TFS2010 Xaml Build Controller With TFS 2015 - xaml

We are attempting to upgrade our rather old TFS environment from TFS2008 to TFS2015. The upgrade of the server and database is not a problem and is fine.
The issue is our build machine. This is still a Windows 2003 Server that is running Visual Studio 2010 and VB6. We still have a need to use this build machine to build legacy VB6 projects. We have installed the TFS2010 XAML build controller on this server and successfully connected it to our test TFS2015 server. However when we try to run a Xaml build, (any Xaml build regardless of whether it builds VB6 or .NET) we get the following error message almost straight away.
TF900560: Could not start build: Cannot set unknown member 'Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Workflow.Activities.TfsBuild.TargetsNotLogged'.
The XAML build are using the 'UpgradeTemplate.xaml' template and using the TFSBuild.proj we used under Visual Studio 2010.
We have a also set up a TFS2015 build controller on another (Server 2012) machine and that successfully starts the build process. However, our VB6 projects use a lot of third party components that will not install on Server 2012 so we can't use that.
Has anyone ever set up this kind of arrangement before? Is there anything we are missing or are doomed in this scenario? Obviously, we'd like to move away from VB6 apps, but that is not possible in the medium term.

Related

Visual Studio online build failure for an empty universal app

I just created a new empty universal app (windows 10) and checked it in on my visual studio online project.
The configured build is constantly failing on following error...
The imported project "C:\Program Files
(x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\WindowsXaml\v14.0\8.2\Microsoft.Windows.UI.Xaml.CSharp.targets"
was not found. Confirm that the path in the declaration is
correct, and that the file exists on disk.
I set build configurations to use VS2015 but without any luck.
I keep thinking there's a simple configuration I'm missing here... but can it also be that it's not yet supported?
The project itself is just the standard template from Visual Studio.
I'm having a similar issue running with MSBuild 8.2 target missing under VS2013 Update 5 under Windows 10 TH1. Except my target is Microsoft.Windows.UI.Xaml.Cpp.targets. So not necessarily an issue with Visual Studio but rather the substitution for $(TargetPlatformVersion) in the targets definition:
<Import Project="$(TargetPlatformVersion)\Microsoft.Windows.UI.Xaml.Cpp.targets" />
I'm building a project from Microsoft (https://github.com/Microsoft/winsdkfb), so I don't think this is your problem (meaning you've not done anything incorrect).
I know this isn't an answer, but I suspect we're caught in a gap in the Windows 10 SDK & Tools. Those aren't scheduled to be complete and available until 29 July even though VS2015 has RTM'd. I tried to track down something in the VS2015 release notes without luck.
Just inform the solution I found on this thread.
At the time of writing, it appeared that VSTO serves were not yet updated with
the Windows 10 SDK.
The only way back then to make it run was by creating your own Build VM (through Windows Azure) and link it to your VSTO builds.
I posted the thread and got the answer on the MSDN TFS forum.
I have not tried it right now, but since Windows 10 is officially released now, I guess it may work out of the box.
We now support building Universal Windows Platform (UWP) projects on the hosted build service.

The target "GetSolutionConfigurationContents" does not exist in the project

I have a Visual Studio 2013 solution that includes a Windows 8.1 WinJS app along with a MVC web application. When we build the solution locally in Visual Studio, it works fine, but building it on the build server fails with the following error:
"The target "GetSolutionConfigurationContents" does not exist in the project."
Could it be a software versioning issue between the local environment and what is installed on the build server? Any ideas would be helpful tracking this down.
Thanks.
The problem was in the package.appxmanifest file.
Under the Packaging tab, I had set the "Generate app bundle" option to "Always".
Setting it to "If needed" fixed the issue and the builds are now successful.
UPDATE:
The problem reoccurred when we targeted x64 builds only, so we had to keep this project setting:
<AppxBundlePlatforms>neutral</AppxBundlePlatforms>

