How can we include the files created by ajaxmin in the msdeploy package created by MSBuild

Question

We use ajaxmin to create .min.js files from all our .js files. We have edited the .csproj file of the project and added following:

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\MicrosoftAjax\ajaxmin.tasks" />
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
    <ItemGroup>
        <JS Include="**\*.js" Exclude="**\*.min.js" />
    </ItemGroup>
    <AjaxMin JsSourceFiles="@(JS)" JsSourceExtensionPattern="\.js$" JsTargetExtension=".min.js" />
</Target>

This works great when we build the site on our workstation and the .min.js files can be used in the site. When we check this project in this task runs also on the msbuild server but the .min.js files generated by ajaxmin are not copied to the drop location of the tfs2010 Rolling Build we use. These .min.js files are also not included into the package we create during this rolling build and which is also copied to the drop location. Only the files included into the project are used for the package and copied to the drop location.

The MSBuild Arguments we use to create the package are the following:

/p:DeployOnBuild=True /p:DeployTarget=MsDeployPublish /p:MSDeployPublishMethod=InProc /p:CreatePackageOnPublish=True /p:MSDeployServiceURL=localhost

I've tried several things as adding an extra build task to copy all the .min.js files to the location where the package is created. I tried also the following url http://sedodream.com/2010/05/01/WebDeploymentToolMSDeployBuildPackageIncludingExtraFilesOrExcludingSpecificFiles.aspx to include this files with the following in my .csproj file:

<PropertyGroup>
    <CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn>
      CustomCollectFiles;
      $(CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn);
    </CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="CustomCollectFiles">
    <ItemGroup>
        <_CustomFiles Include="**\*.min.js" />
        <FilesForPackagingFromProject  Include="%(_CustomFiles.Identity)">
            <DestinationRelativePath>%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</DestinationRelativePath>
        </FilesForPackagingFromProject>
    </ItemGroup>
</Target>

Has anyone else also this problem or does anyone have an idea how to include the *.min.js files in the msdeploy package and make the files copy to the drop location?

Answer 1

You missed the destination directory so all you have to do is creating pair folders for each script in your script folder, source and destination to make sure you didn't copy all the min files to each folder in your project according to the script folder structure of your project, any way I write an article and who how to do that, you can also download project that do that, http://mohamedradwan.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/how-to-include-minify-files-or-custome-files-with-web-pagckage-or-ms-deploy-package/

Thanks