How to exclude folders from Visual Studio 2022 WebDeploy? - webdeploy

Question

I don't manage to exclude certain folders from Visual Studio 2022 WebDeploy (publish to IIS).
There is a bunch of folders that I do not want to be published to my server (e.g. jquery, bootstrap-icons etc.).
I followed this post and ended up with a new xml file. The file is called [MyProjectName].wpp.targets.xml and it is located in the same folder as my [MyProjectName].csproj.
The file looks like this:
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<ExcludeFromPackageFolders
Include="wwwroot\lib\jquery;
wwwroot\lib\jquery-validate;
wwwroot\lib\jquery-validation-unobtrusive;
wwwroot\lib\jquery-ajax-unobtrusive;
wwwroot\lib\popper.js;
wwwroot\lib\bootstrap-icons">
</ExcludeFromPackageFolders>
</ItemGroup>
On my next Publish, however, all those folders (and included files) are still being copied to my server.
What am I doing wrong?
I am using Visual Studio Community 2022, V.17.1.5, with a .NET 6 application.

Answer 1

Edit your {project_name}.csproj file and add the following lines...
<ItemGroup>
<Folder Include="wwwroot\Files\" Exclude="Files\**\*" />
</ItemGroup>
With "wwwroot\Files" being the location of the folder with the files you want to exclude.
This can be anywhere inside your top level declaration.
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
<PropertyGroup Label="Globals">
<SccProjectName>SAK</SccProjectName>
<SccProvider>SAK</SccProvider>
<SccAuxPath>SAK</SccAuxPath>
<SccLocalPath>SAK</SccLocalPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.1</TargetFramework>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.HttpOverrides" Version="2.2.0" />
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.NewtonsoftJson" Version="3.1.32" />
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.RuntimeCompilation" Version="3.1.32" />
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore" Version="5.0.17" />
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design" Version="5.0.17">
<PrivateAssets>all</PrivateAssets>
<IncludeAssets>runtime; build; native; contentfiles; analyzers; buildtransitive</IncludeAssets>
</PackageReference>
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Debug" Version="5.0.0" />
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design" Version="3.1.5" />
<PackageReference Include="System.Linq" Version="4.3.0" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectReference Include="..\PCS.BusinessServices\PCS.BusinessServices.csproj" />
<ProjectReference Include="..\PCS.Common\PCS.Common.csproj" />
<ProjectReference Include="..\PCS.Data.Services\PCS.Data.Services.csproj" />
<ProjectReference Include="..\PCS.Data\PCS.Data.csproj" />
<ProjectReference Include="..\PCS.Encryption\PCS.Encryption.csproj" />
<ProjectReference Include="..\PCS.PdfEngine\PCS.PdfEngine.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Folder Include="wwwroot\Files\" Exclude="Files\**\*" />
</ItemGroup>
</Project>