I have a project which I am using as a simple testbed for a graphical application. I am attempting to add a shared project file (.shproj), but whenever I try to edit the project's dependencies, I get a dialog which says:
---------------------------
Microsoft Visual Studio
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String value '
' cannot be translated to any value from type System.Guid.
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OK
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This happens if I right-click on my project and select either **Add Project Reference..." or "Add Shared Project Reference..."
Unfortunately I do not have this project as part of source control so I can't go back in time to see what may have caused this problem. I have attempted to undo the operations which may have gotten me into this state (such as adding the .shproj to my solution) but the dialog still appears when I attempt to edit the dependencies.
I haven't been able to find anything online about this error, and I suspect it's happening because something is malformed in either my .csproj or the .sln, but I'm not sure where to look or what to try to solve this.
I am running Visual Studio 2022 (17.4.2).
I have tried opening the project in Visual Studio 2019 and I can edit the dependencies there. I can also add and remove nuget packages. Note that if I modify the dependencies in Visual Studio 2019, the project will correctly load and build in 2022 so I do have a workaround. However, it would be nice to know why the project dependencies cannot be edited in 2022.
It turns out that empty Project tags caused problems in the .csproj file.
My .csproj file referenced other .csproj files and these references included empty Project tags.
Here is a snippet before the fix:
<ProjectReference Include="../../../GitHub/FlatRedBall/Engines/FlatRedBallXNA/FlatRedBallDesktopGLNet6/FlatRedBallDesktopGLNet6.csproj">
<Name>FlatRedBallDesktopGLNet6</Name>
<Project>
</Project>
</ProjectReference>
Removing the Project tags solves this problem, as shown in the following code:
<ProjectReference Include="../../../GitHub/FlatRedBall/Engines/FlatRedBallXNA/FlatRedBallDesktopGLNet6/FlatRedBallDesktopGLNet6.csproj">
<Name>FlatRedBallDesktopGLNet6</Name>
</ProjectReference>
Building my Jenkins/MSBuild solution gives me this error
c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets(483,9): error :
The OutputPath property is not set for project '<projectname>.csproj'. Please check to
make sure that you have specified a valid combination of Configuration and Platform
for this project. Configuration='Latest' Platform='AnyCPU'. 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 Platform that doesn't exist for this project.
[C:\<path>\<projectname>.csproj]
Any ideas?
EDIT
I have this in my .csproj file
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Latest|AnyCPU'">
<OutputPath>bin\Latest\</OutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>
I have figured out how it works (without changing sln/csproj properties in VS2013/2015).
if you want to build .sln file:
/p:ConfigurationPlatforms=Release /p:Platform="Any CPU"
if you want to build .csproj file:
/p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=AnyCPU
notice the "Any CPU" vs AnyCPU
check the code analysis, fxcop, test coverage(NCover) targets, as well as the MSBUILD should be located properly. In my case its:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319
but it can be different as you can see microsoft has given 6 cmd options to build code base::AMD (with cross plt, x86 & x64 options) and Windows(cross, x86, x64) and that also when code development happened with default JIT (it can be PreJIT ngen.exe, econoJIT)
I think more than this troubleshooting can be handle using power shell + msbuild. May be helpful for someone ...
Open up your csproj in a text editor and see if you have a property group section, should look something like this:
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Latest|AnyCPU' ">
<DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols>
<DebugType>full</DebugType>
<Optimize>false</Optimize>
<OutputPath>bin\Latest\</OutputPath>
<DefineConstants>DEBUG;TRACE</DefineConstants>
<ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport>
<WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel>
<TreatWarningsAsErrors>true</TreatWarningsAsErrors>
</PropertyGroup>
Do you have a 'Latest' build configuration? If not add the above section to the csproj.
As mentioned by perlyking, rather than editing the csproj XML The following worked for me. Here are the steps I used.
Open the Project Properties.
Select the Build Tab.
