I want to run a SonarQube analysis on msbuild proj files.
The build consists of one .proj file. This file builds several other .proj files.
When I run the build, SonarQube prints this error message:
The SonarQube MSBuild integration failed: SonarQube was unable to collect the required information about your projects.
Possible causes:
1. The project has not been built - the project must be built in between the begin and end steps
2. An unsupported version of MSBuild has been used to build the project. Currently MSBuild 14.0 and 15.0 are supported
3. The begin, build and end steps have not all been launched from the same folder
4. None of the analyzed projects have a valid ProjectGuid and you have not used a solution (.sln)
I checked and the last point is probably the problem.There is no .sln but each of the called .proj files has a Guid added, but not the top one. (it worked fine with .njsproj files previously, which had a guid)
Project Guid is provided like this:
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="15.0" DefaultTargets="Build">
<PropertyGroup>
<ProjectGuid>{B1E36758-8A06-4793-A7D2-216DE578732D}</ProjectGuid>
</PropertyGroup>
....
</Project>
I also tried without curly braces.
I'm not really sure what sonarqube is expecting.
Is SonarQube working with .proj files?
I am giving Rider a try, and so far, quite like it.
One feature I use in Visual Studio quite often is right click on a web project and publish to our testing server.
I cannot find a similar option in Rider, so what I have done is, create a run configuration, with the following settings:
Exe path: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2017/Enterprise/MSBuild/15.0/Bin/amd64/msbuild.exe
Arguments: MySolution.sln /m /p:DeployOnBuild=True /p:PublishProfile=My-Project "/p:platform=Any CPU" /p:configuration=Release /p:VisualStudioVersion=15.0 /p:Password=****
Working Directory: C:\SolutionFolder
When I want to publish, I select it from the drop-down and click run.
This works 100%.
My question is, is this the best way to do it, sans setting up a CI pipeline? Am I missing an option or setting in the IDE?
As of June 2018, Rider doesn't have UI for publishing.
There is a feature request which you can vote for, once logged in YouTrack.
As a workaround, one can create a '.NET Executable' configuration like you did, and run it when you want to publish your project.
More detailed instructions follows:
Run > Edit Configuration
Add new configuration > .NET Executable
Name = your project name
Exe path = path to your MSBuild (for example C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2017/Professional/MSBuild/15.0/Bin/amd64/MSBuild.exe)
Program arguments = YourSolution.sln /t:"Your_Project" /p:PublishProfile=YourPublishProfile.pubxml /p:Configuration=Debug /p:DeployOnBuild=true /m
Working directory = C:/path/to/solution/dir/
Notes:
the project publish profile is usually located in the project folder, under Properties/PublishProfiles. If you don't have one you can start with the example reported below;
you need to replace the dots (.) in the project name with underscores (_). In the example above Your.Project was passed as Your_Project;
you can specify a different publishing directory, if not already specified in the publish profile, by adding the argument /p:PublishDir="C:/path/to/publish/dir/";
if you don't have Visual Studio installed on your machine, you can use the MSBuild bundled with the Build Tools for Visual Studio 2017.
Example of publish profile:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<WebPublishMethod>FileSystem</WebPublishMethod>
<LastUsedBuildConfiguration>Debug</LastUsedBuildConfiguration>
<LastUsedPlatform>Any CPU</LastUsedPlatform>
<SiteUrlToLaunchAfterPublish />
<LaunchSiteAfterPublish>True</LaunchSiteAfterPublish>
<ExcludeApp_Data>False</ExcludeApp_Data>
<publishUrl>..\YourPublishDirectory</publishUrl>
<DeleteExistingFiles>True</DeleteExistingFiles>
<ExcludeFilesFromDeployment>bin\*.dll.config</ExcludeFilesFromDeployment>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
Latest versions of Rider support publishing via UI. If you don't have Visual Studio installed on your machine, make sure the web project has Build.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.targets nuget package installed.
I have a TFS 2013 build xaml workflow, that eventually calls the Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Workflow.Activities.MSBuild activity once for each solution that I want to build. When msbuild.exe is called, it's working directory is the working directory of the current solution being built. I can see this through the 'MSBuildStartupDirectory' property when running msbuild with a 'diagnostic' verbosity.
Unfortunately, I need the working of msbuild.exe to be somewhere else when msbuild.exe starts. This is because I use the MSBuild SonarQube runner that imposes constraints on the directory from which msbuild is called.
I have looked at the 'msbuild' activity and there is no way to control the working directory. Is there another way to control the working directory of this activity?
Its been a while since I edited a build process template but I believe you could use an activity that just executes a command in CMD and provide the full MSBuild command. I'm sure there are tons of variables you will need to setup for this to work.
Instead of editing the build process template have you considered using a PowerShell script in the Post-build script to execute SonarQube?
I still haven't found any way to control the working directory of msbuild. But since I know that the working directory will be the directory of the project being built by msbuild, I created a new proj file at the root of my workspace (where my working directory has to be) and only build this new proj file from my workflow. This new proj file then builds all my other solutions. That way, my working directory is the same for all the solutions being built.
