We are just getting started with TFS 2010 and migration from SVN and CruiseControl.NET to TFS.
With cruisecontrol.NET we have a powershell script that does everything: copying, modifying, compressing files.
Now my question is how we can integrate that script into the TFS build server? Modifying the solution or creating a custom msbuild file?
Also I would like to combine this with Web Packaging. Any idea how this can be accomplished?
My recommendation is to create a custom msbuild file. In this file call build of your solution and then call your powershell script. Like:
<Project ToolsVersion="3.5" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="Build">
<!-- Compile whole solution in release mode -->
<MSBuild
Projects="MySolutionFile.sln"
Targets="ReBuild"
Properties="Configuration=Release" />
<Exec
Command=“command_for_run_cutom_script“
ContinueOnError="false"
WorkingDirectory="." />
</Target>
</Project>
However consider rewriting your powershell script fully to msbuild script. You will get better maintenance. Copying, modifying, compressing files… are no problem for msbuild.
http://tfsccnetplugin.codeplex.com/ has all the documentation you need in terms of Configuring CCNet with TFS, as for the web packaging...unfortunately someone else will have to help with that.
Related
I would like to use a visual studio proj file to transform xml files. I am following this article. http://sedodream.com/2010/04/26/ConfigTransformationsOutsideOfWebAppBuilds.aspx . This works for me locally, however when deploying the application on Azure DevOps it fails. It cannot find Microsoft.Web.Publishing.Tasks.dll. How do I set up a build task that will only transform the config files.
<Project ToolsVersion="12.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<UsingTask TaskName="TransformXml"
AssemblyFile="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v15.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.Tasks.dll"/>
<Target Name="Build">
<TransformXml Source="Web.config"
Transform="Web.Release.config"
Destination="Web.Production.config" />
</Target>
</Project>
Turned out to be an easy fix. It was an old build so that the hosted agent. Just had to change it to the Hosted VS2017 agent.
AssemblyFile="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.Tasks.dll"/>
I think that's why the issue happens. For a vs2017 agent, you need to change the v10.0 to v15.0, so that the msbuild tool can find the assembly.
Also, as for vs2017, make sure you set the correct msbuild tool path in VSTS like this issue.
I'm currently writing an msbuild script to build a solution I've been working on, as well as run its tests. On my development machine, this works as expected. However, when I try to run the same build script on our build server, I get several failures. I've tracked the source of the problem down to the fact that my build script appears to be trying to run the .exe file associated with my application. This line during the script execution tipped me off, since it doesn't run that command on my dev box:
MSIAuthoring:
Building MSI
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Jenkins\workspace\Test Build\BuildArtifacts\MsiBuildTool.exe" "/MBSBUILD:MsiBuildTool"
I'm fairly new to build scripting, but my understanding is that the build script shouldn't be trying to run my program unless I explicitly tell it to do so. Does anyone know what might be causing this?
For reference, here is my build script:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project DefaultTargets="RunTests"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<BuildArtifactsDir Include="BuildArtifacts\"/>
<SolutionFile Include="MsiBuildTool.sln"/>
<NUnitConsole Include="C:\Program Files (x86)\NUnit 2.6.4\bin\nunit-console.exe"/>
<UnitTestsDll Include="BuildArtifacts\MsiBuildToolUnitTests.dll"/>
<TestResultsPath Include="BuildArtifacts\TestResults.xml"/>
</ItemGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<Configuration Condition="'$(Configuration)' == ''">Release</Configuration>
<Platform Condition="'$(Platform)' == ''">Any CPU</Platform>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="Init" DependsOnTargets="Clean">
<MakeDir Directories="#(BuildArtifactsDir)"/>
</Target>
<Target Name="Clean">
<RemoveDir Directories="#(BuildArtifactsDir)"/>
</Target>
<Target Name ="Compile" DependsOnTargets="Init">
<MSBuild Projects="#(SolutionFile)"
Targets ="Build"
Properties ="OutDir=%(BuildArtifactsDir.FullPath);Configuration=$(Configuration);Platform=$(Platform)"/>
</Target>
<Target Name="RunTests" DependsOnTargets="Compile">
<Exec Command='"#(NUnitConsole)" #(UnitTestsDll) /xml=#(TestResultsPath)'/>
</Target>
</Project>
Update:
After some digging through the output, I found that "MSIAuthoring" step was the result of the Wix# library that I'm using. As described by this thread: https://wixsharp.codeplex.com/discussions/644609#
I disabled the MSIAuthoring step by removing this line in my .csproj files:
<Import Project="..\packages\WixSharp.1.0.22.3\build\WixSharp.targets" Condition="Exists('..\packages\WixSharp.1.0.22.3\build\WixSharp.targets')" />
You're building solution file, thus MSBuild will generate msbuild-xml script first and then will build it. To find why it's being called on build machine but not on your dev machine - follow this advice and obtain generated MSBuild scripts from your dev environment and your build server. Then compare it.
