Automatic BizTalk Versioning in My Build Process - build-process

In all of my other .net apps my build process (a mixture of nant and custom tasks) automatically updates the [AssemblyVersionAttribute] AssemblyInfo.cs with the current build number before the call to msbuild, stamping in the build number in the version number.
I'm now working on my first BizTalk project and I'd like to do the same thing with the version numbers of the BizTalk assemblies, but I've run into trouble!
First of all the aseembly version numbers are stored in the btproj files, so I did some googling and found www.codeplex.com/biztalk which looked like the answer to my problem, but there is a deeper problem!
I have a project for my schemas and another for my pipelines, the pipelines project references my schemas project as I have a flat file dis/assemblers. The problem comes when I update the version numbers, as updating them even from within visual studio does not update the pipeline components references to the schemas.
So if I update all the version numbers manually in the VS IDE from 1.0.0.0 to 1.1.0.0, the build fails as the pipeline components flat file dis/assemblers still reference the old 1.0.0.0 version of the schemas! They don't automatically update!
Is this really a manual process of updating the version numbers of the BizTalk projects in the property pages, then building the projects and manually updating the references to them in the properties of all the pipeline components that reference them?
This means that I can't have my build process control the build number part of my version numbers!
Or is there a better method of managing the version numbers of the BizTalk assemblies?

I'm sorry to disappoint you but I've been down the exact some road I had to give up. I guess it could be possible to achieve it but it would require a lot of changes to both the binding files and other XML files (as you mentioned and even more if you have published services etc).
Maybe it could be possible to wrap all these necessary changes in a build step (a MSBuild step or similar in other build frameworks) - that would be useful!

Developer- :)
We had the similar problem and we ended up developing a small utility which would change the version number in all the projects i.e. *.csproj (asssemblyinfo.cs), *.btproj accordingly. Apart from this it would open and modify the *.btp files with the new version of schemas. In nutshell, what all you have to do is to configure this utility in your VS.net tools menu and execute it.
I guess its not very difficult to develop such utility in any .net lanagauge.
Caveat: Do not forget to save the files after updates with the same encoding as they were originally.
Cheers!

Gutted, thought that might be the case. Maybe BizTalk 2009 projects will play more nicely when updating references when changing version numbers.
I started to go through and automate it manually, and when I realised what needed to be done, I took a biiig step back when I realised just how many places I'd have to modify to get it working. Thank god for Undo Checkout.
I do have a standard C# class library included in my project (various helper functions), which i am able to update the version number of during my build process, so I'm basically using that one assembly to version the whole application. If anyone wants to know what version is in any environment, check out the version number of that one assembly.
Not ideal, but it's working.

We've done this successfully on our project - I'll see if I can get the developer of the tool to post details...

This problem arises when you perform an integration build to the latest versions of your dependent components as file references (aka schemas here).
Keep in mind that upgrading the assemblyversion must always performed manually, that way you are always in charge of changes to assemblyversions.
A possible solution to solve the buildbreaks issue is to file reference to a specific version of a dependent component build and not to the latest version and use a subst drive and a copy script to get the latest component builds.
For example:
SchemaA, assembly version 1.0.0.0
PipelineA (with pipelinecomponent XMLValidator for example), assembly version 1.0.0.0
PipelineA has a file reference to a subst drive(say R drive, which maps to a workspace D:\MyComponents) and version 1.0.0.0 of SchemaA as follows:
R:\SchemaA\1.0.0.0\SchemaA.dll.
The copy-script copies the buildoutput of SchemaA locally to your R drive.
When schema A updates to version 1.1.0.0 you don't have any issues because you still use version 1.0.0.0 and YOU have the choice to use the 1.1.0.0 version of your schema. When you want to upgrade, you have to alter your copy-script and replace the file reference to R:\SchemaA\1.1.0.0\SchemaA.dll.

