I have a simple .net standard project that included Xamarin.Forms in Visual studio 2017. The build was successful until I change the default BaseIntermediateOutputPath in project file.
Snippet of the .csproj file:
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>netstandard1.4</TargetFramework>
<PackageTargetFallback>portable-net45+win8+wpa81+wp8</PackageTargetFallback>
<BaseIntermediateOutputPath>hello/</BaseIntermediateOutputPath> <!-- Comment this out and build passes -->
</PropertyGroup>
The build error was:
Page1.xaml.cs(17,4): error CS0103: The name 'InitializeComponent' does not exist in the current context.
After inspecting the msbuild output. It looks like the XamlG target never included/executed.
Any insight?
Thanks.
C.
Related
Since dotnet core moved back to the .csproj format, there is a new autogenerated MyProject.AssemblyInfo.cs which contains, among others:
[assembly: AssemblyCompany("MyProject")]
[assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.0.0")]
Note that this is automatically regenerated every build.
Previously, the file was found in the /obj/ directory, now it appears to be only in memory as the file can't be found on disk and clicking the error message does not open any file.
This is the error message:
Since they are defined there, I can't define them myself in the classical AssemblyInfo.cs.
Where/how can I define the Company and Version of a project?
As you've already noticed, you can control most of these settings in .csproj.
If you'd rather keep these in AssemblyInfo.cs, you can turn off auto-generated assembly attributes.
<PropertyGroup>
<GenerateAssemblyInfo>false</GenerateAssemblyInfo>
</PropertyGroup>
If you want to see what's going on under the hood, checkout Microsoft.NET.GenerateAssemblyInfo.targets inside of Microsoft.NET.Sdk.
Those settings have moved into the .csproj file.
By default, they don't show up but you can discover them from Visual Studio 2017 in the project properties Package tab.
Once saved those values can be found in MyProject.csproj
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetFramework>net461</TargetFramework>
<Version>1.2.3.4</Version>
<Authors>Author 1</Authors>
<Company>Company XYZ</Company>
<Product>Product 2</Product>
<PackageId>MyApp</PackageId>
<AssemblyVersion>2.0.0.0</AssemblyVersion>
<FileVersion>3.0.0.0</FileVersion>
<NeutralLanguage>en</NeutralLanguage>
<Description>Description here</Description>
<Copyright>Copyright</Copyright>
<PackageLicenseUrl>License URL</PackageLicenseUrl>
<PackageProjectUrl>Project URL</PackageProjectUrl>
<PackageIconUrl>Icon URL</PackageIconUrl>
<RepositoryUrl>Repo URL</RepositoryUrl>
<RepositoryType>Repo type</RepositoryType>
<PackageTags>Tags</PackageTags>
<PackageReleaseNotes>Release</PackageReleaseNotes>
</PropertyGroup>
In the file explorer properties information tab, FileVersion is shown as "File Version" and Version is shown as "Product version"
I do the following for my .NET Standard 2.0 projects.
Create a Directory.Build.props file (e.g. in the root of your repo)
and move the properties to be shared from the .csproj file to this file.
This also enables central management of these shared properties in a multi project solution, allowing for example to set the copyright and/or version numbers only once for all projects.
MSBuild will pick it up automatically and apply them to the autogenerated AssemblyInfo.cs.
They also get applied to the nuget package when building one with dotnet pack or via the UI in Visual Studio 2017.
See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/msbuild/customize-your-build
Example:
<Project>
<PropertyGroup>
<Company>Some company</Company>
<Copyright>Copyright © 2020</Copyright>
<AssemblyVersion>1.0.0.1</AssemblyVersion>
<FileVersion>1.0.0.1</FileVersion>
<Version>1.0.0.1</Version>
<!-- ... -->
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
You can always add your own AssemblyInfo.cs, which comes in handy for InternalsVisibleToAttribute, CLSCompliantAttribute and others that are not automatically generated.
Adding AssemblyInfo.cs to a Project
In Solution Explorer, right click on <project name> > Add > New Folder.
Name the folder "Properties".