Also enable diagnostic logging (/verbosity:diag in the command line) as Lex Li advised, and you'll see detailed decisions why each target being run or not - grep logs for something like "Conditions A, B, C on target BuildMSI evaluated to False" and this will show you the difference between environments.
It might be some type of post-build script on one of the projects which builds MSI only if it's being run not on dev environment - check actual build script to find where it comes from. Also check that it's really related to your build script, and it's not an extra build step in your Jenkins build configuration.
I have a project which has some post build events that do some copying around for other projects. I unfortunately cannot change that, and have been asked to write a build script for use on a CI server.
Problem is that the post build steps run off the debug/release bin folders and I compile through the build script to a different folder. So one solution would be to let the project build as is, and then manually copy all files from the bin folders to the output folder I am using. However that feels like a bit of a hack, so I was wondering if there is a way for an MSBuild task to tell the solution it is building to ignore PostBuild events, I believe you could set a property PostBuildEvent='' but it didnt seem to stop them from happening...
Here is an example of the build script target:
<Target Name="Compile" DependsOnTargets="Clean;">
<MSBuild Projects="$(SourceDirectory)\SomeSolution.sln"
Properties="Configuration=Release; OutputPath=$(CompilationDirectory); PostBuildEvent=''" />
</Target>
Anyone had to do anything similar before?
To disable all PostBuildEvents, set the CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets to C:\PostBuild.config (or whatever you name the file) and have PostBuild.config to be:
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="PostBuildEvent"/>
</Project>
Add /p:CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets="C:\PostBuild.config" to your msbuild command line
Or update your MsBuild task properties:
<MsBuild Projects="$(ProjectTobuild)" Properties="Configuration=$(Configuration);Platform=$(Platform);CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets='C:\PostBuild.config'" Targets="Build"/>
To disable PostBuildEvents at project level for MSBuild, simply put these codes inside .csproj:
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<PropertyGroup>
<PostBuildEvent Condition="'$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' == 'false' Or '$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' != 'true'"></PostBuildEvent>
</PropertyGroup>
</Target>
I wish to start using MS-Build. I have lots of projects which I build manually (from Visual Studio) as of now. I want to automate build process and preferably from a machine onto which I don't wish to install Visual Studio. I started reading about MS-Build on MSDN. But I am yet to get a step by step guidance where to start and how to do. My questions are like:
How can I start MS-Build? Is there any download-able?
What is the first step?
How to create an MS-Build script?
And a lot similar questions. Can somebody guide me?
MS Build comes with the .NET Framework itself and the executable (msbuild.exe) is located in the .NET-framework directory, something like (depending on version):
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
(The right version is also in %path% when using the "Visual Studio command prompt" from the start menu.)
MsBuild files are xml-files. You can start by making a new text file, lets say "c:\myscript.msbuild", and copy-paste this to the file:
<Project DefaultTargets="MyTarget" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="MyTarget">
<Message Text="Hello world!" Importance="high"/>
</Target>
</Project>
Then go to command prompt and type:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\msbuild.exe c:\myscript.msbuild
That is a good start. :)
Then you can customize the targets and properties.
Second example:
<Project DefaultTargets="All" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(MyCondition)' == 'x'" >
<MyProperty>World2</MyProperty>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="MyTarget">
<Message Text="Hello" Importance="high"/>
<Message Text="$(MyProperty)" Importance="high"/>
</Target>
<Target Name="MyTarget2">
</Target>
<Target Name="All">
<CallTarget Targets="MyTarget" />
<CallTarget Targets="MyTarget2" />
</Target>
</Project>
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\msbuild.exe c:\myscript.msbuild /target:mytarget /property:MyCondition=x
You can have also build files inside build-files.
<Project DefaultTargets="MyTarget" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Import Project="MyExternalProperties.msbuild"/>
<Target Name="MyTarget">
<Exec Command="echo Hello world 3"/>
</Target>
</Project>
MSBuild is similar to other build products like NAnt (just in case you've used one of those), but it is still different in a few respects.
