I have a Visual Studio solution that contains two projects, a ClickOnce WPF application and an ASP.NET MVC 4 application. What I am trying to accomplish is to have the ClickOnce deployment files be built to a folder under the ASP.NET MVC file structure and included in the project. I am trying to do this with MSbuild if possible.
I have the following in the MVC application project file (.csproj) to publish the ClickOnce files.
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<MSBuild Projects="$(SolutionDir)\src\DeveloperClient\DeveloperClient.csproj"
Properties="MapFileExtensions=true;Install=false;GenerateManifests=true;PublishDir=$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)/Content/client/"
Targets="publish" />
</Target>
Along with the following to include the generated files in the ASP.NET MVC project.
<Content Include="Content\client\**\*.*" />
The problem that I am running into is with the way that the solution builds. I get all sorts of "metadata file could not be found" type of errors, so I need a way prevent the two builds from stepping on each others toes. How would I do this?
Or, am I barking up the completely wrong tree, and I should take another approach?
I was trying to accomplish something similar, basically wanted to publish my WPF application using ClickOnce into my MVC4 Web site which is hosted on Azure. I found this blog post
http://elbruno.com/2013/06/01/azure-howto-publish-a-clickonce-application-using-and-azure-website/
and am using this method to upload my ClickOnce installer. I'm on a WebRole, so its a slow process to update, might switch to one of the new Azure websites one of these days.
Related
I'm not able to copy the content static files in my .Net core web application project that I added when creating the nuget package using nuget package explorer. Same thing get copied correctly in .Net framework project template but not in .net core template. I'm using VS 2015 update 3.Am i Missing something here? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Below is my snapshot of content file structure.
There is a nuget blog post about this, and it just isn't supported at this time.
Supported Project Types
This feature is only for packages that will be installed to projects that are managed using a project.json file. Currently only two projects types are managed by a project.json.
UWP apps
Portable class libraries
The contentFiles option is not available for other project types.
It's really a pity this basic functionality has been excluded from the .net Core projects. Especially because PCL is supported, which is a subset of a .net Core project.
There are quite some issues on GitHub about this, and it's very unclear whether or not this feature is coming back any time soon.
It seems it is still not supported. Only way to "hack" it is with MSBuild Targets and Build events.
According to this documentation:
build
MSBuild .targets and .props files Automatically inserted into
the project file or project.lock.json (NuGet 3.x+).
So to make it work with any file, e.g.: "config.xml" as Nuget Static Content:
Create your XY.nuspec file (as you would normally)
Include config.xml into the Nuget: <file src="config.xml" target="contentFiles\any\any\config.xml" />
Add a new .targets file XY.targets
Include new XY.targets file into your package to the "build" folder. <file src="XY.targets" target="build"/>
Content of the XY.targets file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<ContentFilesPath>$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)..\contentFiles\any\any\</ContentFilesPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="CopyConfigs" BeforeTargets="PreBuildEvent">
<Copy SourceFiles="$(ContentFilesPath)\config.xml" DestinationFiles="$(ProjectDir)config.xml" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" Condition="!Exists('$(ProjectDir)config.xml')"></Copy>
</Target>
</Project>
After packaging and installing the Nuget this MSBuild Target will be part of the Cached package and will run on each build (currently before build).
Issues with this solution:
Added files still linked until you build your solution. During the build paheses (BeforeTargets="") files are copied. Until this files still are just linked!!!
If you set up your content files to have Build actions and be copied to the Output directory of the project those settings will be lost!
Unfortunately this is the best solution for now.
Some public nuget packages (e.g. https://www.nuget.org/packages/NUnit3TestAdapter/3.10.0 or https://www.nuget.org/packages/Selenium.WebDriver.ChromeDriver/) can copy files. I've tried to investigate it (https://github.com/nunit/nunit3-vs-adapter and https://github.com/jsakamoto/nupkg-selenium-webdriver-chromedriver). But it seems, they have implemented very tricky workaround
After reading this post I came up with a work around. I created a .Net assembly project and completely emptied it out of all content. Then I moved the project into the same directory as the project for the .Net Core Web application. Instead of adding the NuGet package reference from the web application, I add it from the .Net assembly project. All of the files are correctly copied into the directory and are automatically added to the web project, since they share the same directory. This solution feels very dirty, but it is allowing me to manage static files with a NuGet package for a .Net Core Web project.
I managed to get TFS 2010 to create Web Deployment ZIPs (WebDeploy).
Now the issue is that I have multiple Web projects in the solution and packages are being created for all web projects.
In the projects that I do not want a package, I uncheck the "Create deployment package as a zip". I thought this will prevent MSBuild from creating a deployment package.
BTW I am passing "/p:DeployOnBuild=true" to MSBuild.
Is there a way to get MSBuild only package selected projects and not all Web projects?
Thanks.
Ok. Found the solution. Many thanks to Vishal Joshi for this post.