Right click on the "Properties" folder, and click Add > New Item....
Select "Class" and name it "AssemblyInfo.cs".
Suppressing Auto-Generated Attributes
If you want to move your attributes back to AssemblyInfo.cs instead of having them auto-generated, you can suppress them in MSBuild as natemcmaster pointed out in his answer.
Adding to NightOwl888's answer, you can go one step further and add an AssemblyInfo class rather than just a plain class:
I want to extend this topic/answers with the following. As someone mentioned, this auto-generated AssemblyInfo can be an obstacle for the external tools. In my case, using FinalBuilder, I had an issue that AssemblyInfo wasn't getting updated by build action. Apparently, FinalBuilder relies on ~proj file to find location of the AssemblyInfo. I thought, it was looking anywhere under project folder. No. So, changing this
<PropertyGroup>
<GenerateAssemblyInfo>false</GenerateAssemblyInfo>
</PropertyGroup>
did only half the job, it allowed custom assembly info if built by VS IDE/MS Build. But I needed FinalBuilder do it too without manual manipulations to assembly info file. I needed to satisfy all programs, MSBuild/VS and FinalBuilder.
I solved this by adding an entry to the existing ItemGroup
<ItemGroup>
<Compile Remove="Common\**" />
<Content Remove="Common\**" />
<EmbeddedResource Remove="Common\**" />
<None Remove="Common\**" />
<!-- new added item -->
<None Include="Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs" />
</ItemGroup>
Now, having this item, FinalBuilder finds location of AssemblyInfo and modifies the file. While action None allows MSBuild/DevEnv ignore this entry and no longer report an error based on Compile action that usually comes with Assembly Info entry in proj files.
C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\2.0.2\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\build\Microsoft.NET.Sdk.DefaultItems.targets(263,5):
error : Duplicate 'Compile' items were included. The .NET SDK includes 'Compile' items from your project directory by default.
You can either remove these items from your project file, or set the 'EnableDefaultCompileItems' property to 'false' if you want to explicitly include them in your project file.
For more information, see https://aka.ms/sdkimplicititems. The duplicate items were: 'AssemblyInfo.cs'
Thanks, this helped me a lot.
In my case, building the project Blazor Server Side Website was successful both on Release and Debug, but publishing the website still failed with the Duplicate Attribute error, which confused me a bit.
The solution was to add <GenerateAssemblyInfo>false</GenerateAssemblyInfo> both to the .csproj and .pubxml file:
Path: <Project>/Properties/PublishProfiles/<ProfileName>.pubxml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
...
<!-- Add the line below -->
<GenerateAssemblyInfo>false</GenerateAssemblyInfo>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
With .NET 5+, you can use AssemblyMetadata:
<AssemblyMetadata Include="Bar" Value="Baz" />
I'm trying to get the Output folder of referenced project in my Wix Visual Studio project, using MsBuild task. But it is failing with following error:
C:\Program Files
(x86)\MSBuild\14.0\bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(724,5):
error : The OutputPath property is not set for project
'ConsoleApplicatio n1.csproj'. Please check to make sure that you
have specified a valid combination of Configuration and Platform for
this project. Configuration='Release' Platfo rm='x86'. You may be
seeing this message because you are trying to build a project without
a solution file, and have specified a non-default Configuration or
Plat form that doesn't exist for this project.
[C:\Users\fwaheed\Documents\Visual Studio
2015\Projects\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1\ConsoleApplication1.cspro
j]
Following is the Target calling MsBuild task.
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<MSBuild
Projects="#(ProjectReference)"
Targets="GetTargetPath"
BuildInParallel="false"
Condition="'%(Name)'=='ConsoleApplication1'" >
<Output TaskParameter="TargetOutputs" ItemName="DependentAssemblies" />
</MSBuild>
</Target>
Please note that same target worked perfectly if it is CSharp project, but failing in Wix project.
Can someone guide how to get ReferencedProjects output dirs in Wix Projects?
Thanks
You can try to see how Wix does it for passing the reference values to candle on build. They're in the wix2010.targets or wix200x.targets file. Unfortunately I don't have the time to really dig into this stuff but the properties these tasks set should still exist to be used in your AfterBuild target.