Here is a good start page on MSDN. There are a truckload of different MSBuild task libraries released under various licences, most that i have seen are completely free to use and come with source code. Probably the two biggest are:
the open source MSBuild Community Tasks Project
the SDC Tasks Library on codeplex
Other good places to get info:
the MSBuild team blog
MSBuild Book
the blog of Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi (who is incredibly knowledgeable about the product but didn't work for MS until just recently). He also hangs out here on SO and may stumble across this question.
That should be enough to get started. If you can't find a task to do what you want, just write it yourseld - it is very easy.
I'm trying to make a batch file to publish the few ClickOnce application we have in one click. I'm using msbuild for that, and as an example the below command line shows how I'm doing it:
msbuild
MyApp.sln
/t:Publish
/p:Configuration=Release
/p:PublishUrl="C:\Apps\"
/v:normal > Log.txt
(wrapped for easier reading)
when I run the above command it builds and publish the application in the release directory, i.e. bin\release! Any idea why msbuild doesn't respect PublishUrl property in my example above?
PS: I tried also different combinations including remove 'Configuration', use 'Rebuild' and 'PublishOnly' as targets, and remove the the quotation marks but without any success.
You are setting the wrong property. Try PublishDir instead.
You can pass it into MSBuild as you are or you can set it in the project file (or maybe the sln file too, not sure I always use the project file.) like this
<PropertyGroup>
<PublishDir>C:\Dev\Release\$(BuildEnvironment)\</PublishDir>
</PropertyGroup>
I've just done a few blog posts on MsBuild and ClickOnce stuff, check it out you 'should' find them useful...
Some features are done by Visual-Studio and not by the MSBuild-script. So the click-once-deployment behaves differently when it's executed from the command-line.
The ApplicationRevision isn't increased with every build. This works only when is exectued from Visual Studio
In in somecases, the PublishUrl isn't used. Quote from MSDN:
For example, you could set the PublishURL to an FTP path and set the InstallURL to a Web URL. In this case, the PublishURL is only used in the IDE to transfer the files, but not used in the command-line builds. Finally, you can use UpdateUrl if you want to publish a ClickOnce application that updates itself from a separate location from which it is installed.
I've created a special MSBuild-file which does this things. It runs the publish-target and copies then the files to the right location.
An example of the build-file, as requested by alhambraeidos. It basically runs the regular VisualStudio-build and then copies the click-once data to the real release folder. Note that removed some project-specific stuff, so it's maybe broken. Furthermore it doesn't increase the build-number. Thats done by our Continues-Build-Server:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Publish" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<!-- the folder of the project to build -->
<ProjLocation>..\YourProjectFolder</ProjLocation>
<ProjLocationReleaseDir>$(ProjLocation)\bin\Release</ProjLocationReleaseDir>
<ProjPublishLocation>$(ProjLocationReleaseDir)\app.publish</ProjPublishLocation>
<!-- This is the web-folder, which provides the artefacts for click-once. After this
build the project is actually deployed on the server -->
<DeploymentFolder>D:\server\releases\</DeploymentFolder>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="Publish" DependsOnTargets="Clean">
<Message Text="Publish-Build started for build no $(ApplicationRevision)" />
<MSBuild Projects="$(ProjLocation)/YourProject.csproj" Properties="Configuration=Release" Targets="Publish"/>
<ItemGroup>
<SchoolPlannerSetupFiles Include="$(ProjPublishLocation)\*.*"/>
<SchoolPlannerUpdateFiles Include="$(ProjPublishLocation)\Application Files\**\*.*"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(SchoolPlannerSetupFiles)"
DestinationFolder="$(DeploymentFolder)\"
/>
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(SchoolPlannerUpdateFiles)"
DestinationFolder="$(DeploymentFolder)\Application Files\%(RecursiveDir)"
/>
<CallTarget Targets="RestoreLog"/>
</Target>
<Target Name="Clean">
<Message Text="Clean project:" />
<MSBuild Projects="$(ProjLocation)/YourProject.csproj" Properties="Configuration=Release" Targets="Clean"/>
</Target>
</Project>
I'll put in my 2 cents, this syntax seems to work (right or wrong):
/p:publishUrl="C:\\_\\Projects\\Samples\\artifacts\\Web\\"
For me, the soultion was to escape the path.
Instead of:
/p:PublishUrl="C:\Apps\"
Put:
/p:PublishUrl="C:\\Apps\\"