I use web.config transforms all the time and when I make a new site/project, I often copy a previous site, rename the *.csproj and rename oldsite to newsite inside the csproj as necessary. I do this often, but for some reason one of my projects will not run its transforms on publish. I don't even know what to show you in this post, so I'll update the question as necessary based on what you want to see. Googling around I didn't find much. But here is what I can tell you:
1) My web.config does not have a namespace on it, my web.release.pittsburgh.config has the 'transform' namespace on it.
2) I copied the contents of a working web.release.pittsburgh.config into the none working one and it still didn't work.
3) When I publish a working site, in the output, I see some 'web config transform' output after a line like 'Publish Pipeline Collect Files Phase', and I see a step 'Transformed Web.config using...' and finally a 'Publish Pipeline Transform Phase' output line. In my none working project, I go from 'Publish Pipeline Collect Files Phase' directly to 'Publish Pipeline Transform Phase' with nothing in between.
I tried comparing the *.csproj files to look for anything obvious and I didn't see anything.
Let me know if you have any ideas or would like any specific information.
Please make sure below things are configured properly.
1) "Release.Pittsburgh" configuration is available or not. If not click on configuration manager and add new configuration.
2) Once configuration is available in the list, click on "Configuration Manager" and make sure all project configurations are set appropriately for "Release.Pittsburgh". If not, set it.
3) This last step is just to make sure transformations are getting added properly or not (Right click on web.config).
Once all are good, go for publish website.
Related
I have a complete ASP.NET project and am now trying to use automatic testing methods to test the code.
So, I have calls to methods which use configurationManager to call settings from Web.config for things like API keys etc..
My question is, it possible to synchronise my app.config for my test project and my web.config, so that if I update either one of them it takes effect on both projects, or will I have to do something different?
I have currently just copied what I need from the web.config, but because I work for a website we always have changing variables and I can't guarantee that if we change one that my colleagues will remember to update the corresponding key in both projects.
In the unit test project properties, you can add a pre-build step to copy the main web.config to the unit test project, overwriting the existing unit test project config file. This will do the same as you do now manually, but gaurantees the two config files will be in sync.
Alternatively, and perhaps better, delete the existing unit test config file (and exclude from the project) the click 'Add Existing Item' within the unit test project, choose the main project config file, and select 'Add As Link' instead of 'Add' (click the right hand edge of the 'add' button to achieve this). There will only be one config file on your disc, but both projects will use it.
The question is a follow up to this one: Generate Web.Debug config which could be debugged](Generate Web.Debug.config which could be debugged)
I have defined a transformation for web.debug.config. During compilation I see the following:
Transformed Web.config using C:\data\Main\WebRole\Web.Debug.config into
C:\data\Main\obj\obj\x64\Debug\WebRole.csproj\TransformWebConfig\ [...]
transformed\Web.config.
Checked Web.config in the specified location - it is correct (transformation succeeded)
But when I start the service in the azure emulator I get an alert that
Why does it happen? Looks that incorrect web.config is taken. Where should I specify the location of correct (transformed) file?
The key thing to realise with web.config Transforms (and is mentioned in the answer to your linked question) is that they are only part of the story.
When you build your sources, the transformed web.config file is built into the /obj/ folder, ready for deployment.
It is only the act of deploying your solution somewhere that puts the transformed config file into use - as noted in the docs:
When you deploy the Web application by using the selected build configuration and by using either a deployment package or one-click publish, the Web.config file is transformed according to your specifications.
How are you running the application after you build it? You need to publish or deploy it using one of the built in mechanisms that support web transforms to see those changes on your site.
If you are running the emulator against the original source files, they won't see the transformed web.config file - which is why typically the debug build doesn't have any transforms and you then turn off debugging with your Release build which is then deployed to production.
As you're trying to test this in the emulator you should be able to do the following:
In the Solution Explorer, ensure you've selected a file within the project that runs in the emulator.
From the Build menu, select "Publish [Project Name".
In the Publish Wizard, create a new "Profile" using the "Custom" publish target.
In the "Connection" pane select "File System" as the publish method, and give it a suitable target location.
In the "Settings" pane choose the appropriate configuration (in your case probably "Debug"), and set any other options that you'd like.
Then press "Publish", and the project should be built, and then deployed to the new file location.
You should then be able to start the emulator from this newly published location, which will be using your transformed web.config.
I have found this solution and it works perfectly
https://translate.google.co.il/translate?hl=en&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sascha-dittmann.de%2Fpost%2FWebConfig-Transformation-im-Windows-Azure-Compute-Emulator.aspx&anno=2
I'm struggling to get web.config transformations working with automated builds.