Under the Output section, Check that an output path is set. (if not set one, save the project and it should work).
If it is set, click on the "Browse..." button of the output path.
When the folder selection dialog opens, Navigate up one level in the
file browser and then re-select the output folder and click
the "Select Folder" button.
Save the project properties and it should work.
To add to what #James said, I found that if I looked at the project Compile properties in VS2013, the Build Output Path was specified. But when I examined the .csproj file directly, the OutputPath element was missing for the relevant build configuration. So in VS I simply made and reversed a minor edit to the output path, saved it, and that kicked the value into the project file, and I was then able to build.
I was using MSBuild to build multiple .sln files, and had added a new step to build a .csproj file as well, when I encountered this error.
#Saurabh's answer highlighted the root of the problem. However, when fixing it, adding /p:Platform=AnyCPU to the MSBuild Arguments section didn't fix it. I actually needed to update the Platform value on the build step.
All other build steps were using the $(BuildPlatform) variable value (which happened to be "any cpu", with a space in it).
(Had I been building multiple .csproj files, I probably would have created a second variable for the AnyCPU platform.)
For me the answer was to fix all the projects in Build > Configuration Manager.
If you have some projects where the name or platform does not match the solution configuration, you should change it so they all match.
I was running into this issue while updating an older project with additional project configurations for per-environment config transforms.
It turns out that when the project configurations were added to the csproj file, they were inserted after an Import element which caused the issue.
<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'ProjectName.Dev|AnyCPU'">
...
Moving the Import element after all the PropertyGroup definitions fixed the problem for me.
Relevant similar case: https://stackoverflow.com/a/31072208/2452820
I got this error only when I was publishing my web project. I had mistakenly selected the wrong build configuration when setting up the publish profile.
I had same issue. I have updated my windows platform by using command line. Currently i got updated to windows#5.0.0 version. Then you need to search for file name "SQLite3.UWP.vcxproj". Try to change "v141" to "v140". Currently I am using Visual Studio 2015 professional. If it's Visual Studio 2017, then there is no need to change version in SQLite3.UWP.vcxproj file.
In my case this error happened because the output folder included a dot to make it relative to the current directory. The problem was solved by removing the dot.
The offending Build output path was:
.\bin\Output
The problem was solved by changing it to
bin\Output
The build output path can be found in the Build tab of the project properties, and there is a different path for each combination of Configuration and Platform.
Just had the issue for some service fabric stuff in MSBuild.
First step was right clicking each affected project and pulling up their Properties, selecting the Build tab, then setting the platform target to x64.
Second step was to go into the configuration manager and set each project to also use x64 for Debug and Release.
This was for a VS2017 project.
I had the same problem on a few projects. After adding a new configuration to the projects, the PropertyGroup was added at the very end of the Project file.
Moving the PropertyGroup to right after all the other configurations PropertyGroup fixed the issue.
I hope this helps.
I had this witha slightly unusual SLN/CSPROJ file arrangement:
I had project files:
A.csproj, with configurations "Dev" and "Production"
B.csproj, with configurations "Dev" and "Production"
C.csproj, a "common" library used by both A and B with configurations "Dev" and "Production"
And I had SLN files:
AC.sln, with configuration "Production" - this is used by jenkins to build project A and the common library
BC.sln, with configuration "Production" - this is used by jenkins to build project B and the common library
ABC.sln, with configuration "Dev" - this is used by developers in VS to write new code without having to keep opening different solutions (this answer is a simplified view of a 55-project solution)
I'd made an edit to the common library and introduced a dependency on project A. AC.sln would still build in jenkins but BC.sln gave an error saying:
The OutputPath property is not set for project 'A.csproj'. Please check to
make sure that you have specified a valid combination of Configuration and Platform
for this project. Configuration='Debug' Platform='AnyCPU'.
