When I try to publish my application to a local folder in Visual Studio 2019, it builds successfully then nothing happens. There's no mention of whether the publish succeeded or failed. No files are published. When I look at the Web Publish Activity tab, I see the Overall status progress bar keeps going and going and the View Details shows nothing. Has anyone seen this issue or have any idea what might be going on?
The problem was that my configuration in the Configuration Manager is called Dev and in the .csproj file this existed:
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'DEV|AnyCPU'">
<OutputPath>bin\</OutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>
Changing DEV to Dev made it work.
Related
I have an MVC project being published to Azure from Visual Studio as a web app. In the solution I have a project set up as a "plugin" which is used by the web application and installed using Unity DI. Locally this works but when I publish to azure the plugin files aren't being deployed. This is how my solution and project structure is setup:
Solution MyProject
>nuget
>...
>Plugins
>Plugin.Widget.GoogleAnalytics
>MyProject.Web
>Properties
>References
>...
>Plugins
>bin
>Plugin.Widget.GoogleAnalytics (excluded from project but copied to this directory after project is built above)
>Views
>...
Web.config
Running locally if I delete Solution MyProject/MyProject.Web/Plugins/Plugin.Widget.GoogleAnalytics after is compiled the plugin doesn't appear. If I copy the contents of Solution MyProject/Plugins/Plugin.Widget.GoogleAnalytics/bin back into Solution MyProject/MyProject.Web/Plugins/Plugin.Widget.GoogleAnalytics, the plugin reappears.
The problem is, when I publish to my azure web app, it doesn't include Solution MyProject/MyProject.Web/Plugins/Plugin.Widget.GoogleAnalytics. If I FTP that directory up from my computer is still doesn't load it after restarting the app.
I've tried to include Solution MyProject/MyProject.Web/Plugins/Plugin.Widget.GoogleAnalytics in the project but it causes compilation problems since it's supposed to be added by DI and it also doesn't work after publish.
Is there a way to include the necessary files (not included in the project) during a publish so what works locally will work on azure? Or is there another way to go about this.
If I don't check the option on publish to Remove additional files at destination it usually throws this error when the site tries to load:
Method not found: 'Microsoft.Practices.Unity.IUnityContainer MyProject.Core.ContainerManager.GetConfiguredContainer()'
I've tried to debug that but it's very difficult since it only happens on the azure web app.
I found this question but it didn't give any information for this issues.
EDIT
I was able to get the plugin to work on azure by following these steps.
1) Run in dev environment locally in Debug mode.
2) Publish to azure as debug build.
3) FTP web application plugin directory to azure.
4) Restart azure app. It runs in azure but it's a debug build.
5) Publish from local dev environment as release build.
After this, I was able to publish as release build and check Remove additional files at destination. This removes the plugins in azure. Then I FTP'd the web application plugin directory to azure and start and stop web app and it works. Maybe I can take the debug steps out of this but this is working now.
Heinrich,
Can you please try this below step and see it works.
Make sure you set the build action to Content and they will get deployed.
Try deploying in release mode.
Hope it helps.
MV
When I started writing this question, my problem was that after a successful VSTS Build, I wasn't able to see the files relating to my web application project for release. Only the files from certain other projects in the solution were present. However, I just came across this question, which has helped.
I can now see the compiled .dll files for my web application project, after altering the configuration of the Content setting in the Build - that is, the contents of the Bin folder under that project. But I can't see anywhere the other files I need to copy the built web application to my server - the views, the scripts, the css, etc.
I'm finding the power and flexibility of VSTS's Build and Release functionality very confusing as it's complete overkill for our requirements. Up until now, I've just right-clicked on the web app project in Visual Studio selected Publish and used the File System publish method. Easy. Now that I want to automate the building and deploying of the application, it's many times more complicated!
So, can anybody tell me how I can get the solution to build in VSTS in such a way that I can then use a Copy Files task in the Release Definition to copy the files to our web server (the server isn't visible to the Internet so I'm using a locally-hosted Agent)?
In vNext build, to publish your build artifacts with the Copy files or Publish build artifacts steps. Try to use the local path on the agent where any artifacts are copied to before being pushed to their destination. For example：
Add /p:DeployOnBuild=true
/p:OutDir="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)\" arguments in Visual
Studio Build step；
Change "Path to Publish" of Publish Build Artifacts task to
$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)\_PublishedWebsites\ProjectName:
Details please check the screenshot of build step with this question: How do I get the the expected output from a TFS 2015 build (to match my XAML build)?
Base on your comments, you have published the web app from Visual Studio. Usually, this action will generate a publish profile under Project/Properties/PublishProfiles folder. The settings you used to publish the web app is stored in the profile. So you just need to make sure this publish profile is checked into source control. And then in the TFS build, add following MSBuild arguments:
/p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile="publishprofile.pubxml"
I have a TFS 2013 build definition that recently started to act strange. Its been doing its job for over a year now without any problems.
