Migrating a build to VSTS - get warning messages and no artifacts in the drop folder - azure-devops

Question

I have a legacy application where I want to migrate the build to VSTS.
In the application is a web project and a WCF API that I want to include in the build, and a WIN RT client project that should not be included.
So I instead of having a single Visual Studio task to build the sln file, I have 2 which build the web and WCF projects individually one after the other.
See
Although the build is successful, I get these warnings and I would like to know how to fix them;
The log files can be found here; https://1drv.ms/f/s!ArKf9AZKW_zWgRapkZ_IUT-DrhY0
The property groups in my csproj file are;
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|AnyCPU' ">
<DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols>
<DebugType>full</DebugType>
<Optimize>false</Optimize>
<OutputPath>bin\</OutputPath>
<DefineConstants>DEBUG;TRACE</DefineConstants>
<ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport>
<WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCPU' ">
<DebugType>pdbonly</DebugType>
<Optimize>true</Optimize>
<OutputPath>bin\</OutputPath>
<DefineConstants>TRACE</DefineConstants>
<ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport>
<WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel>
</PropertyGroup>
If I replace the build for 2 project csproj files with one with the overall sln file, I get these error messages;
C:\Program Files
(x86)\MSBuild\14.0\bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(2049):C:\Program
Files
(x86)\MSBuild\14.0\bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(2049,5):
Error MSB3779: The processor architecture of the project being built
"Any CPU" is not supported by the referenced SDK "Bing.Maps.Xaml,
Version=1.313.0825.0". Please consider changing the targeted processor
architecture of your project (in Visual Studio this can be done
through the Configuration Manager) to one of the architectures
supported by the SDK: "x86, x64, ARM". C:\Program Files
(x86)\MSBuild\14.0\bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(2049):C:\Program
Files
(x86)\MSBuild\14.0\bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(2049,5):
Error MSB3779: The processor architecture of the project being built
"Any CPU" is not supported by the referenced SDK "Microsoft.VCLibs,
Version=12.0". Please consider changing the targeted processor
architecture of your project (in Visual Studio this can be done
through the Configuration Manager) to one of the architectures
supported by the SDK: "x86, x64, ARM". C:\Program Files
(x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v14.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets(2606):C:\Program
Files
(x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v14.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets(2606,5):
Error : Copying file Service
References\SurveyServiceReference\M.Survey.SurveyAdminApp.SurveyServiceReference.AssignedJobs.datasource
to obj\Release\Package\PackageTmp\Service
References\SurveyServiceReference\M.Survey.SurveyAdminApp.SurveyServiceReference.AssignedJobs.datasource
failed. Could not find file 'Service
References\SurveyServiceReference\M.Survey.SurveyAdminApp.SurveyServiceReference.AssignedJobs.datasource'.
Process 'msbuild.exe' exited with code '1'.

Answer 1

Make sure you add the parameters to the MsBuild Arguments and that these are a valid combination for your project, e.g.:
/p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=AnyCPU
Or edit the project file and make sure the default Configuration and Platform are specified in the first PropertyGroup:
<PropertyGroup>
<Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>
<Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">AnyCPU</Platform>
</PropertyGroup>

Answer 2

It turned out it caused by the variable BuildPlatform = any cpu in your build definition.
You should change the variable BuildPlatform with the value anycpu (no blank space) to align with the value in PropertyGroups of your .csproj.

Answer 3

The Visual studio build task does have this weird behavior. When building a solution or .sln file, you have to provide the build platform in the following manner: With a space in between
However, when you are building a project or a .csproj file, you have to provide the build platform in the following manner: Without any space in between
If building the project individually doesn't work for you, and you need to build the solution, then this SO post will help you make solution level changes in Visual Studio so when you build in VSTS, the task will only build the desired projects. Hope this helps.