It was initially puzzling because we don't even have a Debug config anywhere in any project; find in files for Debug| turned up 0 hits
ABC.sln that the human developers use in VS would also build fine. Building BC.sln gave an error that A.dll wasn't found
When the circular irresolvable problem of C depending on A was removed, everything started working again
This error is misleading and can be caused by a different issue. Check the entire message:
The OutputPath property is not set for project 'myproject'. Please check to make sure that you have specified a valid combination of Configuration and Platform for this project. Configuration='myconfig' Platform='AnyCPU'. This error may also appear if some other project is trying to follow a project-to-project reference to this project, this project has been unloaded or is not included in the solution, and the referencing project does not build using the same or an equivalent Configuration or Platform.
My build configuration was missing this node in the csproj:
<PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
Despite saying AnyCPU was the selected Platform in the dropdown, the actual xml was not there. Adding it fixed the mismatch between the project and the other project it was referencing.
The OutputPath property is not set for project error message will appear if a Platform environment variable exists (as seems to happen on HP laptops) and the target of MSBuild contains a reference to another Visual Studio project.
After renaming the Platform environment variable my build now works.
It seems the parameter /p:Platform="Any CPU" gets applied to the target solution but doesn't 'carryover' to referenced projects. In my instance, the error message indicated referenced projects were using the environment variable Platform=MCD.
I had two project configs, Debug and Release. When the Release build was used, it was throwing this error. The issue I found was that in the csproj file, the Debug config was near the top and the Release config was all the way at the bottom.
Manually moving the Release build just below the Debug build fixed it.
I'm assuming I did something incorrectly when setting up my build configurations because this doesn't feel like something I should have had to manually adjust.
Edit the properties of the project:
Make sure "Configuration Properties->General->Output Directory" is not blank. Note, it's not called OutputPath here. You can probably copy the value from Intermediate Directory.
I encountered the same problems when build TheXTech (https://github.com/Wohlstand/TheXTech/wiki/Building-on-Windows#building-in-visual-studio-201520172019-and-cmake) recently. And finally I found it is a cmake -A issue. The correct arch for 64 bit on windows is x64, not Win64.
For some more reference, see https://cmake.org/cmake/help/v3.16/generator/Visual%20Studio%2016%202019.html#platform-selection, https://cmake.org/pipermail/cmake/2019-April/069379.html.
Go to Solution properties and change the configuration to Any CPU or X64 or X86, and if build is checked uncheck that for what you are getting error for. By default, project build that for build configuration in solution and throw error as mentioned when building the project.
I have an import statement in one of my msbuild project files:
<Import Project="$(ProjectDir)..\CommonProjectProperties\OurCommon.targets" Condition="Exists('$(ProjectDir)..\CommonProjectProperties\OurCommon.targets" />
The imported msbuild project has the following propertygroup:
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' And '$(SolutionName)' == 'Ourwork' And Exists('$(ProjectDir)..\..\FXCopSettings\OurGlobal.ruleset')">
<CodeAnalysisRuleSet>$(ProjectDir)..\..\FXCopSettings\OurGlobal.ruleset</CodeAnalysisRuleSet>
<RunCodeAnalysis>true</RunCodeAnalysis>
<CodeAnalysisIgnoreGeneratedCode>True</CodeAnalysisIgnoreGeneratedCode>
<DefineConstants>$(DefineConstants);CODE_ANALYSIS</DefineConstants>
</PropertyGroup>
And the following item group:
<When Condition="Exists('$(ProjectDir)\..\..\Solutions\FXCopSettings\GlobalSuppressions.cs') And Exists('$(ProjectDir)$(ProjectName).csproj')">
<ItemGroup>
<Compile Include="$(ProjectDir)\..\..\Solutions\FXCopSettings\GlobalSuppressions.cs" />
</ItemGroup>
</When>
Basically what I am trying to do is to have the above import statement in all my projects files, and then manipulate whether FXCop is run by tweaking just the imported project file.
Problem is that from the command line, all this works fine (with the exception of the constant CODE_ANALYSIS which i have to set using something like msbuild /t:build proj.sln /p:DefineConstants="CODE_ANALYSIS=true". That's fine.