Here is an example of my top level proj file:
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" DefaultTargets="Build">
<ItemGroup>
<Solutions Include="**\*.sln"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="Build">
<MSBuild Projects="#(Solutions)" Targets="Build"/>
</Target>
</Project>
But beware that doing this may affect the output directory (OutDir) given to each solution. So you may want to do something like this:
<MSBuild Projects="#(Solutions)" Targets="Build" Properties="OutDir=$(OutDir)..\%(Solutions.Filename)"/>
We use MSBuild on our CI server to compile our WebApp, however the build omits the JavaScript files built by TypeScript from the output of the build.
I would expect the output to contain the JavaScript and not the Typescript, however neither are in the output at the expected locations.
How can I include the JavaScript files without having to have them all in my solution? The TypeScript team seems to think this is bad, but I would rather not have duplicates of all the files in my solution either.
The problem was due to using MSBuild instead of the "Publish" on the build server it seems. I added an AfterBuild target to content include all of the JS files to the build output.
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="**\*.js" />
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
Although this is not ideal, it allows the js files not to show in the solution when using visual studio and the files end up in the build output.
I tried many solutions from the web including the <Content Include="**\*.js" />, but nothing worked. I'm using MSBuild on my local dev box and typescript is installed and targets available in C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v12.0\TypeScript.
It turns out my "old" MSBuild runner for web app csproj files is obsolete. I was doing this:
MSBuild.exe my.csproj /Target:ResolveReferences;_CopyWebApplication /property:WebProjectOutputDir=myfolder;OutDir=myfolder\bin;Configuration=Debug
but thanks to this post I need to use UseWPP_CopyWebApplication instead of the legacy _CopyWebApplication:
MSBuild.exe /t:Rebuild "/p:WebProjectOutputDir=myfolder;OutDir=myfolder\bin;Configuration=Debug;UseWPP_CopyWebApplication=True;PipelineDependsOnBuild=False" my.csproj
Now without any editing of the csproj file, all my TypeScript is included!
TypeScript is probably not installed on your build server. To install it, copy your TypeScript folder from c:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v12.0\ to the same folder on your build server (where v12 is the version of your Visual Studio).
The Visual Studio version on your build server can be different however. In my situation, the version on my development machine is v12, while the build server uses v11. I found that out by adding the following to the [WebProjectName].csproj file:
<Target Name="PrintVisualStudioInfo">
<Message Text="VisualStudioVersion: '$(VisualStudioVersion)'" Importance="High" />
</Target>
<PropertyGroup>
<CompileDependsOn>
PrintVisualStudioInfo;
$(CompileDependsOn)
</CompileDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
Be sure you put it after the last <Import /> element. Now when you look at the output of your build on the build server, you should see 'VisualStudioVersion: xx' somewhere.
Copy the TypeScript folder to the correct version folder on the build server.
Just adding in case it helps people.
We had this issue recently and it was fixed by adding
/p:VisualStudioVersion=12.0 to the BAT file :
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\msbuild.exe FullBuild.proj /p:VisualStudioVersion=12.0 /t:createRelease /p:ReleaseNumber=5.22.0
I am trying to use MSBuild to build a solution with a specified target platform (I need both binaries, x86 and x64). This is how I tried it:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5>MsBuild SolutionPath\Solution.sln /t:Rebuild /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform="x86"
However the build always fails if the platform is different from "Any CPU". What am I doing wrong?
This is the while output MSBuild prints:
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5>MsBuild
SolutionPath\Solution.sln /t:Rebuild
/p:Configuration=Release
/p:Platform="x86" Microsoft (R) Build
Engine Version 3.5.30729.1 [Microsoft
.NET Framework, Version
2.0.50727.3082] Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 2007. All rights
reserved.
Build started 1.7.2010 8:28:10.
Project "SolutionPath\Solution.sln" on
node 0 (Rebuild targe t(s)).
SolutionPath\Solution.sln : error
MSB4126: The specified sol ution
configuration "Release|x86" is
invalid. Please specify a valid
solution c onfiguration using the
Configuration and Platform properties
(e.g. MSBuild.exe Solution.sln
/p:Configuration=Debug
/p:Platform="Any CPU") or leave those
prope rties blank to use the default
solution configuration. Done Building
Project "SolutionPath\Solution.sln"
(Rebuild t arget(s)) -- FAILED.
Build FAILED.
"SolutionPath\Solution.sln" (Rebuild
target) (1) ->
(ValidateSolutionConfiguration target)
-> SolutionPath\Solution.sln : error MSB4126: The specified s olution
configuration "Release|x86" is
invalid. Please specify a valid
solution configuration using the
Configuration and Platform properties
(e.g. MSBuild.ex e Solution.sln
/p:Configuration=Debug
/p:Platform="Any CPU") or leave those
pro perties blank to use the default
solution configuration.
