorLog'
-skip:objectname='dirPath',absolutepath='obj\\Release\\Package\\PackageTmp\\App_Data$'
-skip:objectname='dirPath',absolutepath='MyWebsite/\\App_Data$'
-setParamFile:"C:\inetpub\wwwroot\My.Website\obj\Release\Package\My.Website.Publish.Parameters.xml"
-retryAttempts=2
2>MSDEPLOY(0,0): Error : The verb must be specified by using the -verb argument.
2>MSDEPLOY(0,0): Error count: 1.
When I create a deployment package web.config is changed, but I don't understand this part:
I have two web.config transformation files, web.debug.config and web.release.config.
Are these transformation files only available or working when we make a web deployment or make a deployment package? Are the web.config transformations not used when the project runs locally from visual studio (e.g. via IIS Express)?
You are correct.
Config transformations are applied when you deploy or run a deployment package.
They do not transform on compilation.
If you need the transformed config file during compilation, you can get it by editing the project file (.csproj) and adding the below code.
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<TransformXml Source="$(SolutionDir)WCFServices\Web.config"
Transform="$(SolutionDir)WCFServices\Web.Release.config"
Destination="$(OutDir)WebRelease.config"
StackTrace="true" />
</Target>
Multiple TransformXml tags can be added to get all the required config files. Also, This can be done before or after build.
You can invoke it using MSBuild and an extension called SlowCheetah.
There is an other VS extension called Configuration Transform good for this. If you don't want to install it, but to achieve this, just follow the examples shown in the demo solution to add different build config files and add some new MSBuild tasks in the project files. The download link for the demo solution can be found on the extension's Visual Studio Gallery webpage. This approach doesn't require any extra packages since MSBuild uses XSLT to do the XML tranformation.
Below are the MSBuild tasks added into a project file from the demo solution. In my case, when I followed it for a VS2015 ASP.NET MVC project, I didn't have to put <UsingTask TaskName="TransformXml" AssemblyFile=... in.
<UsingTask TaskName="TransformXml" AssemblyFile="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.Tasks.dll" />
<Target Name="AfterCompile" Condition="Exists('App.$(Configuration).config')">
<!--Generate transformed app config in the intermediate directory-->
<TransformXml Source="App.config" Destination="$(IntermediateOutputPath)$(TargetFileName).config" Transform="App.$(Configuration).config" />
<!--Force build process to use the transformed configuration file from now on.-->
<ItemGroup>
<AppConfigWithTargetPath Remove="App.config" />
<AppConfigWithTargetPath Include="$(IntermediateOutputPath)$(TargetFileName).config">
<TargetPath>$(TargetFileName).config</TargetPath>
</AppConfigWithTargetPath>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
<!--Override After Publish to support ClickOnce AfterPublish. Target replaces the untransformed config file copied to the deployment directory with the transformed one.-->
<Target Name="AfterPublish">
<PropertyGroup>
<DeployedConfig>$(_DeploymentApplicationDir)$(TargetName)$(TargetExt).config$(_DeploymentFileMappingExtension)</DeployedConfig>
</PropertyGroup>
<!--Publish copies the untransformed App.config to deployment directory so overwrite it-->
<Copy Condition="Exists('$(DeployedConfig)')" SourceFiles="$(IntermediateOutputPath)$(TargetFileName).config" DestinationFiles="$(DeployedConfig)" />
</Target>
Here is the way I applied in my .csproj file, quite simple:
<Target Name="AfterBuild" Condition="Exists('Web.$(Configuration).config')">
<Exec Command="attrib -R Web.config" />
<TransformXml Source="Web.config" Transform="Web.$(Configuration).config" Destination="Web.config" StackTrace="true" />
</Target>
Also there is a good post on this.
Further, for web.config transformation, Since VS2012 we can add a publish profile - Publish.pubxml (ProjectFolder/Properties/PublishProfiles/Publish.pubxml) to do a FileSystem publish, thus the web.config transformation will happen by default then. Below is a sample
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<WebPublishMethod>FileSystem</WebPublishMethod>
<SiteUrlToLaunchAfterPublish />
<publishUrl Condition="$(OutDir) != ''">$(OutDir)\_PublishedWebsites\$(ProjectName)</publishUrl> <!-- For MSBuild -->
<publishUrl Condition="$(OutDir) == ''">$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)..\..\_PublishedWebsite\</publishUrl> <!-- For Visual Studio...cant use $(ProjectName) -->
<DeleteExistingFiles>True</DeleteExistingFiles>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
I need to be able to overrire the name of output assemblies.
There is a file that contains the prefix, appid. I need to read the file to get this prefix and then to use it for assembly name. I.e., assembly name engine.dll and appid contains slot_113. Final output should be engine_slot113.dll.
I'm thinking about to create a separate .targets file, that I'm able to include to any .csproj file that requires that behaviour.
I found a task ReadFileLines to read file contains appid, but I'm not sure how to override output name.
You can easily achieve this by using MSBuild Copy Task.
