I've been trying to figure this out and so far haven't found a simple solution. Is it really that hard to deploy a database project (and a web site) using TFS 2010 as part of the build process?
I've found one example that involved lots of complicated checks and editing the workflow (which is a giant workflow btw).
I've even purchased the book "professional application lifecycle management with VS 2010", but apparently professionals don't deploy their applications since it isn't even mentioned in the book.
I know I'm retarded when it comes to TFS, but it seems like there should be any easy way to do this. Is there?
I can't speak for the database portion, but I just went through this on the web portion, the magic part is not very well documented component, namely the MSBuild Parameters.
In your build definition:
Process on the Left
Required > Items to Build > Configurations to Build
Edit, add a new one, for this example
Configuration: Dev (I cover how to create a configuration below)
Platform: Any CPU
Advanced > MSBuild Process
Use the following arguments (at least for me, your publish method may vary).
MsBuild Params:
/p:MSDeployServiceURL="http://myserver"
/p:MSDeployPublishMethod=RemoteAgent
/p:DeployOnBuild=True
/p:DeployTarget=MsDeployPublish
/p:CreatePackageOnPublish=True
/p:username=aduser
/p:password=adpassword
Requirements:
You need to install the MS Deploy Remote Agent Service on the destination web server, MSDeploy needs to be on the Build/Deployer server as well, but this should be the case by default.
The account you use in the params above needs admin access, at least to IIS...I'm not sure what the minimum permission requirements are.
You configure which WebSite/Virtual Directory the site goes to in the Web project you're deploying. Personally I have a build configuration for each environment, this makes the builds very easy to handle and organize. For example we have Release, Debug and Dev (there are more but for this example that's it). Only the Web project has a Dev configuration.
To do this, right click the solution, Configuration Manager..., On the web project click the configuration drop down, click New.... Give it a name, "Dev" for this example, copy settings from debug or release, whatever matches closest to what your deployment server environment should be. Make sure "Create new solution configurations" is checked, it is by default. After creating this, change the configuration dropdown on the solution to the new Dev one, and Any CPU...make sure your projects are all correct, I had some flipping to x86 and x64 randomly, not sure of the exact cause of that).
In your web project, right click, properties. On the left, click Package/Publish Web (you'll also want to mess with the other Package/Publish SQL tab, but I can't speak to that). In the options on the right click Create deployment package as a zip file. The default location is fine, the next textbox I didn't find documented anywhere. The format is this: WebSite/Virtual Directory, so if you have a site called "BuildSite" in IIS with no virtual directory (app == site root), you would have BuildSite only in this box. If it was in a virtual directory, you might have Default Web Site/BuildVirtualDirectory.
After you set all that, make sure to check-in the solution and web project so the build server has the configuration changes you made, then kick off a build :)
If you have more questions, I recommend you watch this video by Vishal Joshi, specifically around 22 and 59 minutes in, he covers the database portion as well...but I have no actual experience trying it since we're on top of a non MSSQL database.
Related
I've created an Outlook add-in, debugged and works fine. I want to be able to package it up for distribution. This is for a very limited audience 5-10 people. What are the steps to doing so?
I tried Build | Publish which appears to work (using options of local filename and CDROM install location), but creates a massive 1.5MB setup.exe file and when it is executed, takes forever (it appears trying to contact some remote server and times out and pops an error, although the add-in appears to be registered).
Looking online, I found references to creating a SetupProject or using InstallShield Limited addition, but none of those appear to apply to Visual Studio 2017.
I'd be happy if I could just provide my DLL and a .reg file -- this is for a small set of 5-10 power users.
What is the simplest way to deploy this add-in?
The easiest way is Build | Publish. Just disable any online activities if you don't want it. You can do that in Project -> Settings -> Publish. Check your "Updates" settings for example.
You can download a Visual Studio project type from here:
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=VisualStudioProductTeam.MicrosoftVisualStudio2017InstallerProjects
This will allow you to deploy the package, but it's somewhat buggy in my opinion. Also, the link above does not have any documentation. You have to go to another page for that and the answer is buried in the comments:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ybshs20f(v=vs.90).aspx
The ClickOnce has worked more consistently for us, however. Just right-click and select Publish on the Project.
It is a long ways off from the old InstallShield LE process, which allowed you to customize the entire process including images, click-through licensing, etc.
But the InstallShield LE had it's own set of issues, and seems to have been all but abandoned.
It may be worth looking at other 3rd-party tools like WiX (http://wixtoolset.org/) to get things installed correctly, or even manually writing your own installer to get things put where they need to be.
