MSBuild error MSB3107 - msbuild

I get the following error on an MSBuild: MSB3107
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v3.5\Microsoft.Common.targets (1001): The specified project reference metadata for the reference "....\Contracts\Contracts.csproj" is missing or has an invalid value: Project
Since I didn't found many information on the internet on MSB3107 I'll figured I'll post it here.

I solved this, by removing all the references to Contracts.csproj and put them back with program reference. This was an easy fix.

I ran into this issue and it ended up being that the scproj's ToolsVersion (attribute on the root Project element) was set to 3.5. Changing it to 4.0 fixed the issue.

Find and remove this line :
< Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props" Condition="Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\$(MSBuildToolsVersion)\Microsoft.Common.props')" />

I got this error when converting a Xamarin Studio solution to a Visual Studio 2017 for Mac solution.
/Library/Frameworks/Mono.framework/Versions/5.0.1/lib/mono/msbuild/15.0/bin/Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(5,5):
Error MSB3107: The specified project reference metadata for the reference "{myproject}.csproj" is missing or has an invalid value: Project (MSB3107) ({myproject})
I ended up creating a brand new solution file (sln) then new skeleton csproj files that were native iOS libraries. I copied the classes, and manually added the references again. The fundamental difference appears to be to remove these XML entries in the .csproj file in the first PropertyGroup section under the Project tag.
<TargetFrameworkIdentifier>Xamarin.iOS</TargetFrameworkIdentifier>
<TargetFrameworkVersion>v1.0</TargetFrameworkVersion>
<ProductVersion>8.0.30703</ProductVersion>
<SchemaVersion>2.0</SchemaVersion>
<ReleaseVersion>4.0</ReleaseVersion>

This can happen due to a project reference with a bad project GUID. If a merge from a version control system goes bad, the referenced ID can be corrupted. Editing the .csproj file to get rid of the bad reference, then adding a fresh reference again from Visual Studio can fix this type of problem.

The error occurred in our solution after removing a redundant curly brace in a project's GUID. After deleting the .vs folder (or running a git clean -fdx) and restarting VisualStudio the error did not show up any longer.

Related

Why does Visual Studio 2022 display an error message when editing dependencies "String value ' ' cannot be translated to any value from System.Guid."?

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
---------------------------
String value '
' cannot be translated to any value from type System.Guid.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------
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>

Build error when signing with snk key

Build error is occurring since using Visual Studio 2015. When building in Visual Studio 2015 this is occurring rarely. When building in TeamCity this occurs very often.
[Error in Visual Studio 2015]
Error extracting public key from file 'CompanyName.snk': The process cannot access the file 'C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Temp\tmp2FF6.tmp' because it is being used by another process. CompanyName.Project.DAL D:\Projecten\CompanyName\Repository\Source\Components\CompanyName.Project.DAL\vbc
http://i.stack.imgur.com/hKbbe.png
[Error in TeamCity]
CSC error CS7027: Error signing output with public key from file 'CompanyName.snk' -- The process cannot access the file 'C:\BuildAgents\Gamma\temp\buildTmp\tmpD91D.tmp' because it is being used by another process.
http://i.stack.imgur.com/rbgHx.png
I know it's been a while since this was asked but as I use SO for my own reference and I had this problem too I wanted to share my solution.
.snk files are for signing a project. You might need to make a new one.
Right click on your project, select properties.
Click on Signing.
Click the checkbox beside "Sign the assembly".
On the dropdown labelled "Choose a strong name key file" click new.
Fill in the dialog box as you wish noting particularly the Key file name. When you press ok, this will generate a new .snk file.
Save the project and rebuild.
This will use the new .snk in your project and will resolve the
error.
Hope this helps.
Try to clean up the temp folder that is used by the build.
I have seen different types of problems when the temp folder has lots of files.
Some of the tools are using GetTempFileName and they will get errors when temp has a lots of files
The GetTempFileName method will raise an IOException if it is used to create more than 65535 files without deleting previous temporary files.
This is probably an instance of this issue with Roslyn compiler. The workaround would be adding
<UseSharedCompilation>False</UseSharedCompilation>
under any <PropertyGroup> node in .csproj file.
It started for me when I moved the Resharper Cache to System Temp. When I moved it back to the Solution folder, the problem went away, and I could build again.
I just had the same problem. In Visual Studio 2015, I fixed it using the following steps:
Go to Tools > Options
From the Options dialog, select "Projects and Solutions > Build and Run"
Set the "maximum number of parallel project builds" to 1
+1 to #stukselbax for getting me on the right track
Also got help from this link
I used '/m:1' as an msbuild argument, and 'SignPublic' property to true in the csproj file.
Just had this issue today in visual Studio 2022- I was messing with the csproj file and ended up having the wrong filepath to the snk file. I fixed it by changing the filepath to be correct.
Right-click on the project -> unload (so that you can edit the csproj file)
Under <PropertyGroup> check the <AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile> tag
My code was:<SignAssembly>true</SignAssembly> <AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile>../NAMEHERE.snk</AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile> NAMEHERE was specific to my project, yours will vary. Look at your snk file. The ../ in front will vary, check the filepath of your snk file. If you caused this error by messing with your csproj file, like I did, then the correct answer is what the filepath was before you changed it. :)
Right-click on the project -> reload