Let's assume you already extracted suffix in the property $(AssemblyNameSuffix) and specify assembly files item group #(AssemblyDllFiles), so:
Create RenameDlls.targets file (with content shown below)
Create testfile.txt along with the targets file
Execute msbuild.exe RenameDlls.targets
File testfile.txt will be copied as testfile_SUFFIX.txt
Note: You can apply this action to multiple files as well
MSBuild targets:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" DefaultTargets="Default">
<Target Name="Default" DependsOnTargets="CreateItems;CopyItems"/>
<PropertyGroup>
<AssemblyNameSuffix>SUFFIX</AssemblyNameSuffix>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="CreateItems">
<ItemGroup>
<AssemblyDllFiles Include="testfile.txt"/>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
<Target Name="CopyItems"
Inputs="#(AssemblyDllFiles)"
Outputs="#(AssemblyDllFiles->'.\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)_$(AssemblyNameSuffix)%(Extension)')">
<Message Text="#(AssemblyDllFiles->'%(FullPath)', '%0a%0d')"
Importance="low"/>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(AssemblyDllFiles)"
DestinationFiles="#(AssemblyDllFiles->'.\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)_$(AssemblyNameSuffix)%(Extension)')"
SkipUnchangedFiles="true"/>
</Target>
</Project>
I don't think there is a way to override it, but in a post build operation renaming it should be very possible. Use the PostBuildEvent.
I'm currently in the process of setting up a build server for a web project. I'm using Web Deployment Project to create a deployable package and I want to do some simple file administration (copy webDeploy.config -> web.config and delete .csproj files).
My target looks as follows:
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<Delete Files="$(OutputPath)\*.csproj" />
</Target>
However, inspecting the output of the WDP gives me this
Target "AfterBuild" in file "C:\project\Deployment\Project.Deployment.wdproj":
Task "Delete"
File ".\Debug\*.*" doesn't exist. Skipping.
Done executing task "Delete".
Done building target "AfterBuild" in project "Project.Deployment.wdproj".
The Deployment path does indeed contain a Debug path. What am I doing wrong?
If you want to use wildcards you will have do so in an item list. The item list will take care of expanding the wild cards for you. So in your case:
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<ItemGroup>
<FilesToDelete Include="$(OutputPath)\*.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
<Delete Files="#(FilesToDelete)" />
</Target>
I tried it myself and was stunned but the explanation is simple: You cannot use wildcards (MSBuild Team Blog).
Sample:
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectConfigFiles Include="$(OutputPath)\*.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<Delete Files="#(ProjectConfigFiles)" />
</Target>
How do I compile an ASP.Net MVC project using MSBuild? We use a Continuous Integration server to compile and deploy our applications. To keep things simple I created an MVC 1.0 project in VS2008. I immediately created an MSBuild script file to compile it. I did not change any code in the project. The MSBuild script contained the following target.
<AspNetCompiler
VirtualPath="/"
PhysicalPath="C:\Development\mvc1\"
TargetPath="c:\publish\xxx"
Force="true"
Debug="false"
Updateable="true"
The MVC project sln file is contained in the c:\development\mvc1\ directory. I am running XP/Pro.
I am receiving an error ASPCONFIG: it is an error to use a section registered as allowDefintion='MachineToApplication' beyond application level.. I removed the authenication mode, membership provider, etc. from the web config file until I finally saw a different error message. I am now receiving an error message saying that the file '/views/shared/site.master' does not exist.
What is going on? Thanks in advance for your help!
Am I using the wrong MSBuild command?
If you compile your sln-file (msbuild mysolution.sln) or
<MSBuild Projects="msbuild mysolution.sln" Targets="Rebuild" ContinueOnError="false"
StopOnFirstFailure="false" /><!-- -d -errorstack -->
and the sln-file has the ASP.NET MVC-project .csproj-file then the .csproj-file does have everything you need. Open the .csproj with notepad and look for:
1) This should be true:
<MvcBuildViews>false</MvcBuildViews>
2) Target Name="AfterBuildCompiler":
<Target Name="AfterBuildCompiler" Condition="'$(MvcBuildViews)'=='true'">
<AspNetCompiler VirtualPath="SomeVirtualDir" PhysicalPath="C:\Development\mvc1\" TargetPath="c:\publish\xxx\" />
</Target>
I didn't do anything else and it worked. I actually made my config so that only release build deploy the application (by moving MvcBuildViews-property under PropertyGroups. Then I can use the same .csproj in the development (debug) and deployment (release).
This build script compiles an asp.net MVC 3 application. Since the entire internet appears to have forgotten the concept of "Build Script" this one does not require you to have Visual Studio installed on the target Machine or to "lol, you just have to edit your csproj file to get msbuild!!"
Moving on.
Make sure you have .NET 4 and MVC3 installed. By the way, my build scripts only work with msbuild 4, so make sure you're using the proper one.
The general process is as follows (thanks to many hints and answers I got here!)
1) Build the dependencies (you DLL's)
2) Build the DLL for your web application.
3) Call the asp.net compiler task.
4) Check the scripts for additional comments.
Note that this is called from an outside script that compiles other DLL's (Business, data access, etc.)