0 Warning(s)
1 Error(s)
Time Elapsed 00:00:00.03
If I try to build it for x86/x64 with devenv it works perfectly, however I am trying to set up a build server without installing all the necessary versions of Visual Studio. By the way, if there is a better free tool (that supports .NET framework 4) out there, I'd love to hear about it.
In MSBuild or Teamcity use command line
MSBuild yourproject.sln /property:Configuration=Release /property:Platform=x64
or use shorter form:
MSBuild yourproject.sln /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64
However you need to set up platform in your project anyway, see the answer by Julien Hoarau.
If you want to build your solution for x86 and x64, your solution must be configured for both platforms. Actually you just have an Any CPU configuration.
How to check the available configuration for a project
To check the available configuration for a given project, open the project file (*.csproj for example) and look for a PropertyGroup with the right Condition.
If you want to build in Release mode for x86, you must have something like this in your project file:
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|x86' ">
...
</PropertyGroup>
How to create and edit the configuration in Visual Studio
(source: microsoft.com)
(source: msdn.com)
(source: msdn.com)
How to create and edit the configuration (on MSDN)
If you're trying to do this from the command line, you may be encountering an issue where a machine-wide environment variable 'Platform' is being set for you and working against you. I can reproduce this if I use the VS2012 Command window instead of a regular windows Command window.
At the command prompt type:
set platform
In a VS2012 Command window, I have a value of 'X64' preset. That seems to interfere with whatever is in my solution file.
In a regular Command window, the 'set' command results in a "variable not defined" message...which is good.
If the result of your 'set' command above returns no environment variable value, you should be good to go.
Hopefully this helps someone out there.
For platform I was specifying "Any CPU", changed it to "AnyCPU" and that fixed the problem.
msbuild C:\Users\Project\Project.publishproj /p:Platform="AnyCPU" /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=local /p:Configuration=Debug
If you look at your .csproj file you'll see the correct platform name to use.
For VS2017 and 2019... with the modern core library SDK project files, the platform can be changed during the build process. Here's an example to change to the anycpu platform, just before the built-in CoreCompile task runs:
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk" >
<Target Name="SwitchToAnyCpu" BeforeTargets="CoreCompile" >
<Message Text="Current Platform=$(Platform)" />
<Message Text="Current PlatformTarget=$(PlatformName)" />
<PropertyGroup>
<Platform>anycpu</Platform>
<PlatformTarget>anycpu</PlatformTarget>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="New Platform=$(Platform)" />
<Message Text="New PlatformTarget=$(PlatformTarget)" />
</Target>
</Project>
In my case, I'm building an FPGA with BeforeTargets and AfterTargets tasks, but compiling a C# app in the main CoreCompile. (partly as I may want some sort of command-line app, and partly because I could not figure out how to omit or override CoreCompile)
To build for multiple, concurrent binaries such as x86 and x64: either a separate, manual build task would be needed or two separate project files with the respective <PlatformTarget>x86</PlatformTarget> and <PlatformTarget>x64</PlatformTarget> settings in the example, above.
When you define different build configurations in your visual studio solution for your projects using a tool like ConfigurationTransform, you may want your Teamcity build, to build you a specified build configuration. You may have build configurations e.g., Debug, Release, Dev, UAT, Prod etc defined. This means, you will have MSBuild Configuration transformation setup for the different configurations. These different configurations are usually used when you have different configurations, e.g. different database connection strings, for the different environment. This is very common because you would have a different database for your production environment from your playground development environment.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, please see the image below how you would specify multiple build configurations in Teamcity.
In the commandline input text box, specify as below
/p:OutputPath=Publish;Configuration=Dev
Here, I have specified two commandline build configurations/arguments OutputPath and build Configuration with values Publish and Dev respectively, but it could have been, UAT or Prod configuration. If you want more, simply separate them by semi-colon,;
There is an odd case I got in VS2017, about the space between ‘Any’ and 'CPU'.
this is not about using command prompt.
If you have a build project file, which could call other solution files. You can try to add the space between Any and CPU, like this (the Platform property value):
<MSBuild Projects="#(SolutionToBuild2)" Properties ="Configuration=$(ProjectConfiguration);Platform=Any CPU;Rerun=$(MsBuildReRun);" />
Before I fix this build issue, it is like this (ProjectPlatform is a global variable, was set to 'AnyCPU'):
<MSBuild Projects="#(SolutionToBuild1)" Properties ="Configuration=$(ProjectConfiguration);Platform=$(ProjectPlatform);Rerun=$(MsBuildReRun);" />
Also, we have a lot projects being called using $ (ProjectPlatform), which is 'AnyCPU' and work fine. If we open proj file, we can see lines liket this and it make sense.
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCPU'">
So my conclusion is,
'AnyCPU' works for calling project files, but not for calling solution files,
for calling solution files, using 'Any CPU' (add the space.)
For now, I am not sure if it is a bug of VS project file or MSBuild.
I am using VS2017 with VS2017 build tools installed.
In Visual Studio 2019, version 16.8.4, you can just add
<Prefer32Bit>false</Prefer32Bit>