Related

Packing and publishing NuGet packages with .NET CLI in TeamCity

I am trying to create Team City build template which requires minimum customisation, and I want it to play nicely with legacy projects and projects developed with .NET Core/Standard and .NET CLI.
I am stuck with NuGet as there were some considerable changes in how things work.
Earlier we had to create nuspec file to pack project as a NuGet package. At least in that file we could define various package-related properties.
New csproj file format allows us to define all package properties inside itself. That's fine, but how then do we know which projects should be packaged and which should not?
So far our TeamCity's build step Pack NuGet just contained **.nuspec for Specification files: field. The very fact of nuspec file presence served like a flag pack & publish this project.
However, for dotnet pack we need to specify the project. There is no simple way to distinguish 'main' projects from 'auxiliary' ones on which mains depend. (Let us ignore that project-to-project references are currently not supported.)
We either could pack all projects specifying **.*proj (yet in that case we are to know which packages to publish) or we might specify projects explicitly in a build configuration, but I don't like this approach because you must edit build configuration each time new project is added to the solution.
I also considered the option Generate package on build and omit dot net pack step as package is created on build. The only thing left is publishing the packages with dotnet nuget push specifying **/%BuildConfiguration%/*.nupkg.
Unfortunately when starting build against solution without projects with enabled Generate package on build makes TC fail complaining that
Target files not found for pattern "**/Release/*.nupkg"
Hence, I either need another recipe for achieving the required result or an advice how to make TC consider empty result just as a NOP and mark build as successful.
Yet another option is to use nuspec even for new csproj...
Since TeamCity 2017.2 will be available option to associate build configuration with multiple templates. So you will be able to create different templates to create packages for old projects and new .NET CLI projects.
To specify paths for target .NET projects, which should be packaged, you could use build configuration parameters.
To set such parameters during the build you could send in the preceding build step service message. The value of this parameter could be set to the list of target project files which could be selected via script like that: https://stackoverflow.com/a/8153857/305875

Can't create new projects in VS2013 -- most references are missing

About a week ago I noticed strange behavior with my install of Visual Studio 2013 Pro. Creating new projects always results in missing references to EntityFramework and most of the Microsoft.* components. I had reinstalled .NET 4.5 in repair mode around that time but can't recall if this problem happened before or after that install.
As it stands, I can no longer create a functioning project. I have an existing project I'm working on that will compile and run without issue, but creating any new projects (which I need for spike solutions etc) is no longer possible until this is fixed.
Screenshots follow. These are all from creating a new MVC project with all defaults accepted.
References list showing missing references
Error list upon building
Reference paths are empty (this was mentioned in another answer that did not directly address my specific question, so I'm including it)
Regedit showing .NET versions installed
Even though I have "repaired" .NET 4.5 it appears from regedit that I only have up to .NET 4 installed? Am I reading that correctly?
Also, due to network restrictions I cannot download packages from Nuget automatically -- I have to download them manually from a laptop off-network and then sneakernet them over to install. The network physically blocks all connections to Nuget, github, etc.
If allowing VS to connect to Nuget is the only viable option then I have considered installing VS on the laptop, creating the project there and installing all necessary dependencies, and then moving the project folder over to the restricted computer and continuing from there. But I don't know if that is a solution to this problem or not.
Any advice appreciated, thanks.
.
The network blocks all connections to Nuget, github, etc.
It's almost like they don't want you to be productive.
Anyway the project templates (which you seem to be talking about) reference specific NuGet packages. Packages by default are stored relative to your solution.
Place a nuget.config in your disk's root (or any point into your projects directory, if you keep them organized like C:\Dev\Visual Studio\Projects, then each of those subfolders will be file) and point in that file to a shared package directory on your development machine. Here you can dump all packages you require.

How to serve new DLLs directly from NuGet after each CI Build?

I wish this is a stupid duplicate of an already answered question.
I have a asp.net website that depends on some other projects (dlls copied to bin). Now, what I want is every time any of those projects are updated, I get latest dlls in my website/bin. I DO NOT want my CI server to check-in updated dlls.
I already have a private NuGet feed for my project, and just want it to serve the latest dlls after each successful CI build. Now, my questions are
Is there a way to directly serve the dlls, without creating nupkg? And probably pick them from build output folder? (for some reasons, it's not that convenient to create package as a post build task for all the dlls hundred times a day) If that is possible, awesome!
If not, can we avoid increasing version number of dlls each time, still make nuget update to the new dlls? Something like update based on latest publish date or something? (there is huge bunch of dlls, and lot of dependencies)
Is there a way to take latest dlls without building the solution? Yeah, I can do a nuget update command, but is there any other way?
Someone suggested mirroring my current code base and using something like MyGet or ProGet. For several reasons, that is not feasible at the moment.
Triggering a Visual Studio build after any NuGet dependencies is probably not quite what you really need - that's a job for CI. However, you can set the version ranges in your packages.config file to make VS (via nuget) pull newer NuGet packages when available.
To answer your specific points:
Why would you want to server 'random' loose DLLs whose origin you cannot be certain of? NuGet provides a mechanism to track the origin of code on which your own code depends, which makes tracking down bugs easier :) If you rely on NuGet packages containing DLLs which change 'hundreds of times a day' then you should likely just build those DLLs directly with your application.
See #1 - if you are re-building NuGet packages very often, then you likely have your package boundaries wrong. Consider how truly independent your packages are, and see if it would makes sense to bring some of the DLLs together, or even separate out (fork) code which is shared between multiple separate applications. If you create a new version of a NuGet package, then you should increase the version number - that's a fundamental premise of semantic versioning, and you'll get into a mess if you do not follow this pattern.
To bring down the latest NuGet dependencies, nuget update is your friend :)
Using MyGet or ProGet might be part of a solution, but it's not directly related to the patterns you mention above.