Extract from the post:
"
Deployment for Web Apps is feasible at both Solution as well as Project build level although when it comes to Solution Build then you might want to make sure that the properties you are passing at Solution level will apply to all the projects in the solution which might not always the outcome you desire. In that situation all these properties can be set within the .csproj or .vbproj files too. You can do that by unloading your project file and in the top <PropertyGroup> section just add above properties as you like:
For e.g /p:DeployOnBuild=True can be added as <DeployOnBuild>True</DeployOnBuild>
"
So, the solution was to remove /p:DeployOnBuild=true from TFS Build process template and update only the project files that require a package.
We have with success been updating our development web site at a daily basis using msdeploy from TFS2010.
This was working fine until we upgraded to VS2012, our application from .NET Framework 4.0 to 4.5 and ASP.NET MVC from 3.0 to 4.0. It look like all is well and assemblies deployed but nothing has actually been deployed.
I have been looking into this for two days now and can't figure out why this is happening and now I am running out of ideas.
Below is part of my build script in the way it has been working before the upgrade.
<MSBuild
Projects="$(SolutionRoot)\My.Web\My.Web.csproj"
Properties="MvcBuildViews=False;AllowUntrustedCertificate=True;AuthType=Basic;Configuration=Dev;CreatePackageOnPublish=True;DeployIisAppPath=dev.myweb;DeployOnBuild=True;DeployTarget=MsDeployPublish;MSDeployPublishMethod=WMSvc;MsDeployServiceUrl=https://10.xxx.xxx.xxx:8172/MsDeploy.axd;UserName=UserName;Password=Password;UseMsdeployExe=True"
ContinueOnError="False"
/>
When the upgrade was initiated and my problem discovered we were using Web Deploy 2.0 but now we have upgraded to Web Deploy 3.0. I have also made sure we are building with ToolsVersion="4.0".
UPDATE --
msbuild.exe /p:AllowUntrustedCertificate=True
/p:AuthType=Basic
/p:Configuration=Dev
/p:CreatePackageOnPublish=True
/p:DeployIisAppPath=dev.myweb
/p:DeployOnBuild=True
/p:DeployTarget=MsDeployPublish
/p:MSDeployPublishMethod=WMSvc
/p:MsDeployServiceUrl=https://10.xxx.xxx.xxx:8172/MsDeploy.axd
/p:UserName=UserName
/p:Password=Password
/p:UseMsdeployExe=True
E:\Builds\1\WhatEver\Daily_Build\Sources\My.Web\My.Web.csproj
Now I also tried to run the above msbuild command from our TFS and no response which frustrates me completely. Nothing in the event log of TFS, nothing in log file no matter verbosity... Any ideas?
It does work using msdeploy directy like below;
<Exec Command=""C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy V3\MSDeploy.exe" -verb:sync -source:contentPath="E:\Builds\1\WhatEver\Daily_Build\Sources\My.Web\My.Web.csproj" -dest:contentPath="E:\dev.my.web",computername=https://10.xxx.xxx.xxx:8172/MsDeploy.axd,username=UserName,password=Password,authtype=Basic -allowUntrusted=True"
ContinueOnError="false" />
--
UPDATE 2 --
It appears Microsoft added a check for what type of projects that are publishable projects and our web application are not, since the Output Type is Class Library. This has been valid with v4.0 but apparently not for v4.5.
Anyone have an idea of what to do make it work again? Do I need to change the project type? Create publishing package up front and then deploy that? Or what?
--
Anyone else that has had the same problem? Have you found a solution to share?
Could there be an issue with version of MSBuild?
Here is what I would recommend. In VS2012 we have made it easy to automate publishing your web projects using the publish profiles which are created by the publish dialog. In your case create a new MSDeploy profile. When you create that profile we will save the settings into a file under Properties\PublishProfiles (or My Project\PublishProfiles for VB). The extension of this file will be .pubxml. Those files are actually MSBuild files, which you can customize if needed. You can continue to use the publish dialog as well. The password will be stored in a .user file and encrypted such that only you can decrypt it.
After you have created that profile you can publish with the command below if you are building the .sln file.
msbuild mysoln.sln /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=<ProfileName> /p:Password=<Password>
If you are building the .csproj/.vbproj then you need to tweak this a bit in the following way
msbuild mysoln.sln /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=<ProfileName> /p:Password=<Password> /p:VisualStudioVersion=11.0
More on why VisualStudioVersion is required at http://sedodream.com/2012/08/19/VisualStudioProjectCompatabilityAndVisualStudioVersion.aspx.
Once you do this you will be able to build+publish just like you did previously. FYI we have shipped all these new web publish features for VS2010 in the Azure SDK https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/#.
Also in your question I noticed that you are specifying some custom properties, like MvcBuildViews. You can now place those properties directly inside the publish profile (the .pubxml file) if you want. Of course you can still pass them in on the command line if that makes more sense for your scenario.