Just search for "ResolveReferences" in one of those targets files.
You can also just try setting
<OutputPath>somepathhere</OutputPath>
in your csproj file since msbuild is complaining that the property isn't set.
I've used AstroGrep and searched both C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET and C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild
and I can't find anything that refers to _CopyWebApplication besides the file itself. I also tried to search for webapplication to see if something was importing that file, no luck. I have vs2008 and vs2010 ultimate installed.
I'm troubleshooting my override not working.
Where is this target being imported/invoked?
_CopyWebApplication target is defined in the file: C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets
This target invocation is set by this property :
<PropertyGroup>
...
<PrepareForRunDependsOn Condition="!$(Disable_CopyWebApplication)">
$(PrepareForRunDependsOn);
_CopyWebApplication;
_BuiltWebOutputGroupOutput
</PrepareForRunDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
Resulting in this chain of call :
Build --> CoreBuild --> PrepareForRun --> _CopyWebApplication
Apparently the individual project files themselves have the call to _CopyWebApplication embedded. 'C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets' I thought it was going to be part of the default targets that was deciding to include or invoke this target file.
I am a team member and we build the project on the server via Hudson , the problem happened to be my version of VS. it seems that VS 2013 is buggy that comments this line in csproj file:
<VSToolsPath Condition="'$(VSToolsPath)' == ''">$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)</VSToolsPath>
I Uncommented it committed on the server . Problem was solved
but each time VS 2013 Comments This line.
I'm currently using the Hudson build system with MSBuild steps. As part of the build, I have a project file with various targets in, one of which is to start a build with visual studio. However, I need to pass through a seperate project file to this target in order for it to build, but I keep getting the exception 'MSBUILD : error MSB1008: Only one project can be specified.'
I believe this is because the system is unable to calculate which project is supposed to be the parameter, and which the top-level target? If so, is there anyway to resolve this.
Here is a snippet of the target project file:
<Target Name="VisualStudioTask">
<!-- Required Properties:
$(BuildType)
$(ConfigurationSetup)
$(Solution)-->
<Exec Command="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe $(BuildType) $(ConfigurationSetup) $(Solution)" />
</Target>
The MSBuild step calling this looks like this:
/t:VisualStudioTask -p:BuildType="/Build" p:ConfigurationSetup="Release" -p:Solution="%22..\MyProject.vcproj%22"
Many thanks
Chris
I have figured it out, the problem was that I'd left out a '-' when declaring the 'ConfigurationSetup' parameter, so if you look in my original example it has this:
/t:VisualStudioTask -p:BuildType="/Build" p:ConfigurationSetup="Release" -p:Solution="%22..\MyProject.vcproj%22"
When it should have this..
/t:VisualStudioTask -p:BuildType="/Build" -p:ConfigurationSetup="Release" -p:Solution="%22..\MyProject.vcproj%22"
This is already cross-posted at MS Connect:
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/560451
I am attempting to override the property $(MSBuildExtensionsPath) when building a solution containing a C# web application project via msbuild. I am doing this because a web application csproj file imports the file "$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v9.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets". This file is installed by Visual Studio to the standard $(MSBuildExtensionsPath) location (C:\Program Files\MSBuild). I would like to eliminate the dependency on this file being installed on the machine (I would like to keep my build servers as "clean" as possible). In order to do this, I would like to include the Microsoft.WebApplication.targets in source control with my project, and then override $(MSBuildExtensionsPath) so that the csproj will import this included version of Microsoft.WebApplication.targets. This approach allows me to remove the dependency without requiring me to manually modify the web application csproj file.
This scheme works fine when I build my solution file from the command line, supplying the custom value of $(MSBuildExtensionsPath) at the command line to msbuild via the /p flag. However, if I attempt to build the solution using the MSBuild task in a custom msbuild project file (overriding MSBuildExtensionsPath using the "Properties" attribute), it fails because the web app csproj file is attempting to import the Microsoft.WebApplication.targets from the "standard" Microsoft.WebApplication.targets location (C:\Program Files\MSBuild). Notably, if I run msbuild using the "Exec" task in my custom project file, it works. Even more notably, the FIRST time I run the build using the "MSBuild" task AFTER I have run the build using the "EXEC" task (or directly from the command line), the build works.