TFS 2013 build does not deploy ASP.NET web application

I have a new TFS 2013 instance with its own build server that compiles a solution and deploys a database project without error. I added an MS build activity for deploying the web application projects in the solution to a target server, and that activity appears to execute without error, but nothing is actually published in the target.
Running the same publish profile from within Visual Studio on my local machine works properly. I dont know if it is missing some dependency (Web deploy 3.5 is installed on both the build and target servers, I am reinstalling VS 2013 on the build server).
Are there any specific steps/prerequisites required to make this work correctly on a TFS 2013 build server? I cannot find anything on the web other than "Install VS and MSDeploy".
I have this all working properly on a 2010 build server.
After much testing and enabling diagnostic level logging, I found that the build activity was trying to use VS 2012 (version 11) activity targets for these VS 2013 (version 12) projects. (VS 2010, 2012, and 2013 have been installed on this server to support various build activities)
In the activity specific log file this looks like this...
CodeAnalysisTargets = C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\CodeAnalysis\Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.targets
This was causing the build process to log...
_DeploymentUnpublishable
Skipping unpublishable project
...and skip the publishing.
To fix this, I set the ToolVersion property of the MSBuild activity to "12.0" and re-ran the build

How do I create a package of my application in VB.net which can run on other's systems too?

I made an application in Visual Studio 2012 using VB.net language.
I want to make a package or a setup so that any user whether they have visual studios or not can run my application.
I searched on internet and what I found is that there is something like statically or dynamically linking. Do these relate to my question?
Please give me a step by step method of packaging so that my application can run on Windows without needing Visual Studio or any other program to run it.
You will find it in the menu under Build -> Publish.
This will produce an executable that can be run without Visual Studio. The .NET Framework has to be installed on the computer though, but that usually is.

Getting Auto Deploy to work with MSBuild on a build server

Please pardon a newbie's question about MS TFS and Visual Studio 2012, I hope I'm using the correct vocabulary.
Our shop has recently moved to MS TFS and Visual Studio 2012 to build internal web services for integration. Currently we have a TFS 2010 Server running on Server2008R2 and a Build server on a Windows 7 box, our dev application server is also running Server2008R2. I have been given the job of getting a nightly build and deployment running. I have the build definition working but the deployment portion is not functioning. I have installed Web Deploy on both the dev application server and the build server as per these articles:
http://www.kevingao.net/version-control/how-to-auto-deploy-web-application-with-tfs-build-server.html
and
http://www.iis.net/learn/install/installing-publishing-technologies/installing-and-configuring-web-deploy
We have configured an user, web_deploy_dev in active director and that user is a local admin on the dev app server.
The parameters added to the build definition are:
/p:DeployOnBuild=True
/p:DeployTarget=MsDeployPublish
/p:MSDeployServiceURL="https://PA-APPSRV1-DEV:8172/msdeploy.axd" /* double quotes not in original code */
/p:DeployIISAppPath="DW/DWServices" /* E:\Webroot\DW\DWServices */
/p:CreatePackageOnPublish=True
/p:MsDeployPublishMethod=WMSVC
/p:AllowUntrustedCertificate=True
/p:UserName=migp\web_deploy_dev
/p:Password=******
I suspect that MSBUILD is not even calling msdeploy.exe as I see no errors in the windows event and application logs, but I do not know all the places to look. I can use a web browser and connect to the service on the dev app server as the web_deploy_dev user from the build server, I receive a web page not found error after inputting user name and PW, but I assume that is to be expected.
I am at a loss as to where to look next, I've tried searching the web but nothing I try seems to work.
Thank you in advance for your help and input.
Roy
It sounds like you are experiencing a problem where your build completes and claims success, but you aren't getting any error and nothing is actually deployed. When I've experienced this with my TeamCity build server, the problem was that MSBuild was not set up on the machine that would do the building and deploying. These are my steps to resolve the problem I think you might be having:
Make sure that at least Visual Studio Express is installed. you can tell if a full enough version of Visual Studio is installed by navigating to the
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\ directory. If you see folders like 10.0, 11.0, or '12.0', look inside them and verify that there is a Microsoft.WebApplications.targets file. Note the versions that pass that check.
In your Build Configuration, add a /p:VisualStudioVersion=12.0 or whatever version of Visual Studio is appropriate.
Let me know if this gets you anywhere or not. I'm really curious to hear if you are finding any errors or logs anywhere. Basically, in my experience using Web Deploy and MSBuild with TeamCity, if the machine that is building and deploying doesn't have the MSBuild installed with the Microsoft.WebApplication.targets file, it silently fails.