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<BuildDir>..\..\dist</BuildDir>
<Optimize>true</Optimize>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup >
<Reference Include="System.dll" />
<Reference Include="System.Core.dll" />
<Reference Include="System.Web.Abstractions.dll" />
<!-- add the remaining DLL's required. Check your References folder inside VS2010 and add the relevant entries here. It's a lot of references. I ommited them to make the post more compact.
For reasons that are beyond me, I only managed to get some DLL's referenced by full path. Go figure... -->
<Reference Include="C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Web.Helpers\v4.0_1.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.Web.Helpers.dll" />
<Reference Include="C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Web.Mvc\v4.0_3.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.Web.Mvc.dll" />
<Reference Include="C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Web.WebPages\v4.0_1.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.Web.WebPages.dll" />
<!-- The "main build script" compiles the other DLL's from the project and places them on the BuildDir folder. Just reference it here-->
<Reference Include="$(BuildDir)\*.dll"></Reference>
</ItemGroup>
<!-- Build a DLL for the code file inside your web project (controllers, models, the lot...) place it together with the other DLL's
WARNING: Simple build command. Resource files are not included in this.
-->
<Target Name="BuildWebDll">
<ItemGroup>
<CodeFiles Include=".\**\*.cs" />
</ItemGroup>
<CSC Sources="#(CodeFiles)" TargetType="Library" References="#(Reference)" OutputAssembly="$(BuildDir)\cth.web.dll" >
</CSC>
</Target>
<!-- For reasons also unkown, but covered in a number os posts in this forum, the asp.net compiler requires the necessary DLL's to be placed on the BIN/ folder of your web project. That's why we're copying every DLL we need to said folder. For debugging, check the Bin folder on Visual Studio after you compile the project. You need to replicate that in your BIN/
-->
<Target Name="CopyDLLs">
<ItemGroup>
<DllFiles Include="$(BuildDir)/*.dll"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(DllFiles)" DestinationFolder="Bin\"></Copy>
</Target>
<Target Name="build">
<CallTarget Targets="BuildWebDll"></CallTarget>
<CallTarget Targets="CopyDLLs"></CallTarget>
<!-- Call this from the webproject directory. PhysicalPath references ".". TargetPath can be everything you want -->
<AspNetCompiler Updateable="true" VirtualPath="/CTH.Web" PhysicalPath="./" TargetPath="$(BuildDir)/CTH.Web" Force="true" Debug="false" />
</Target>
Remember that you have to include resource files, do any web.config replacements, etc. I really hope this helps.
The easiest way I found was to add a WebDeployment project to your solution.
http://www.microsoft.com/DOWNLOADS/details.aspx?FamilyID=0aa30ae8-c73b-4bdd-bb1b-fe697256c459&displaylang=en
You set the properties for the build in the WebDeployment project (like precompile ) . The Buildserver builds the wdprj.
In my environment I have to start by building the web first. After that I can start the wdprj.
Here is my nant - script. It should be easy to write the same in msbuild. It actually runs in TeamCity.
xml version="1.0"?>
<project name="GreatProjectWeb"
default="build" basedir="."
xmlns="http://nant.sf.net/release/0.85/nant.xsd">
<description>Build Script</description>
<!-- builds only the csproj, not the entire solution-->
<target name="build" description="Compile the project using Debug configuration for more verbose error descriptions">
<echo message="Building..."> </echo>
<exec program="C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild.exe" >
<arg value="GreatProjectWeb\GreatProjectWeb.csproj" />
<arg value="/t:Build" />
<arg value="/p:Configuration=Release" />
</exec>
<echo message="Building Projektfile finished. Starting WDP Project..."> </echo>
<exec program="C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild.exe" >
<arg value="GreatProjectWeb_Build\GreatProjectWeb_Build.wdproj" />
<arg value="/t:Build" />
<arg value="/p:Configuration=Release" />
</exec>
<exec program="7z" >
<arg value="a" />
<arg value="GreatProjectWeb_Deploy\web_GreatProject.zip" />
<arg value="GreatProjectWeb_Deploy\*" />
</exec>
</target>
</project>
You could use NAnt which has a "msbuild" task in it that will just do it for you. NAnt is a great way to go for CI builds.
The NAnt home page
The NAnt Contrib home page
The MSBuild task reference from NAnt Contrib
...the contrib library adds some great functionality that the vanilla NAnt doesn't have. It is very simple. I've included a snippet of my .build file here so you can see how I've used it:
<property name="DeployDestination" value="\\MyTestServerName\DestinationFolder"/>
<property name="Solution.Configuration" value="Debug" overwrite="True" />
<property name="nant.settings.currentframework" value="net-3.5" />
<if test="${WebContentDestination=='Production'}">
<property name="DeployDestination" value="\\MyProductionServer\DestinationFolder"/>
</if>
...<snip>
<target name="Build">
<msbuild project="SolutionFileName.sln">
<arg value="/p:Configuration=${Solution.Configuration}" />
</msbuild>
</target>
<target name="Deploy">
<copy todir="${DeployDestination}" flatten="true" >
<fileset>All files to copy</fileset>
</copy>
</target>