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

The logic of the transformation is contained inside of the TransformXml task itself. If you want to call it from code you would have to use the MSBuild API with a mock engine and execute it. I have some code for this if you want.

In your case since you mentioned PowerShell the best thing for you to do is to just create a wrapper MSBuild file to invoke the TransformXml task. I say this because PowerShell is configured to run under .NET 2.0, but the TransformXml task requires .NET 4.0. In order to call it from a dummy MSBuild file you can check my blog at http://sedodream.com/2010/04/26/ConfigTransformationsOutsideOfWebAppBuilds.aspx, but I've also pasted a sample from that link below.

<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Demo" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
    <UsingTask TaskName="TransformXml"
             AssemblyFile="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.Tasks.dll"/>

    <Target Name="Demo">
        <TransformXml Source="app.config"
                      Transform="Transform.xml"
                      Destination="app.prod.config"/>
    </Target>
</Project>

For mono, this should work (tested on mono 6.4, macos, 2019) :

<Project DefaultTargets="TransformConfig" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <UsingTask TaskName="TransformXml"
    AssemblyFile="$(MSBuildSDKsPath)/Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Publish/tools/net46/Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Publish.Tasks.dll"/>
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TransformSource>Web.config</TransformSource>
    <Transformer>Web.Live.config</Transformer>
    <Destination>Output.Web.config</Destination>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <Target Name="TransformConfig">
    <Message Text="From TransformSource : $(TransformSource)" />
    <Message Text="Using Transform : $(Transformer)" />
    <Message Text="Output : $(Destination)" />
    <Message Text="MSBuildSDKsPath=$(MSBuildSDKsPath)" Condition="'$(MSBuildSDKsPath)' != ''" />
    <TransformXml Source="$(TransformSource)" Transform="$(Transformer)" Destination="$(Destination)"/>
  </Target>
</Project>

which you can run with just msbuild or supply parameters with

msbuild /p:TransformSource=... /p:Transformer=...

Answer 2

Take a looked at using MSDeploy since it has PowerShell scripting APIs that allow you to transform and deploy your package.

You can also look at XML-Document-Transform which if you wanted to you can write your own code to perform the Transform.

Here is a codeplex project that did something similar.XDT Transformation Tool

Answer 3

Microsoft has posted XDT to codeplex http://xdt.codeplex.com and as a NuGet package https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.Web.Xdt/. I have also created a NuGet pig with an MSBuild task, TransformXml, and an .exe to invoke them https://www.nuget.org/packages/SlowCheetah.Xdt/1.1.6-beta.

For PowerShell I've created a self-bootstrapping script which you can use https://gist.github.com/sayedihashimi/f1fdc4bfba74d398ec5b.

More about self bootstrapping scripts at http://sedodream.com/2014/07/22/StopCheckinginBinariesInsteadCreateSelfbootstrappingScripts.aspx.

Answer 4

I came to this post well after it original posting but it helped resolve my issue so I thought I'd put my solution (based on the solution above) here for anyone having the same problem with a current visual studio / msbuild install.

Currently in VS build time transforms are done using the SlowCheetah nuget pkg. If you can rely on this package in your project you can use the script I have placed below and it will automatically find the required assembly based on the installed cheetah version and perform your transform as needed.

Hope this helps someone.

param(  
  [ValidateScript({$(Test-Path $_) -eq $true})]
  [string] $NuGetRootPath,

  [ValidateScript({$(Test-Path $_) -eq $true})]
  [string] $BaseFile,

  [ValidateScript({$(Test-Path $_) -eq $true})]
  [string] $TransformFile,

  [string] $TargetPath
)

"[INFO] Creating Custom XML Transform..." | Out-Default   
"[INFO] ==> Source:    $BaseFile" | Out-Default   
"[INFO] ==> Transform: $TransformFile" | Out-Default   
"[INFO] ==> Target:    $TargetPath" | Out-Default   

$cheetahDir = Join-Path $NuGetRootPath *SlowCheetah* | Resolve-Path | Select-Object -Last 1 -ExpandProperty Path
$xformDll = Join-Path $cheetahDir "tools\Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.dll" | Resolve-Path | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Path
Add-Type -LiteralPath $xformDll

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

"[INFO] Running Transform..." | Out-Default
$transf = New-Object Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.XmlTransformation($TransformFile);
if ($transf.Apply($xmldoc) -eq $false) {
    throw "[ERROR] Transformation failed."
}

$xmldoc.Save($TargetPath);
"[INFO] Transformation Complete..." | Out-Default

Answer 5

Based on Michel's answer I wrote a C# function that will accomplish the same.

Of course you could invoke the resultant DLL with PowerShell, but I was actually looking for a fully programatic version, so here it is, in case anybody else is looking for similar solution:

using Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform;

...

public static void TransformConfig(string configFileName, string transformFileName)
{
     var document = new XmlTransformableDocument();
     document.PreserveWhitespace = true;
     document.Load(configFileName);

     var transformation = new XmlTransformation(transformFileName);
     if (!transformation.Apply(document))
     {
         throw new Exception("Transformation Failed");
     }
     document.Save(configFileName);
}

You will just need to include reference to following:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.dll

Answer 6

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