Integrating MSBuild into Visual Studio

Question

I\'m a solo developer running Visual Studio 2008 and looking into MSBuild to improve my build process.

Almost all of the tutorials I\'ve found so far have plenty of info

Answer 1

Also, don't forget you can use the MSBuild SideKick for developing and debugging your (local) msbuilds, available for free at http://www.attrice.info/msbuild/

Answer 2

MSBuild is the build engine used by Visual Studio to process the files included in a project.
The Visual Studio project files themselves (**.csproj* for C#, and .vbproj for VB, for example) are in fact MSBuild scripts that are run every time you build a project.

Answer 3

Your .csproj file is a MSBuild file. So you are actually using it already.

You may of course wish to create a separate build file to have more control, especially within a continuous integration or nightly build say.

If you simply wish to edit your project build file then you can use the IDE to edit some settings such as pre and post build actions or edit the Xml itself by unloading project and right click and editing.

Answer 4

The easiest way is probably to invoke your custom build script using a post-build step. Right click project, choose "Build Events" and call msbuild with your custom msbuild file from there.