From the VS 2010 IDE its just... hell! It "looks" like VS is respecting all the stuff in the imported msbuild project file.... EXCEPT
1) the included file is greyed out, meaning that is is shown in the IDE only if you have "show all files on". This means that it not compiled. I can copy the exact same ItemGroup into the parent msbuild project file, and the file shows up, un-greyed out, in solution explorer, meaning it is compiled.
2) The suppression file is used to tell FXCop which objects to ignore when it does a code analysis. When I get the suppression file correctly compiled as part of the project, FXCop seems to ignore it. Reading up on this, apparently the CODE_ANALYSIS constant needs to be turned on. Which I thought i did from the imported project file, but it is not being respected. Even though the project properties window in the VS IDE show it is as a defined constant. Again, when i move the DefinedConstansts declaration into one of the parent project files, the IDE respects the constant.
So... I am not sure whether i need to separate this into two posts, but here are my questions:
1) how do i get the IDE to respect and compile files listed in an imported project file?
2) how do i get the IDE to respect DefineConstants in an imported project file
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 bumped into a strange situation with MSBuild just now. There's a solution which has three projects: LibX, LibY and Exe. Exe references LibX. LibX in its turn references LibY, has some content files, and also references to a third-party library (several pre-built assemblies installed in both GAC and local lib folder). The third-party library is marked as "Copy Local" ("private") and appears in the output of the LibX project, as the LibY's output and LibX's content files do. Now, Exe project's output has LibX project output, content files of the LibX project, LibY project output (coming from LibX), but NO third-party library's assemblies.
Now I worked this around by referencing the third-party library directly in Exe project, but I don't feel this is a "right" solution.
Anyone had this problem before?
There is a difference in behavior when building with MSBuild (i.e. command line, TFS Build and other tools) compared to building with Visual Studio. The secondary references are not included in the references variable sent into MSBuild compile tasks.
There are several extension points provided by MSBuild to change how references are to be resolved. I have successfully used AfterResolveReference to fix this issue for some of my projects - I have posted more info about the background on my blog.
The workaround is to add the following code into you vbproj or csproj files
<Target Name="AfterResolveReferences">
<!-- Redefine referencepath to add dependencyies-->
<ItemGroup>
<ReferencePath Include="#(ReferenceDependencyPaths)">
</ReferencePath>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
Microsoft has stated that this is a won't fix on Connect
You can actually go into the Microsoft.CSharp.targets or Microsoft.VisualBasic.targets file (located in the framework directory, usually C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5) and modify the csc or vbc task parameters to include additional reference dependencies. In the file (VB targets, line 166; C# targets, line 164) change:\
References="#(ReferencePath)"
to
References="#(ReferencePath);#(ReferenceDependencyPaths)"
This might cause other issues depending on how complicated things are and it may play tricks with the Visual Studio inproc compiler, but it's the only way to do it in MSBuild that I've found.
josant's answer almost worked for me; I kept getting an error in Visual Studio when I tried that:
A problem occurred while trying to set the "References" parameter for the IDE's in-process compiler. Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component
The solution to my problem was to put a condition on the ItemGroup, like this:
<Target Name="AfterResolveReferences">
<!-- Redefine referencepath to add dependencies-->
<ItemGroup Condition=" '$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' != 'true' ">
<ReferencePath Include="#(ReferenceDependencyPaths)"></ReferencePath>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
That caused Visual Studio to ignore the reference change completely, and the build works fine locally and on the build server.
Yes, I've had that problem, too. Though I'd love to say otherwise, I believe you must include all transitive dependencies as references in your build file.
I've combined Alex Yakunin's solution with one that will also copy native dll's.
The AfterResolveReferences method fails if you've got a directed graph not a tree with a "trying to deploy different copies of the dll" error. (cf. How to configure msbuild/MSVC to deploy dependent files of dependent assemblies)