I'm using Visual Studio Online's build tools to deploy web applications from a single solution. I've occasionally been running into file locking issues.
Error: Web Deploy cannot modify the file 'Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.dll' on the destination because it is locked by an external process.
After some Googling, I believe the "fix" is to stop the web applications before deployment on Azure and start it back up after. Sounds legit.
However, there does not seem to be a straight forward way to do this directly on VSO's build definitions. I've created an "Azure Powershell" build task, but it wants a PS1 file from the repository. It doesn't seem to let me just run Azure Powershell commands (e.g. Stop-AzureWebsite) from here. My team has created a work-around where we have a "run.ps1" that just executes the command you pass as a parameter, but none of us are satisfied by that.
What are we missing? There has got to be an easier way to do this without having a PS1 script checked into source control.
I solved this by installing Azure App Services - Start and Stop extension from Visual Studio Marketplace.
When installed, it will allow you to wrap the Deploy Website to Azure task in your Release definition with Azure AppServices Stop and Azure AppServices Start tasks, effectively eliminating the lock issues.
Check if you are using "/" on the "Web Deploy Package" path for folder separators instead of "\".
i.e. change
$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/My Project/drop/MyFolder/MyFile.zip
for
$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)\My Project\drop\MyFolder\MyFile.zip
I noticed that was the only difference between the one I was getting the error and the others (the Restart step I added was not helping). Once I modified the path, I got it working.
Sounds crappy, but fixed my issue.
Did you use the Build Deployment Template that sets the correct msbuild parameters for you for your package? You can see how here. I would create a build using that template and see if you have the same issues. If so ping me on Twitter #DonovanBrown and I will see if I can figure what is going on.
As a rule it is good practice to have any scripts or commands required to deploy your software to be checked into source control as part of your build. They can then be easily run repeatedly with little configuration at the build level. This provides consistency and transparency.
Even better is to have deployment scripts output as part of the build and use a Release Management tool to control the actual deployment.
Regardless having configuration as code is a mantra that all Dev and Ops teams should live by.
I have a small team of web developers who work together on up to 50 external sites. I am trying to find a better solution to using Dreamweaver's check-in check-out for managing source. We have just started using Visual Studio 2012 here and there and I am curious if TFS is the way to go for us. No one here has ever used versioning or any type of source control before, so I am looking for something similar to what they are used to.
If it matters at all, our sites are all hosted on a Windows 2008 R2 server, and largely written in C#.
I think TFS is a good option to consider. As several people have commented, it will be a jump from what you are your team are used to in Dreamweaver, but I personally feel if you are serious about managing your intellectual property, you will invest in some sort of version control system. With that said, there will be a learning curve regardless whether you are your team select TFS, SVN, Git, etc.
Assuming you do go with TFS, you do get the added benefit of everything else that comes with TFS - it's not just about version control. This includes work item tracking, automated builds/deployments, reports, a simple SharePoint site, etc.
With TFS you get the benefit of all of these features, combined into a single product. You can accomplish a similar setup using open source products as well, but would require you to piece the products together.
I'd use the integrated Subversion client in Dreamweaver, which does the basic stuff very nicely and doesn't require the tedious navigation process that will lead to your team bypassing the system. Only problem, DW does not support the latest versions of SVN so you need to pick up an SVN server that is compatible. Try this:
Setting Up Version Control for Dreamweaver CS6 on Windows
Any previous attempts to get version control working may well have created some .svn folders and files on your PC. You MUST remove ALL of these and UNINSTALL ALL OTHER VARIETIES of Subversion software from your PC before you start.
Go to the VisualSVN Server website and download an archived standard version of their software, version 2.1.16 . Don’t be tempted to grab a later version, because this will install SVN 1.7 or 1.8 and neither will work with Dreamweaver.
http://www.visualsvn.com/server/changes/
Trying to get DW working direct to a local folder using the file:// protocol probably won’t work and is also known to put data at risk. You need the server. I chose to install the VisualSVN server with the default settings, other than opting to use Windows logins and go with HTTP, not HTTPS. I decided to have the repositories live on an internal SSD drive, but any local drive will do. When creating a folder for your repositories to live in, use a name that is pretty general e.g. ourcorepositories . I used lower case for everything.
Right click on ‘Repositories’ to create a new one. Give it a name without any spaces or special characters e.g. mynewprojectrepo and check to ‘Create default structure’ . Before you OK, note the Repository URL and copy it into Notepad or a similar plain text editor so you can refer to it later during 6 below. It will be something like
http://OFFICEDESKTOP/svn/mynewprojectrepo
Notice that the capitalised part of the URL is the name of your computer. Click OK and you now have a repository for your project.