Visual Studio 2013 C# Web Project builds but IDE reports The type or namespace name xxx could not be found error

When opening an MVC4 C# web project in Visual Studio 2013, the IDE reports the error "The type or namespace name '_' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference)", but the project builds and runs without any errors. Furthermore, intellisense does not include the project namespace.
The "missing" reference is to files within the same project.
for example; the web project namespace is "webproject.com", and references in a controller files to "webproject.com.models" is underlined in red with the error above.
I have checked the following:
All Solution projects are configured to use the same Target Framework(.Net 4)
web.config in the Views folder contains the namespace in the system.web.webPages.razor section
cleaned and rebuilt solution
deleted all bin and obj content
deleted .suo and .csproj.user files that were created by VS2010
The only way that I can get rid of these errors being reported in VS2013 is to unload then reload the project.
When opened in Visual Studio 2010 I do not get these problems.
I have the same issue.
ALthough the project compiles correctly, the code editor shows an error The type or namespace name '_' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference).
THere is one workaround. Just delete the *.SUO files and re-open the solution. THen for this only Session it works. Unfortunately after closing and reopening the solution the issue is back again. VS 2012 works fine.
Seems to be a bug in VS 2013....
My solution, when I encountered the problem with VS 2013 Express edition was to simply unload the offending project and reload. Opening the SUO or Project file and making changes had not affect.
Try to unload the project in VS2013, then right click the node and select edit "projectname.csproj". Check the individual references they might point to somewhere strange.
EDIT: the csproj file is an xml file and the references are located under Project -> ItemGroup -> Reference
I had the same issue.
It's a VS 2012 solution with different projects.
Search for all *.suo files and deleted them.
Rebuild and reopen Visual Studio.
There's a known issue with Web Application projects when bound to a TFS server that sounds like this issue. This occurs when the following TFS setting option is checked:
Options -> Source Control -> Environment -> Get everything when a solution or project is opened.
Disabling this option resolves the problem.
thanks,
Miguel Lacouture
[MSFT]
Same issue, on project reference.
I opened the referenced project file (*.csproj) with a text editor and did some cleanup:
1) reset these properties' values:
<PublishUrl>publish\</PublishUrl>
<InstallFrom>Disk</InstallFrom>
<UpdateEnabled>false</UpdateEnabled>
<IsWebBootstrapper>false</IsWebBootstrapper>
<TargetFrameworkProfile />
2) removed dirty platform/configurations:
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'x86|AnyCPU'">
...
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'x86|x86'">
...
Now I can compile without any issue.
Glad to share it with you! :))
Same issue. Opening the project's properties and making a change to the name (or any value) and then rebuilding seems to have resolved it.
I have just had this problem and none of the solutions here helped. I fixed mine by doing a repair of Visual Studio (An option when you select to uninstall the program). Hope this helps someone
I had same issue when I added a new class file ( e.g. MyClass.cs) and called it in some other C# code places. For some reason VS did not add that new class file to my working project folder (not seen in VS, but seen in Windows File Explorer). And, hence, the compile path for new class file is not included in the compile section of my project file (e.g. MyProject.csproj). So to solve this problem, First, right click on your working project > Add > Existing Item ... > Select your new class > OK.
Then, check the project file (*.csproj) and make sure a new element is inserted in the compile section such as:
Finally, rebuild your project and the problem should be solved.
Another reason for this issue is the project, I had long ago with VS, is my other project was set up with Client Profile as its target framework. So, to solve the issue: Right click your project in VS > Properties > Application tab > make sure Target Framework option is not Client Profile. You should change all projects in your solution to the same framework version AND all of them must not have Client Profile option.
Microsoft just released a new security update to be automatically applied to machines configured to use Microsoft Update.
Unfortunately, some ASP.NET MVC 3 and 4 VS projects can no longer build after the update is applied. These projects will fail with the following error:
"Could not locate the assembly "System.Web.Mvc,Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35,processorArchitecture=MSIL"
My project also had the error "The type or namespace name 'System.Web.Mvc' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference)". Installing the latest version of Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc solved my problem. See the following article from Microsoft for more info:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webdev/archive/2014/10/16/microsoft-asp-net-mvc-security-update-broke-my-build.aspx
Unloading and then reloading the project worked for me.