We have a reasonably large solution, containing one ASP.NET web application and eight class libraries. We have three developers working on the project and, up to now, each has "published" the solution to a local folder then used file copy to deploy to a test server. I'm trying to put an automated build/deploy solution in place using TFS 2010.
I created a build definition and added a call to msdeploy.exe in the build process template, to get the application deployed to the test server. So far, so good!
I then tried to implement web.config transforms and I just can't get them to work. If I build and publish locally on my PC, the "publish" folder has the correct, transformed web.config file.
Using team build, the transformation just does not happen, and I just have the base web.config file.
I tried adding a post-build step in the web application's project file, as others have suggested, similar to:
<target name="AfterBuild">
<TransformXml Source="Web.generic.config"
Transform="$(ProjectConfigTransformFileName)"
Destination="Web.Config" />
</target>
but this fails beacuse the source web.config file has an "applicationSettings" section. I get the error
Could not find schema information for the element 'applicationSettings'.
I've seen suggstions around adding arguments to the MSBuild task in the build definition like
/t:TransformWebConfig /p:Configuration=Debug
But this falls over when the class library projects are built, presumably because they don't have a web.config file.
Any ideas? Like others, I thought this would "just work", but apparently not. This is the last part I need to get working and it's driving me mad. I'm not an msbuild expert, so plain and simple please!
Thanks in advance.
Doug
I just went through this. Our build was a bit more complicated in that we have 8 class libraries and 9 web applications in one solution. But the flow is the same.
First off get rid of your after build target. You won't need that.
You need to use the MSDeployPublish service. This will require that it be installed and configured properly on the destination server. Check the following links for info on this part:
Note that the server in question MUST be configured properly with the correct user rights. The following sites helped me get that properly set up.
http://william.jerla.me/post/2010/03/20/Configuring-MSDeploy-in-IIS-7.aspx
http://vishaljoshi.blogspot.com/2010/11/team-build-web-deployment-web-deploy-vs.html
How can I get TFS2010 to run MSDEPLOY for me through MSBUILD?
The next part requires that your build definition have the correct MSBuild parameters set up to do the publish. Those parameters are entered in the Process > 3.Advanced > MS Build Arguments line of the build definition. Here's a hint:
(don't change the following for any reason)
/p:DeployOnBuild=True
/p:DeployTarget=MsDeployPublish
/p:CreatePackageOnPublish=False
/p:MSDeployPublishMethod=WMSVC
/p:SkipExtraFilesOnServer=True
/p:AllowUntrustedCertificate=True
(These control where it's going)
/p:MSDeployServiceUrl="https://testserver.domain:8172/msdeploy.axd"
/p:UserName=testserver\buildaccount
/p:Password=buildacctpassword
/p:DeployIisAppPath="MyApp - TESTING"
Obviously the user will have to be configured in IIS on the target server to be allowed access to that axd (see previous links). And the IisAppPath is the name of the website on the target server.
You won't have to do anything special for the config transformations as the build itself will take care of that for you. Just have the correct setting in the line at Process > 1. Required > Items to Build > Configurations To Build.
Instead of trying to do the deploy by adding tasks myself into the build process template, I followed advice in Vishal Joshi's blog post here.
Now the entire project is built and deployed and the web.config transformations work also. Brilliant!
I now have another problem to solve! The web application references web services and the build process results in an XmlSerializers dll. However, although this is built OK, it does not get deployed to the web host. I think this needs a new post!
Doug
Simple task, but for some reason no simple solution just yet.
We've all got web.config files - and I haven't worked anywhere yet that doesn't have the problem where someone yells across the room "Sh*t, I've just uploaded the wrong web.config file".
Is there a simple way of being able to auto generate a web.config file that will contain the right things for copying to release? An example of these being:
Swap connection string over to use live database
Change
Switch over to use the live/release logging system, and live/release security settings
(in our case we need to change the SessionState mode to InProc from StateServer - this isn't normal)
If you have others, let me know and I'll update it here so it's easy for someone else to find
Maintaining 2 config files works, but is a royal pain, and is usually the reason something's gone wrong while you're pushing things live.
Visual Studio 2010 supports something like this. Check it out here.
How are you deploying your builds. In my environment, this used to be a pain point too, but now we use cruisecontrol.net and script our builds in nant. In our script, we detect the environment and have different versions of the config settings for each environment. See: http://www.mattwrock.com/post/2009/10/22/The-Perfect-Build-Part-3-Continuous-Integration-with-CruiseControlnet-and-NANT-for-Visual-Studio-Projects.aspx for my blogpost onthe subject of using cruisecontrol.net for build management. Skip to the end fora brief description of how we handle config versions.
