Resolving problems with DSL SetUp project - wix

I'm fighting with the InstallerDefinition.dslsetup file in a DSL setup project. I'm getting the following error:
Running transformation: The setup project could not retrieve the output path for project 'PsiTraffic.Modeling.PomModel.Dsl' from the environment. Ensure that this project exists in the solution. Only Visual C# and Visual Basic project types are supported.
The Project 'PsiTraffic.Modeling.PomModel.Dsl' is in the solution, its also a project reference of the setup solution. The project is C# so the only two pointer's it gave me are useless.
This is the section that it is reffering to in the dslsetup file:
<dslSchemas>
<dslSchema project="PsiTraffic.Modeling.PomModel.Dsl" filePath="GeneratedCode\PomModelSchema.xsd"/>
</dslSchemas>
If I provide a full path to the file the error goes away but this goes against the whole point of the project attribute, and I get errors later from the supportingAssembly attributes.
There aren't very many good examples on this and its Visual Studio doesn't provide you with much in the way of support to diagnose the problem.
Any insights or good examples would be appreciated.

It turns out that the problem was down to using solution folders and not having all the projects on the same directory level. This is a truly hideous "feature" as far as I'm concerned, and its really bad that as far as I can see its not documented.
So if you encounter similar problems make sure you're not using subfolders or solution folders.

Related

TFS Build Error - WPF with Reference Libraries

I have a project that makes use of three different additional reference libraries. The project compiles and runs correctly with all actions behaving as expected for the libraries (PulseButton, Log4Net & WpfAnimatedGif). However as soon as I try to build the project through TFS 2015 I get an error:
If I take out all references to the PulseButton from the project, I get the same error for the next Reference Library I have introduced to the project.
I have checked the actual file locations for the References and all seems to be in order there as well.
I am referencing in the XAML:
<Window x:Name="frmMain" x:Class="MainWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="clr-namespace:ePortfolio_Client"
xmlns:gif="http://wpfanimatedgif.codeplex.com"
xmlns:pb="clr-namespace:NMT.Wpf.Controls;assembly=PulseButton"
Title="t2 - ePortfolio" Height="740" Width="1370" ResizeMode="CanMinimize" Icon="Content/Portfolio.ico" WindowStartupLocation="CenterScreen" >
I appreciate this is quite a vague question but am a bit stuck. Any help on what might be causing my problems is greatly appreciated.
EDIT
After a little bit of snuffling around I have a feeling it is to do with the DLLs not being installed on the TFS server. I am guessing I need to install these through Visual Studio? Any other help here would be great!
Silly really - should have tried this before testing... My Edit above was hinting down the right path. My Build Definition is working at Project Level (instead of Solution) so the DLLs installed through NuGet were not being picked up. NuGet installs in a Packages folder on the root of the solution... This was not being carried over.
I created a new folder in the Project and moved the DLLd there. I then went to the Project properties and updated the Reference Paths and all seemed to be fine.
Now im getting an error regarding the Signing Certificate due to it being password protected... Nearly there!

msbuild failing with "cannot find a a part of the path"

I'm running msbuild on my .sln file and I'm suddenly getting
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets(2291,5):
error SB3554: Cannot write to the output file "C:\Work\product\src\component\
obj\Debug\product.resources". Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Work\
product\src\component\obj\Debug\component.Resources.resources'. [C:\Work\
product\src\component\component.vbproj]
No amount of deleting binaries and retrying helps
Had a similar intermittent problem, added these options to the copy command
Retries="10" RetryDelayMilliseconds="5000"
and it seemed to do the trick
The error states product.resources is failing because component.Resources.resources cannot be found.
Ensure your project build order is correct since resources files are built at compile time and it cannot find the needed resources file to continue.
Another solution you might try is to delete and re-add any .resx files in your projects.
Also, I would create one shared project with resources for the solution to make it easier to mange your resources. Here is an example although a little dated.
How to use shared resource file between projects in one solution?
MSDOCS-Packaging and Deploying Resources in .NET Apps

