Web.Config transforms outside of Microsoft MSBuild?

Question

Is it possible to use Microsoft\'s XML document transform, for preparing web.configs, outside of MSBuild? I would like to use PowerShell to do these transform without having

Answer 1

I created a small function to handle Microsoft's XML Document Transform in PowerShell.

I copied the Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.dll file from Visual Studio build folder to my script's path, but you can reference it from the source folder if you'd like.

function XmlDocTransform($xml, $xdt)
{
    if (!$xml -or !(Test-Path -path $xml -PathType Leaf)) {
        throw "File not found. $xml";
    }
    if (!$xdt -or !(Test-Path -path $xdt -PathType Leaf)) {
        throw "File not found. $xdt";
    }

    $scriptPath = (Get-Variable MyInvocation -Scope 1).Value.InvocationName | split-path -parent
    Add-Type -LiteralPath "$scriptPath\Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.dll"

    $xmldoc = New-Object Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.XmlTransformableDocument;
    $xmldoc.PreserveWhitespace = $true
    $xmldoc.Load($xml);

    $transf = New-Object Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.XmlTransformation($xdt);
    if ($transf.Apply($xmldoc) -eq $false)
    {
        throw "Transformation failed."
    }
    $xmldoc.Save($xml);
}

To transform web.config using web.release.config:

XmlDocTransform -xml "Web.config" -xdt "Web.Release.config"

Alternatively, you can use Sayed's self-bootstraping Xml Transform script, which will take care of getting the Microsoft.Xml.Xdt.dll for you:

https://gist.github.com/sayedihashimi/f1fdc4bfba74d398ec5b