Snowcounty

TFSBuild is a commandline tool for VS Team System Build. You can use this tool in the build server. It produces the same result as VSTS Build, including get source, compile, drop … etc. To add path on the commandline, go to: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE TFSBuild take a couple...

Continuous integration is a broad concepts. The core concept behind continuous integration is to automate source code check-in, build, unit test, and test result. Unit Test is a critical part in this process flow. To automate unit test, we have to configure test projects to run after a success build...

MSBuild also includes a file logger that logs build event information to a file. Here is an example: MSBuild MyProj.proj /l:FileLogger,Microsoft.Build.Engine;logfile=MyLog.log append=true;verbosity=diagnostic where MyLog.log is the log file being generated.

There are two ways at least to build a VS project from the command line. Use MSBuild.exe with passed in parameter ProjectName.csproj. “ProjectName.csproj” is generated by VS.NET. So you have the advantage of not creating your own scripts. You may also lose the flexibility if you have lots of inter-leaved...

The imported Targets file encapsulates common elements for all project files that use it. Elements such as: folder creation, configuration, precompile, clean process … etc. Here are two very useful scripts that have common scripts and importing project file. Common script: Flavor is not set or specified...

Build Incrementally Incremental Build: Builds in which only those targets that have not been built before or targets that are out of date, are rebuilt. MSBuild can compare the timestamps of the input files with the timestamps of the output files and determine whether to skip, build, or partially rebuild...

Targets Order Targets defines how the projects is built. A project file can contain multiple Target elements, and each Target contains a set of tasks that MSBuild runs sequentially. Targets has "InitialTargets" and "DefaultTargets" attributes. InitialTargets attribute of the project...

Build Properties They are useful for passing values to tasks, evaluating in conditions, and storing values that will be referenced thoughout the project file. For example: Build You can reference this property throughout the project file with syntax $(BuildDir). Referencing Environment Variables If the...

Use Wildcards The project folder contains project files and images folder. The image folder has its subfolders. Project\Images\BestJpgs Project\Images\ImgJpgs Project\Images\ImgJpgs\Img1 To include all .jpg files in the Images directory (includes its sub-folder): Include="Images\\**\*.jpg"...

Project element It is the root element of an MSBuild project file. PropertyGroup element It is used to group Property elements that contain values that are referenced several times in the project file or to set the values for properties that are used in several configurations. ItemGroup element It is...