Include RIA Services in Solution without usual installation

I want to use WCF RIA Services without need to install this. My idea is just to reference the libraries:
Microsoft.ServiceModel.DomainServices.Hosting.dll and Microsoft.ServiceModel.DomainServices.Tools.dll
in my Solution Libs folder.
This avoid overhead for devs and even for deployment.
This solution creates some evil hide monster? I forgetting something?
*I tried this and, well, "It works in my machine" until now.
If you reference DLL´s that are only on your development machine, make sure your reference doesn´t point to the Globsal Assembly Cache. Otherwise the other developers can´t find the reference.
Also selecting ´Copy Local´ for the references will make sure they are copied to the bin directory so you can deploy the solution with the necessary dll´s included.
I would suggest storing the actual dll files in a References folder in the root of your project. Then add them to your project through visual studio. Once you've done that add the hintpath node to the actual project file for each reference, which will tell VS where to look for the file. This method works great especially if you are working with multiple projects because then you dont have to copy the dll files to each bin directory.

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.

MSBuild overwriting dependencies

Ok, so I've got a somewhat complicated problem with my build environment that I'm trying to deal with.
I have a solution file that contains multiple C# projects which is built by a NAnt script calling MSBuild - passing MSBuild the name of the solution file and a path to copy the binaries to. This is because I want my automated build environment (CruiseControl.Net) to create a folder named after the revision of each build - this way I can easily go back to previous binaries for any reason.
So idealy I have a folder layout like this
c:\build\nightly\rev1
c:\build\nightly\rev2
c:\build\nightly\rev3
...
c:\build\nightly\rev10
etc.
The problem that's arisen is I recently added the latest version of the Unity IoC container to my project, checking it directly out of MS's online SVN repository. What's happening is I have a Silverlight 3 project that references the Silverlight version of Unity but I also have other projects (namely my Unit testing project) that reference the standard (non-Silverlight) version of Unity.
So what happens is since MSBuild is dumping everything into one single folder the Silverlight version of the Unity assembly is overwriting the non-Silverlight version because they have the exact same assembly file name.
Then when CruistControl runs my unit tests they fail because they don't have the proper dependencies available anymore (they try to load the Silverlight specific Unity assembly which obviously doesn't work).
So what I want to do is:
keep my desired output directory
structure (folder\revision)
I don't want to have to manually edit
every single proj file I have as this
is error prone when adding new
projects to the solution
Idealy I would like MSBuild to put everything into a folder structure similar to this:
nightly\revision1\project1
nightly\revision1\project2
nightly\revision1\project3
...
nightly\revision2\project1
nightly\revision2\project2
nightly\revision2\project3
etc
I can't modify the Unity project to give it a different file name because it comes from another SVN repository I cannot commit changes to. I found a similar question posted here and the suggested solution was to use a "master" MSBuild file that used a custom task to extract all the project file names out of the solution then loop over each one building them. I tried that but it doesn't build them in the order of their dependencies, so it fails for my project.
Help?
Firstly I would always have the build server delete the old working copy and check out a fresh copy to avoid any problems with stale artifacts from the previous build.
Next I would have nant or msbuild build the solutions as before with the artifacts from each build going to their local working output folders.
After that I'd move the artifacts from their working paths to their output paths, this shouldn't require digging through the project files since you can just tell msbuild/nant to copy working\project1\bin\release\**\*.* to artifacts\project1\.
The script that does this should ideally be stored along with the source with the main file, e.g. build.nant or build.proj in top level of the trunk.
For third party libraries I would simple include the DLLs directory in your repository. Nothing worse than writing some code and having a third party dependency break your build because of changes on their end.
Simply document the versions of the libraries you are using, and if you must update them, you'll have a better sense of what breaks the build before you even check it in.
Also, doesn't CC.Net automatically handle the providing of releases based on revision? I'm using TeamCity and it keeps a copy of the artifacts of every build.
I highly recommend reading JP Boodhoo's Automating Builds with NAnt blog series. That's been my starting point and have made lots of changes for my own taste. I also highly recommend checking out the builds of many open sources projects for examples. I've learned a lot from the builds of the Castle/Nhibernate/Rhino-Tools stack.