I am tasked with writing a file to include with the source code after a build.
With xaml, I used System.Activities.statements.writeline so that I could bundle everything in the build template. I know that I can use PowerShell or a batch to achieve what I need however I do not have access to the build box and I do not want to force my developers to include files not associated with the application in source control.
Is there a way to create a file and add text with a build task and not be dependent on anything other than the build tasks?
Thanks,
Use the PowerShell task and choose "Inline Script". You can then write any script you want in there.
However, I'd make the case that it should be source controlled. Files required for your build and deployment processes are part of the application, if you think in terms of DevOps.
You can custom build task and do that in the build task script directly.
Add a build task
Related
So I'm trying to get the custom build task directory name from powershell when executing a custom build task.
The purpose is that I want jshint to run on build time, and I've got it doing so, but the .jshintignore file needs to know a relative path to exclude files or folders.
So I need be able to get that path at runtime in order to know how many "../" to add on to the excluded files for the minmatch engine, which is what jshint uses, to match them.
I can, of course, hard code it, but that's really not what I'd prefer to do.
Yes, you can use the Agent.HomeDirectory variable.
Agent.HomeDirectory | AGENT_HOMEDIRECTORY | The directory the agent is
installed into. This contains the agent bits
The tasks folder will be $(Agent.HomeDirectory)\tasks(TaskFolder)\
How can I run custom script which will upload ClickOnce deployment files to a web-server (in my case Windows Azure Blog Storage) right after publishing? Is it possible to modify MSBuild file in some way so it would run custom script right after ClickOnce published files into a local folder?
Yes, you can hook to build process using various technics:
pre and post build actions ( from visual studio project properties menu). It's actually exec task hooked into your project file
you can override your DependsOn property for concrete target and append execution of your own target (pre-Msbuild 4.0 way)
you can declare your target and hook with AfterTarget\BeforeTarget attributes (Msbuild4.0 way).
As for uploading something to blob - you can use Exec task in your own target to upload or use whatever tool\script you usually use to uploading files to website\Blob storage.
NB: You could clarify your question with following points (if you need more concrete answer) :
what kind of build process you are using - build from VS, CI server with custom msbuild script, CI server that building your sln file etc
what kind of script\tool you want to execute to upload build result.
do you know the name of last executed msbuild target, after which you want to fire your tool.
Is there a way to create a "build" but not actually compile the output of the site? Bascially I want to push the files live from the source control in TFS to the final IIS folder destination.
I have used CopyDirectory on my other project builds, but that requires a BuildDetail.DropLocation (compiled Build). Maybe there is another option for the CopyDirectory Source I could use that wouldn't require a build DropLocation.
To simplify, I want to copy files directly from a tfs Source control to a folder, using a Build Template, but that won't compile the files. Is that possible?
While the default .xaml build workflow for Team Foundation Build is indeed a compilation build it does not have to be. I usually recommend teams to at least have one compile and one deploy .xaml workflow.
1) The CompileMyStuff.xaml (DefaultBuildTemplate.xaml) should take my stuff from source control and do whatever is needed to create a Build Drop folder with my output. I may or may not need to actually compile before creating the drop, and it looks like you just want to copy to the drop location.
2) The DeployMyStuff.xaml should take a build number and deploy my code to an environment of my choice.
It looks like you want to skip the "Drop" and go state to deploy and while I would never recommend this you do have a "BuildDetail.BuildLocation" for teh local workspace where the build server has done a get of your code. You can just "CopyDirectory" from there to your server/host for the website.
If you are having a little trouble you could use the Community Build Extensions and fire up PowerShell to do your copy/deploy.
I figured out a solution to this problem. I created a new .xaml file and then the only item that I put in the sequence was "DownLoadFiles". Then I filled out the properties of the task and ran a "build" and it worked.
We've started using TFS2010 over at the company I work at. We create e-commerce web applications (shopping sites). I'm creating a custom template to deploy web projects after a build using a build template.
I've looked at the web deploy tool, but MSDN seems to indicate that it can only do initial deployments, and I need to be able to do incremental deployments with the same script.
I'm thinking of using the invokeActivity activity in the template to use powershell to do the job by specifying an FTP script which automatically copies the output of a build to a designated FTP site and then runs the SQL (upgrade) scripts, if needed by using SSH or s powershell remoting interactive session. (possibly specified in a separate SQL script)
There is some unknown for me which I can't get clear through the use of google:
When queuing a build, will I be able to let the user specify a script present in source control ( e.g. $(source)\scripts\ftpscript.ps1 ) as the script which is to be used? Will powershell be able to access/use that file? or should I copy it to the build directory and specify when I run it? (I don't know how to set up the template to get files from source control, so a pointer to some helpful info how to do that would be very much appreciated)
If the previous just doesn't work at all, could I create a folder \scripts\ in my website project, commit that to source control and then use BuildDetail.DropLocationRoot & "\scripts\" as the location for the script and fore a copy of the script files by enabling the force copy option?
To run a PowerShell script I think you can use the InvokeProcess activity which would trigger something like this:
%windir%\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe "$(SolutionRoot)\test.ps1
And yes, you can reach a script file present in source control using the "SourcesDirectory" keyword.
I need to copy a few files into the App's Resources directory during debug builds. I am thinking about using build rules but don't know how to determine if the build is a debug build. I do have a compiler option of "DEBUG" set.
You can use a Run Script build phase to do the copying. All build settings applied when building the target are available via environment variables in your script.
You can determine what configuration is being built via the CONFIGURATION environment variable; you can look at other environment variables like BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR to determine where to put your resource. If you specify your Run Script build phase's output correctly, it will only be run when the output needs to be brought up to date, not every time you build.
More information on Run Script build phases is available here: Xcode Build System Guide: Build Phases: Run Script Build Phase
The same kind of thing can be done with script build rules, which is useful if you have multiple resources you want to apply this to: You can create a script build rule that matches your extension (e.g. *.myresource) and use the build settings and input files that are passed to your script via environment variables to do the actual copying. If you specify your build rule's output correctly, it will only be run when its input is newer than its output, not every time you build.
More information on script build rules is available here: Xcode Build System Guide: Build Phases: Build Rules