BeforeBuild and AfterBuild events in Visual Studio Tools for Cordova 2015 Update 5 - visual-studio-cordova

Question

I am trying to use pre and post build in my Visual Studio 2015 (TACO) project. As outlined in PreBuildEvent and PostBuildEvent on Visual Studio 2015 Tools for Apache Cordova I have added <Target> elements to my .jsproj file so that it now ends as shown:
<Import Project="_apacheCordovaProjectSourceItems.Targets" Condition="Exists('_apacheCordovaProjectSourceItems.Targets')" />
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<Exec Command="if $(ConfigurationName) == Release (echo ** Before Build **)" />
<Exec Command="attrib -R "$(ProjectDir)\platforms\*.*" /S" IgnoreExitCode="true" />
</Target>
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<Exec Command="if $(ConfigurationName) == Release (echo ** After Build **)" />
<Exec Command="if $(ConfigurationName) == Release (xcopy "$(TargetDir)*.*" "$(SolutionDir)..\..\Binaries\$(PlatformName)\*.*" /Y /S /E /F /I)" />
</Target>
</Project>
My problem is that both the BeforeBuild and AfterBuild events fire at the beginning of the build
1>------ Build started: Project: MyProject, Configuration: Release Android ------
1> ** Before Build **
1> ** After Build **
1> D:\Workspaces\Products\MyProduct\Projects\Main\Sources\Apps\MyProject\bin\Android\Release\android-release-unsigned.apk -> D:\Workspaces\Products\MyProduct\Projects\Binaries\Android\android-release-unsigned.apk
1> D:\Workspaces\Products\MyProduct\Projects\Main\Sources\Apps\MyProject\bin\Android\Release\manifest-merger-release-report.txt -> D:\Workspaces\Products\MyProduct\Projects\Binaries\Android\manifest-merger-release-report.txt
1> 2 File(s) copied
1> Your environment has been set up for using Node.js 0.12.2 (ia32) and npm.
1> ... [Rest of output omitted] ...
Can anybody shed some light on why this is, or how I can get the post build event to run after the build has completed?

Answer 1

After banging my head against a wall for a while I gave up on the Visual Studio AfterBuild event and used a hook for the Cordova after_build one. It fires a bit earlier in the whole build process, but was good enough for my requirements. I'll post the gist of what it entails in case others need to do a similar thing.
Find the config.xml in Solution Explorer, right click on it and select View Code
In the config.xml add a <hook> section as follows
<platform name="android">
<hook type="after_build" src="scripts/afterbuild-copy-to-drop.js" />
</platform>
Here I am hooking into the after_build event for an Android build only.
Now create a scripts folder at the root of the project, ie the same level as the plugins and www folders.
Create a JavaScript file in here with a name that matches the src attribute in the hook definition, ie 'afterbuild-copy-to-drop.js'.
In this script file write the required code. Here is mine
module.exports = function (ctx) {
console.log('Executing custom "' + ctx.hook + '" hook for ' + ctx.opts.platforms);
var path = ctx.requireCordovaModule('path'),
shell = ctx.requireCordovaModule('shelljs');
// make sure we are in a release build
var isRelease = (ctx.cmdLine.indexOf('--configuration Release') >= 0);
var solutionRoot = path.join(ctx.opts.projectRoot, '../..');
var dropRoot = path.join(solutionRoot, '../../Binaries/Release/Apps');
if (isRelease){
if (ctx.opts.platforms == 'android') {
var platformRoot = path.join(ctx.opts.projectRoot, 'platforms/android');
var apkFileLocation = path.join(platformRoot, 'build/outputs/apk/android-release.apk');
dropRoot = path.join(dropRoot, 'Android');
var dropApkFileLocation = path.join(dropRoot, 'my-app.apk');
console.log('------ Making directory \'' + dropRoot + '\'');
shell.mkdir('-p', dropRoot);
console.log('------ Copying \'' + apkFileLocation + '\' to ' + dropApkFileLocation + '\'');
shell.cp('-f', apkFileLocation, dropApkFileLocation);
}
}
console.log('Finished executing "' + ctx.hook + '" hook for ' + ctx.opts.platforms);
};
Further information on hooks can be found at https://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/dev/guide/appdev/hooks/