More info on this at http://sedodream.com/2012/06/15/VisualStudio2010WebPublishUpdates.aspx.
If you take a look at the approach that we had for developers to automate publishing it was to specify properties and targets to be executed during the build. The problem with this approach is that this limits our ability to enhance the web publish experience. In the new release we have introduced an abstraction, the publish profile, which allows us to change the underlying targets of the web publish pipeline and your automation scripts will continue to run. Hopefully from this point forward you will not have to re-visit this issue.
I had much the same problem today. I too was trying to get a .NET 4.5 web application automatically deployed using a machine that did not have Visual Studio 2012 installed on it. There were a couple of minor differences in my situation, however: I was using TeamCity instead of TFS, and our solution was created with .NET 4.5 as opposed to being one that had been upgraded from .NET 4.0.
Nonetheless, I did have the same problem described. I'd use MSBuild to build the web app and deploy it to IIS, in much the same way. This approach worked fine on my dev machine. However, when I ran MSBuild on the CI server, it quite happily built the web app, but it stopped after that: no errors, no warnings, nothing, just a message that the build was successful. There wasn't the slightest hint of an attempt at deploying the app to IIS.
It seems MSBuild was missing the relevant targets to perform the web deployment.
The fix was to copy the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\Web from my dev machine to the CI server, copying it to the same place on the CI server as it was on my machine.
Once I did that, MSBuild then grumbled about needing Web Deploy 3.0, but that was fixed easily enough. After installing that on the CI server too, MSBuild quite happily deployed the web app.
To extend Luke Woodward's answer:
I, too, found that deploying C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\Web\ from my local machine to the build server was the fix.
However, the real fix is to install the Microsoft Web Developer Tools as part of the VS 2012 installation, which will create this folder, among other things. This addresses Ieppie's licensing objection.
I tested this by...
Deleting C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\Web\
Running the VS 2012 installer and adding MS Web Dev tools.
Verifying that, after the install, C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\Web\ was back.
If I use aspnet_compiler to publish an ASP.NET MVC web site, does it do the same tasks that devenv would do? Or is it just pre-compiling to minimize the startup delay?
I.E.
my requirnment is to be able to compile and publish an ASP.NET web site.
in this case, should I use devenv first to build the web site, and then use aspnet_compiler to pre-compile and copy the files over (Publish)?
Or if I just use aspnet_compiler would that also do the building (compiling) of the source and reference projects to relevent dlls?
Your responses are highly appreciated.
Thanks a lot.
Lets start from short answer - aspnet_compiler.exe is not related to ASP.NET MVC.
MVC projects are compiled either by devenv.exe or msbuild.exe or whatever else is out there (Roslyn anyone?). But those 2 are provided with VS installation.
aspnet_compiler is used [in compilation sense] to compile WSP - web site projects. In WSP each code behind is compiled into separate DLL. But MVC projects compile into single DLL like WAP - web application project.
I doubt you have WSP and MVC, and even if you had one - still, it is better compile using devenv because devenv compiles ashx files and aspnet_compiler doesn't. This could lead to failures at runtime.
To understand problem better research on
web site projects vs web application project
Although, I believe in VS15 WSP is gone
I don't know if ther is such thing as aspnet_compiler. Have a look at part of 'Visual C# -> ASP.NET Web Application' project file:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />
First line is standard C# target. Second, is more interesting as it is ASP.NET specyfic. If you look into its content you will find definition of of Publish target and that is probably what you are looking for.
For building and publishing your project you can use (or even just Publish if there are predefined dependencies, I haven't check it)
msbuild /t:Build,Publish <project file>
Has anyone had success making an msbuild file that will publish a Web Application, not the old 2.0 web site but a Web Application?
This is not what I am looking for:
<MSBuild Projects="eRx.Web.SecureSiteShell.csproj" Properties="Configuration=Debug;OutDir=$(OutputFolder)\$(OutputWeb)\bin\;WebProjectOutputDir=$(OutputFolder)\$(OutputWeb)\" Targets="ResolveReferences;_CopyWebApplication" />
I tried simply using 'targets:Publish' but I get : Skipping unpublishable project.
Apparently this just isn't possible. My first hint was getting absolutely no response from this site.
I began to look into making a web setup project but was unsatisfied at having to edit the installation dialogues to get a custom installation folder. All I really need is something that will copy the published output of a Web Application (not Web Site you 2.0 peeps).
I think I have cheated the system by creating a simple Windows Setup program. Surprisingly I am able to include the primary output of my web application which satisfies my need. I DO have to manually add each projects debug symbols if I want them so the process can be lengthly but doable.
Like I said, not completely satisfied because I wanted to get the files in a nice deploy folder for my QA group to work with but feeding them an MSI has its advantages I suppose.
I leave this for anyone to comment on. I still can't believe I can't do this from msBuild or any other tool.