The OutputPath property is not set for project

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.

allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' msbuild error

We have a ASP.NET MVC with 4-5 different build configurations. Whenever we change the build configuration, we need to delete the obj folder for the web project, since we get the 'allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' error. A pain, but we managed by deleting the folder in pre/post build events.
Now I need to configure our CI to build deployment packages. This means that I cannot delete the obj folder. Every time I compile e.g. with the following msbuild parameters
/p:CreatePackageOnPublish=true /p:DeployOnBuild=true
I recieve the error:
web.config(123): error ASPCONFIG: It is an error to use a section registered as allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' beyond application level. This error can be caused by a virtual directory not being configured as an application in IIS.
As far as I understand, the problem is that there's multiple .config files in the project - In our case, there's not. I could really use some help to find an explanation and find a permanent (no- hack) fix.
Edit:
This question is marked as a duplicate, but the corresponding answers and cause(s) in the 2 threads, are clearly different from each other. Not sure what is intended with this tag - I've read that particular post before posting this question, as it didn't answer my question. There's multiple causes for this error message. It is 'similar', but definitely not a duplicate!
There is a similar question here on SO with some good solutions for this issue.
The problem is that building a deployment package creates a copy of the web.config in a subfolder of /obj. That will normally be be cleared out if you do a rebuild or a clean. However, if you build a deployment package in one configuration (e.g. Debug) and then switch to another confguration (e.g. Release) the obj/Debug folder is not cleared out and the web.config file there causes problems.
The quick solution is to clean all configurations and then do a (re)build. Alternatively you could delete the /obj folder in your project.
To permanently resolve the issue you can either move the intermediate output (/obj) out of your project folder or modify the project to force a clean of all configurations on rebuild.
I too was deleting the obj folder until I had a conflict with a build script which required it. Catch-22, I used the accepted answer on the following SO link to move the location of the Obj folder to C:\Temp\BUILD. You have to do it per csproj file, but it is a great solution.
Here is the link: VisualStudio: How to save the obj folder somewhere else
Note that I am using a variable for the project name.
R:\Temp\Build\Debug\$(MSBuildProjectName)
I have the above line in both debug and release sections for all my projects, including class projects. My build path is a ram drive for speed. See this SO for more info: How to access macro variables within csproj file?
I just answered a similar question here. To recap, I ran into this problem in one of our MVC projects, and it was due to having the MvcBuildViews property in the project file set to true. Setting the property to false fixed the problem.
<MvcBuildViews>false</MvcBuildViews>
I also found this answer which outlines an alternative that does not require turning off view building.
I don't know that there is an "official" fix as it just seemed to start on multiple projects of mine for no reason that I can find in Visual Studio Premium 2012 (never happened in previous versions of VS).
As a work around to automate the deletion of the obj directory as others have said, similar to an answer by user Casual in this post VisualStudio: How to save the obj folder somewhere else, where unfortunately just moving the location of the obj folder didn't always seem to work.
Instead I added a few commands under Build Events in the Pre-build event command line:
rd "$(ProjectDir)obj" /S /Q
md "$(ProjectDir)obj"
md "$(ProjectDir)obj\Debug"
md "$(ProjectDir)obj\Release"
You can change/add/remove subfolders to match your custom build configurations using the line where buildConfigName matches the name of the build configuration you are using:
md "$(ProjectDir)obj\buildConfigName"
Hope this helps!
That error indicates that you are trying to something specific to an application at an IIS tree level that isn't defined as an application. For example if you try to do app-level functions in a web.config in a virtual directory, you will get that error. You need to find the path you are deploying to and make sure that it is defined in IIS as an application vs a folder or vdir.