STS: Losing references in Java Build Path

I am using Spring Source Tool Suite 2.8.1 to implement Spring applications.
I frequently get build errors because references are lost for no apparent reason. In Right-click project in Package Explorer->Properties->Java Build Path->Order and Export, I find projects sometimes are deselected. And often packages are gone in Right-click project in Package Explorer->Properties->Java Build Path->Deployment Assembly.
Having to reset these settings frequently is frustrating. Is there some way I can work around these problems?
I have tried to update STS to the latest version, but the upgrade process fails with incomprehensible error messages. I want to avoid a clean install because setting up the environment again would probably be a nightmare.
Now that I know this is a maven project and you are adding references yourself, this is making sense to me. STS 2.8.x was the last STS to ship with the legacy m2e (maven plugin for Eclipse). It did not recognize build path entries added manually (it likes to have complete control over the classpath). So, what is likely happening is that you are adding these classpath entries and then an update project operation gets kicked off automatically. This will have the effect of removing all of your extra classpath entries.
You are best off doing the following:
Updgrading STS
Or just upgrading your m2e component (you will have to first uninstall the old m2e, but this should be taken care of automatically from the discovery update page).
Or, just accept the fact that you can't manually change your classpath with the legacy m2e.

How do you handle versioning on a Web Application?

What are the strategies for versioning of a web application/ website?
I notice that here in the Beta there is an svn revision number in the footer and that's ideal for an application that uses svn over one repository. But what if you use externals or a different source control application that versions separate files?
It seems easy for a Desktop app, but I can't seem to find a suitable way of versioning for an asp.net web application.
NB I'm not sure that I have been totally clear with my question.
What I want to know is how to build and auto increment a version number for an asp.net application.
I'm not interested in how to link it with svn.
I think what you are looking for is something like this: How to auto-increment assembly version using a custom MSBuild task. It's a little old but I think it will work.
For my big apps I just use a incrementing version number id (1.0, 1.1, ...) that i store in a comment of the main file (usually index.php).
For just websites I usually just have a revision number (1,2,3,...).
I have a tendency to stick with basic integers at first (1,2,3), moving onto rational numbers (2.1, 3.13) when things get bigger...
Tried using fruit at one point, that works well for a small office. Oh, the 'banana' release? looks over in the corner "yeah... that's getting pretty old now..."
Unfortunately, confusion started to set in when the development team grew, is it an Orange, or Mandarin, or Tangelo? It looks ok. What do you mean "rotten on the inside?"
... but in all honesty. Setup a separate repository as a master, development goes on in various repositories. For every scheduled release everything is checked into the master repository so that you can quickly roll back when something goes wrong.
(I'm assuming dev/test/production are all separate servers, and dev is never allowed to touch production or the master repository....)
I maintain a system of web applications with various components that live in separate SVN repos. To be able to version track the system as a whole, I have another SVN repo which contains all other repos as external references. It also contains install / setup script(s) to deploy the whole thing. With that setup, the SVN revision number of the "metarepository" could possibly be used for versioning the complete system.
In another case, I include the SVN revision via SVN keywords in a class file that serves no other purpose (to avoid the risk of keyword substitution breaking my code). The class in that file contains a string variable that is manipulated by SVN and parsed by a class method.
An inconvenience with both approaches is that the revision number is not automatically updated by changes in the externals (approach 1) or the rest of the code (approach 2).
During internal development, I'm using milestone numbers (M1, M2, M3...). After release, I'll probably just update dates ("the January 2009 update").

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