5. Boot DW and go to your project. If you don’t have a project yet, create one and stick some dummy files and folders in it. Go to Site menu>>Manage sites… and 2-click your project. Select Version Control.
6. Set Access to be ‘Subversion’ (no other choices exist), Protocol to be HTTP and for the Server Address enter the name of your computer in lower case e.g.
officedesktop
For the Repository Path enter (e.g., using current example from 4. Above)
/svn/mynewprojectrepo
The Server Port should be 80 . For the Username enter your Windows user name, in lower case. Enter your Windows password for the Password. This is the name and password combo that you use to log in to your PC . Click the Test button and you should get a success message. If not, the best advice is to delete any .svn files and repositories you have created and start again. Be sure not to add any slashes or omit any; the above works. Before you click Save, click the link to the Adobe Subversion resources and bookmark it in your browser. There is a lot of useful background information there. Click Save, click Done.
7. Go to your DW project and open up Local View. All of your site’s files and folders will have a green + sign beside the icon. Right-click on the site folder and click ‘Version control>>Commit” . It is a very good idea to leave comments whenever you change anything, so leave a Commit Message along the lines of “The initial commit for My New Project” and click to Commit. If you have a lot of files to go to the repository, they’ll take some time to upload. As they upload, the green + signs disappear to show that you local version is in synch with the repo.
8. Okay, that’s it, you have Version Control in Dreamweaver CS6. It may also work in CS5 and 5.5. Check out those Adobe resources for some good insights on workflow. I can’t help with any other ways to implement version control, but I can maybe save you time by saying that DW doesn’t integrate with Git and that the basic, but integrated, Subversion client in Dreamweaver is way better than having no version control. For coverage against physical disaster, I’d also add in a scheduled daily backup of your entire repositories folder to some cloud storage.
Apologies for any errors. I’d recheck all of the steps, but A) I think they’ll get you up and running and B) it’s easier to do the install and set up the first time than the second time (all those .svn files and folders to get rid of).
I am learning TFS 2010 from scratch and no doubt making every mistake in the book.
I have created a web.testing.config for my build to the test server.
In my build process I click the plus sign for "Items to Build" in "1. Required" and I specify "Any CPU | Testing".
The build clean compiles but ... I still seem to be using the web.config file I use in development rather than the one I want in testing.
The first line in web.testing.config is
This should ensure that any differences in this file are implemented.
So I am not sure I am configuring the build properly, or if the web.testing.config is set properly.
What you are looking for is a feature called web.config transforms, and it works slightly differently.
In Visual Studio right click on web.config and choose option Create Tranforms -- if you have not done this already.
Read samples on using tranform syntax, the link is in the web..config created for you. You will need it.
In TFS team build, create a separate step in your build template to build deployment package. The command is in this thread. This will create a deployment package -- a file with .zip extension.
To deploy the package, use WebDeploy tool. It has both UI and command line if you want to make it completely automated.
‘Servers’ is built-in view in Eclipse. We could integrate Java EE server into Eclipse easily. It could start/stop server both in normal and debug modes. Moreover, we could even set timeout and deployment path, things like that. Various types of server tomcat, jboss, websphere are supported, no intrusive to server.
I am just curious about how these cool things happen behind the scene. The complete mechanism is large and complex, so I just want to know general mechanism about it, an article also could be fine for me. Thank you!
It's the server-specific plugin which does all the work. When integrating a Server in Eclipse you basically need to instruct the plugin where to find the installation root of the server in question. The plugin in turn knows precisely where to locate the default libraries, how to deploy webapps to the server in question and how to start/stop the server with eventually extra commandline arguments.
Since every server make/version needs a different approach (as different as when you need to do it "manually"), I'll only give a Tomcat 6.0 based example how it roughly works. Doubleclick the server entry in Servers view and check the Server Location section. The field Server Path denotes the root location of configuration files. It's by default in Eclipse metadata (when Use workspace metadata is selected). If you browse further in this folder, you'll find something like tmp0\conf\server.xml. It contains information about where the to-be-deployed webapps are located, which context name it should have and so on. The plugin basically gives this information to Tomcat and it will handle it further.
Basically, server adapters are Eclipse plugins and allow to extend the IDE by implementing a set of generic actions (start, debug, stop, deploy, undeploy) that are translated into server specific orders. They also expose server specific configuration parameters. The deployment is more or less intrusive depending on the server (it may be done outside the server folder tree or in a special eclipse folder).