In my most recent project I wrote a PowerShell script which loaded the web.config file, modified the necessary XML elements, and saved the file back out again. A bit like this:
param($mode, $src)
$ErrorActionPreference = "stop"
$config = [xml](Get-Content $src)
if ($mode -eq "Production")
{
$config.SelectSingleNode("/configuration/system.web/compilation").SetAttribute("debug", "false")
$config.SelectSingleNode("/configuration/system.web/customErrors").SetAttribute("mode", "off")
$config.SelectSingleNode("/configuration/system.net/mailSettings/smtp/network").SetAttribute("host", "live.mail.server")
$config.SelectSingleNode("/configuration/connectionStrings/add[#name='myConnectionString']").SetAttribute("connectionString", "Server=SQL; Database=Live")
}
elseif ($mode -eq "Testing")
{
# etc.
}
$config.Save($src)
This script overwrites the input file with the modifications, but it should be easy to modify it to save to a different file if needed. I have a build script that uses web deployment projects to build the web app, outputting the binaries minus the source code to a different folder - then the build script runs this script to rewrite web.config. The result is a folder containing all the files ready to be placed on the production server.
XSLT can be used to produce parameterized xml files. Web.config being xml file this approach works.
You can have one .xslt file(having xpath expressions).
Then there can be different xml files like
1. debug.config.xml
2. staging.config.xml
3. release.config.xml
Then in the postbuild event or using some msbuild tasks the xslt can be combined with appropriate xml files to having different web.config.
Sample debug.config.xml file can be
<Application.config>
<DatabaseServer></DatabaseServerName>
<ServiceIP></ServiceIP>
</Application.config>
.xslt can have xpaths referring to the xml given above.
Can have a look at the XSLT transformation This code can be used in some MSBuild tasks or nant tasks and different web.config's can be produced depending on the input config xml files.
This way you just have to manage the xml files.
There is only one overhead that the xslt file which is similar to web.config need to be managed. i.e whenever there is any tag getting added in the web.config the xslt also needs to be changed.
I don't think you can 100% avoid this.
The last years of work ever and ever shows: where human worked, there are fails.
So, here are 3 ideas from my last company, not the best maybe, but better then nothing:
Write an batch file or an C#.Net Application that change your web.config on a doubleclick
Write a "ToDo on Release"-List
Do pair-realesing (== pair programming while realease :))
I am using the built in test framework in VS2008 and I would like be able to write a test that makes sure all the expected web.config settings have been defined so that if by accident one is removed or changed my suite of tests will detect it and not have to be tested in a runtime scenario. How would I set this up?
I do not want to setup a mockup of my web.config since I don't want to maintain two versions and this would make my test invalid anyways since I am really trying to capture the fact that the project's web.config is correct.
Any suggestions, alternatives, hints?
Solution: I ended up using the copy in the pre-build that was suggested with one change. On copy I rename the web.config to app.config so that the test project would automatically pick it up.
I tried to split out the config files as suggested as well but the problem I ran into was when the test project ran, it actually didn't run out of the bin directory (which setting the config files to 'Content' type would copy to) but instead to a results directory that has been pre defined. I could not figure out how to make it copy thos extra files to this results directory so the config files could never be found.
I'am using the pre-build event to copy working web.config to your test project directory.
Set the command line of the pre-build event of test project to string like this:
copy $(SolutionDir)\YourWebAppDir\web.config $(ProjectDir) /y
After that your tests will always run with actual web.config version.
Comment to pcampbell's answer:
I think if you use the configSource attribute you can just set it to the same path in web.config of your web app and app.config of test project and that makes not necessary to use build events.
sorry, I can't leave comments yet.
To expand on bniwredyc's answer, perhaps consider:
refactoring your web.config to reference a new config file like appSettings.config or similar.
modify your project's web.config to:
<appSettings configSource="appSettings.config" />
modify your Unit Test project's app.config to use this file as well.
modify your post or pre-build events to copy just this file.
this also helps ease of deployment in Test/Staging/Prod
Ultimately, the web.config is an XML file. You could generate a schema to validate the sections required are present and that required values have been populated. Obviously, you couldn't contextually validate any sort of business logic that the configuration might contain, but you could use a combination of an XSD validation plus a lightweight class that is used to parse conditions within the file.
Used in conjunction with a copy pre-build event you actually create a very nice test harness for your production quality configurations.