MSBuild Script and VS2010 publish apply Web.config Transform

Question

So, I have VS 2010 installed and am in the process of modifying my MSBuild script for our TeamCity build integration. Everything is working great with one exception.

Answer 1

I was looking for similar information and didn't quite find it, so I did some digging around in the .targets files that come with Visual Studio 2010 and MSBuild 4.0. I figured that was the best place to look for the MSBuild task that would perform the transformation.

As far as I have been able to tell, the following MSBuild task is used:

<Project ToolsVersion="4.0"
         DefaultTargets="Deploy"
         xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

    <UsingTask TaskName="TransformXml"
               AssemblyFile="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.Tasks.dll"/>

    <PropertyGroup>
        <ProjectPath>C:\Path to Project\Here</ProjectPath>
        <DeployPath>C:\Path to Deploy\There</DeployPath>
        <TransformInputFile>$(ProjectPath)\Web.config</TransformInputFile>
        <TransformFile>$(ProjectPath)\Web.$(Configuration).config</TransformFile>
        <TransformOutputFile>$(DeployPath)\Web.config</TransformOutputFile>
        <StackTraceEnabled>False</StackTraceEnabled>
    </PropertyGroup>


    <Target Name="Transform">
        <TransformXml Source="$(TransformInputFile)"
                      Transform="$(TransformFile)"
                      Destination="$(TransformOutputFile)"
                      Condition="some condition here"
                      StackTrace="$(StackTraceEnabled)" />
    </Target>
</Project>

I have tested the above and can confirm that it works. You might need to tweak the structure a bit to fit with your build script better.

Answer 2

Another answer to this topic after I've been searching for days before I tackled this issue:

Your publish profile and configuration names should match.

In my case mine didn't. Manually publishing through the publishing profile gave me the result I wanted, because my configuration was set in the publish profile. MSBuild however tries to be intelligent and magically connects the publish profile and configuration based on name. (Adding the /p:Configuration in the command resulted in other strange errors about the outputpath of a referenced project).

Just to be exactly clear in what I mean:

MSBuild statement from command line

msbuild myproject.csproj -t:Clean -t:Rebuild /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile="Development"

WORKS

• Publish Profile name: Development
• Solution Configuration name: Development

DOES NOT WORK

• Publish Profile name: Development
• Solution Configuration name: Dev

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

I'm no expert with MSBuild, but I was able to use the information from this link to accomplish the same task:

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ManagingMultipleConfigurationFileEnvironmentsWithPreBuildEvents.aspx

There is a section related to MSBuild near the bottom of the article. Hope this helps.

Answer 4

Alternatively, you try using the XDT Transformation Tool:

http://ctt.codeplex.com

I'm using this instead of messing with obscure msbuild targets. Works with app.config not just web.config.

Answer 5

It worked for me with the following change

<MSBuild Projects="$(ProjectFile)"
         Targets="ResolveReferences;_WPPCopyWebApplication"
     Properties="WebProjectOutputDir=TempOutputFolder;OutDir=$(WebProjectOutputDir);Configuration=$(Configuration);" />

From Microsoft.WebApplication.targets file under MsBuild folder

_CopyWebApplication

This target will copy the build outputs along with the 
content files into a _PublishedWebsites folder.

This Task is only necessary when $(OutDir) has been redirected
to a folder other than ~\bin such as is the case with Team Build.

The original _CopyWebApplication is now a Legacy, you can still use it by 
 setting $(UseWPP_CopyWebApplication) to true.
By default, it now change to use _WPPCopyWebApplication target in
 Microsoft.Web.Publish.targets.   
It allow to leverage the web.config trsnaformation.

Answer 6

You should be able to accomplish this by using the Package target and specifying the temp directory.

msbuild solution.sln /p:Configuration=Release;DeployOnBuild=true;DeployTarget=Package;_PackageTempDir=..\publish

http://pattersonc.com/blog/index.php/2010/07/15/visual-studio-2010-publish-command-from-msbuild-command-line/