Cleaning the solution (Right click Solution in VS, clean), worked for me.
I had the same error but with a deployed page.. Then realized my webserver's clock was set back to 2010 for some reason. set it to the correct date fix my problem
Clean your project
Remove the /obj folder (probably using publish and deploy? - there is a bug in it)
Althoug the problem is explained and solved in one way in the accepted answer, I wanted to show a solution which can be better for other cases. This solution has been included in some version of VS, but I can only say that I had the problem in VS 2013 Update 5. (See the "Beware" below, it could be fixed in this version, but not working only in my particular case).
I borrowed the soltuion from Error: allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' beyond application level on Visual Studio Connect.
The solution consist in including these lines to the web application project (.csproj file) which handle the deletion of the offedning intermediate files (which wans't a solution for the accepted answer, as he needed those intermediate files):
<!--Deal with http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/779737/error-allowdefinition-machinetoapplication-beyond-application-level,
we will need to clean up our temp folder before MVC project starts the pre-compile-->
<PropertyGroup>
<_EnableCleanOnBuildForMvcViews Condition=" '$(_EnableCleanOnBuildForMvcViews)'=='' ">true</_EnableCleanOnBuildForMvcViews>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="CleanupForBuildMvcViews" Condition=" '$(_EnableCleanOnBuildForMvcViews)'=='true' and '$(MVCBuildViews)'=='true' " BeforeTargets="MvcBuildViews">
<ItemGroup>
<_PublishTempFolderNamesToCleanup Include="Database;TransformWebConfig;CSAutoParameterize;InsertAdditionalCS;ProfileTransformWebConfig;Package;AspnetCompileMerge" />
</ItemGroup>
<!--Force msbuild to expand all the wildcard characters so to get real file paths-->
<CreateItem Include="#(_PublishTempFolderNamesToCleanup->'$(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)**\%(identity)\**\*')">
<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="_EvaluatedPublishTempFolderNamesToCleanup" />
</CreateItem>
<Delete Files="#(_EvaluatedPublishTempFolderNamesToCleanup)" />
</Target>
Beware: for some reason, probably because I included it myself in the project, my build target for building the views was named "BuildViews", instead of "MvcBuildViews", so I had to modify the BeforeTargets attribute accordingly.
This is not necessarily the exact same issue, and to be honest, probably down to pure lack of knowledge on my part, however I had this same error when:
I set up a standard asp.net new project actually just used for HTML5 stuff so nothing other than the usual project structure
I then (not thinking perhaps!) added a new WCF REST project (which actually was just another base asp.net project using very good examples from http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/128478/Consuming-WCF-REST-Services-Using-jQuery-AJAX-Call?fid=1597004&df=90&mpp=25&noise=3&prof=False&sort=Position&view=Quick&fr=26#xx0xx and http://geekswithblogs.net/michelotti/archive/2010/08/21/restful-wcf-services-with-no-svc-file-and-no-config.aspx
The problem was I added the WCF REST project (#2) as a SUB-DIRECTORY of the main project (#1) and then tried to build! even if I cleaned the project of course.. I also made both projects use IISexpress because I thought there was an issue using the same port or something.
Of course the build process saw the web.config from #1 and then a sub-dir with another web.config #2..
I realise this probably should be a very basic understood gotcha and it has caught me out a while ago, however sometimes it's the simplest of mistakes that are a real pain!
Might help others... who perhaps haven't had their morning coffee..
tip 1: clean & then rebuild.
tip 2: just close VS and open again.
tip 3: the downloaded project may be inside another sub folder... open the folder which has you .net files.
c:/demo1/demo/ (all files)
You should have to open demo from vs... not demo1.
I have a somewhat a similar problem, i had the main config as Copy Always so it copied the config to the bin directory. When i republished the main project, i got the MachineToApplication error. So my solution was to just change the config to Do Not Copy and remove the extra configuration in the bin folder.