Thanks, the MSBuild series has been quite popular and I get the odd comment now still, even though it was written a while back.

Thanks for the link to the other article I will check that out. I hope to write a new article over Christmas revisiting MSBuild, integrating all the feedback I’ve had since the original posts.

Basically the XmlMassUpdate task… means you can do everything (reading, and updating of all settings) in a single target action.

Following MSBuild Script Publishes web service to the Deployment directory.

<?xml
version=”1.0″
encoding=”utf-8″?>

<Project
xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003″>

<Import
Project=”Telarix.Build.Common.Targets” />

<Target
Name=”PublishWebAppservice”>

<CreateProperty
Value=”$(ProjectRoot)\$(ProjectName)\**\*.asmx”>

<Output
PropertyName=”AsmxFiles”
TaskParameter=”Value”/>

</CreateProperty>

<CreateProperty
Value=”$(ProjectRoot)\$(ProjectName)\**\*.asax”>

<Output
PropertyName=”AsaxFiles”
TaskParameter=”Value”/>

</CreateProperty>

<CreateProperty
Value=”$(ProjectRoot)\$(ProjectName)\**\web.config”>

<Output
PropertyName=”ConfigFiles”
TaskParameter=”Value”/>

</CreateProperty>

<CreateProperty
Value=”$(ProjectRoot)\$(ProjectName)\bin\*.*”>

<Output
PropertyName=”BinaryFiles”
TaskParameter=”Value”/>

</CreateProperty>

<CreateItem
Include=”$(AsmxFiles)”>

<Output
TaskParameter=”Include”
ItemName=”AsmxFilesToCopy”/>

</CreateItem>

<CreateItem
Include=”$(AsaxFiles)”>

<Output
TaskParameter=”Include”
ItemName=”AsaxFilesToCopy”/>

</CreateItem>

<CreateItem
Include=”$(ConfigFiles)”>

<Output
TaskParameter=”Include”
ItemName=”ConfigFilesToCopy”/>

</CreateItem>

<CreateItem
Include=”$(BinaryFiles)”>

<Output
TaskParameter=”Include”
ItemName=”BinaryFilesToCopy”/>

</CreateItem>

<MSBuild
Projects=”$(ProjectRoot)\$(ProjectName)\$(ProjectName).vbproj”

Targets=”Clean;Build”>

</MSBuild>

<Copy
SourceFiles=”@(AsmxFilesToCopy)”
DestinationFiles=”@(AsmxFilesToCopy -> ‘$(DeploymentDir)\%(RecursiveDir)%(FileName)%(Extension)’ )”/>

<Copy
SourceFiles=”@(AsaxFilesToCopy)”
DestinationFiles=”@(AsaxFilesToCopy -> ‘$(DeploymentDir)\%(RecursiveDir)%(FileName)%(Extension)’ )”/>

<Copy
SourceFiles=”@(ConfigFilesToCopy)”
DestinationFiles=”@(ConfigFilesToCopy -> ‘$(DeploymentDir)\%(RecursiveDir)%(FileName)%(Extension)’ )”/>

<Copy
SourceFiles=”@(BinaryFilesToCopy)”
DestinationFiles=”@(BinaryFilesToCopy -> ‘$(DeploymentDir)\bin\%(FileName)%(Extension)’ )”/>

</Target>

</Project>

‘$(DeploymentDir)\%(RecursiveDir)%(FileName)%(Extension)’ )”/>
‘$(DeploymentDir)\%(RecursiveDir)%(FileName)%(Extension)’ )”/>
‘$(DeploymentDir)\%(RecursiveDir)%(FileName)%(Extension)’ )”/>
‘$(DeploymentDir)\bin\%(FileName)%(Extension)’ )”/>

I agree, it is a real pain! As your web site grows and you add items to it, you will keep having to amend the Publish task to make sure those new items get deployed. This is duplication of what is already in the web project file, and it would be easy for a developer to forget to maintain the build script.

If there was a way to do a proper Publish that would be so much better. Looking around the web there are plenty of other people asking the same question but I’ve yet to see a clear cut answer. If I do, I will be sure to write a post about it.

Pity…

I like your solution above, however, it loses some of the power of the actual Publish function in the IDE, but it could work in a pinch…