Has anyone seen behavior like this before? Am I crazy? Is anyone aware of the root cause of this problem, a possible workaround, or whether this is a legitimate bug in MSBuild?
Steps to Reproduce:
1) Create a new empty solution in MSVS 2008 (Fake.sln)
2) Add a new C# web application to the solution (WebApplication1.csproj)
3) Close MSVS
4) Copy the contents of "C:\Program Files\MSBuild\" to a directory called "MSBuildExtensions" in the directory containing your solution.
5) rename the directory "C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v9.0\WebApplications" so that WebApplication1.csproj will not be able to import Microsoft.WebApplication.targets from that location.
6) Create a custom MSBuild project file called "TestBuild.proj" in the same directory as the solution. It should have the following content:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" DefaultTargets="BuildMSBuild">
<PropertyGroup>
<MSBuildExtensionsPath>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\MSBuildExtensions\</MSBuildExtensionsPath>
<BuildThis>Fake.sln</BuildThis>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="BuildMSBuild">
<MSBuild Projects="$(BuildThis)" Properties="MSBuildExtensionsPath=$(MSBuildExtensionsPath);" Targets="Clean" />
<MSBuild Projects="$(BuildThis)" Properties="MSBuildExtensionsPath=$(MSBuildExtensionsPath);"/>
</Target>
</Project>
7) execute "msbuild TestBuild.proj" from a MSVS command prompt (note: the build may succeed the first time, but will fail if you run more than once)
Did you try setting the environment variable MSBuildExtensionPath in the CMD prompt and then running your build?
For example:
C:\> SET MSBuildExtensionsPath=C:\My\MSBuild\Extensons
Then on this project file:
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="Build">
<Message Text='MSBuildExtensionsPath="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)"' />
</Target>
</Project>
you will get the following output:
c:\Users\chuckeng\Desktop\ConsoleApplication1>"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild.exe" my.proj
Microsoft (R) Build Engine Version 3.5.30729.4926
[Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 2.0.50727.4927]
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2007. All rights reserved.
Build started 6/25/2010 1:04:05 PM.
Project "c:\my.proj" on node 0 (default targets).
MSBuildExtensionsPath="C:\My\MSBuild\Extensons"
Done Building Project "c:\my.proj" (default targets).
Build succeeded.
0 Warning(s)
0 Error(s)
Time Elapsed 00:00:00.03
This works from v4.0 as well. Although, support is generally better in v4.0 for things like this. And, v4.0 is 100% backward compatible (bugs not withstanding). So, you can build your v3.5 and prior projects with v4.0. Just select ToolsVersion 3.5.
msbuild my.proj /tv:3.5
Hope this helps...
Chuck England
Visual Studio
Program Manager - MSBuild
This is a bug in MSBuild 3.5 but it is fixed in MSBuild 4.
If you can, switch to MSBuild 4 (you still can compile your 3.5 projects), otherwise you'll have to override the property in the project file.
It works fine if you override MSBuildExtensionsPath directly in the web app .csproj file.
<PropertyGroup>
<MSBuildExtensionsPath>C:\Users\madgnome\Desktop\msbuild</MSBuildExtensionsPath>
<!-- It works too with relative path -->
<!--<MSBuildExtensionsPath>..\msbuild</MSBuildExtensionsPath>-->
</PropertyGroup>
<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />
Don't know if this might help anyone in the future, but I was able to use the following at the top of my file and it works as I would expect in both 32 and 64 bit build environments.
<PropertyGroup>
<MSBuildExtensionsPath Condition=" '$(MSBuildExtensionsPath64)' != '' ">$(MSBuildExtensionsPath64)</MSBuildExtensionsPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\ExtensionPack\4.0\MSBuild.ExtensionPack.tasks"/>