It builds 4 different projects. Two of them are asp.net mvc/webapi projects which also are deployed via msdeploy to two separate websites on the same QA staging web server. The build is configured to use Release|Any CPU
When the build runs the dll version is set using the ApplyVersionToAssemblys powershell script.
In the build folder all the assemblies have the correct version. But in one of the deployed web sites one of the dll files "WebUI.dll" has version number 1.0.0.0 ie not the same as the same dll in build directory has which is 4.0.buildnumber
The deployed "WebUI.dll" also seems to be built in Debug mode becuase some buttons and actions are only displayed when DEBUG is defined.
If I copy the built WebUI.dll from build directory or even the PublishedWebsites directory everything works as expected.
So my question is how can MSDeploy via MSBuild create its "own" version of the WebUI.dll? (And no - the Define DEBUG constant checkbox is not checked in Release mode). The version 1.0.0 WebUI.dll cant be found anywhere on the server so I guess it must be "created" when msdeploy runs?
(The only change I've made recently is to add a new build definition which builds the same solution and runs all tests but does not deploy anything.)
UPDATE: I tried to publish from VS using the same publish profile used by the build process and that works as expected. The WebUI.dll deployed is built in release mode. The version is not applied becuase that is part of the build process but the important thing is that its the Release mode dll that is deployed and not Debug which is the case when the buildprocess does the deploy. I also tried creating a web deploy package and installed that on the local server with the same result.
So the problem is still that the WebUI.dll built in the build process is correct (Release mode and correct versioning) - but gets "replaced" during the deploy on the build server by a Debug mode and without versoning
UPDATE 2; Msbuild cmd
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\12.0\bin\amd64\MSBuild.exe /nologo /noconsolelogger "C:\Builds\2\Products\SomeApp4.Main\src\SomeApp4\Main\Source\SomeApp4.Web.sln" /nr:False /fl /flp:"logfile=C:\Builds\2\Products\SomeApp4.Main\src\SomeApp4\Main\Source\SomeApp4.Web.log;encoding=Unicode;verbosity=normal" /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=Chicago /p:AllowUntrustedCertificate=true /p:Password=bw /m /p:OutDir="C:\Builds\2\Products\SomeApp4.Main\bin\SomeApp4.Web\\" /p:Configuration="Release" /p:Platform="Any CPU" /p:VCBuildOverride="C:\Builds\2\Products\SomeApp4.Main\src\SomeApp4\Main\Source\SomeApp4.Web.sln.Any CPU.Release.vsprops" /dl:WorkflowCentralLogger,"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 12.0\Tools\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Server.Logger.dll";"Verbosity=Normal;BuildUri=vstfs:///Build/Build/740;IgnoreDuplicateProjects=False;InformationNodeId=14;TargetsNotLogged=GetNativeManifest,GetCopyToOutputDirectoryItems,GetTargetPath;LogProjectNodes=True;LogWarnings=True;TFSUrl=http://boston.SomeCompany.local:8080/tfs/SomeCompany;"*WorkflowForwardingLogger,"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 12.0\Tools\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Server.Logger.dll";"Verbosity=Normal;" /p:BuildId="abd7db3d-4ff8-43b4-ab36-f35c6f6e5697,vstfs:///Build/Build/740" /p:BuildLabel="SomeApp4.Main_4.0.6.740_20160121_103558" /p:BuildTimestamp="Thu, 21 Jan 2016 09:35:59 GMT" /p:BuildSourceVersion="LSomeApp4.Main_4.0.6.740_20160121_103558#$/Products" /p:BuildDefinition="SomeApp4.Main"
When you change the assembly version, the version under source control won't be changed. You can only change the version which has been copied on your build agent machine. If the source of the msdeploy command point to the project in TFS, you won't get the versioned assembly.
I found the problem.
The build definition builds 4 solutions where one is the WebUI(aspnet mvc) solution and one is an Api solution (asp.net WebApi)
In the Api solution a project was referencing the WebUI project but the WebUI project wasnt in the Api solution.
MSbuild resolved the WebUI project anyways so there were no errors and build + deploy of the api solution worked. But the WebUI project was built in debug mode since it has no solution configuration in Api solution I guess
The problem when msbuild ran the api solution with deploy flag it also managed to deploy the WebUI project built in debug.
So the WebUI project was deployed twice. First the correct one from the WebUI solution and then the wrong debug WebUI compiled with the Api solution.
Doh! Is all I have to say about that.
Thanks for your help guys.
I'm currently running a CI build and deploy using TFS 2013 for the build and Release Management 2013 for the deployment, though I need the web applications (WebForms) that I'm deploying to be precompiled. I'm looking to use a publish profile to drive the precompilation before the output is copied to the drop location, but I haven't found anything that has been able to do this yet.
After finding How do I configure MSBuild to use a saved publishProfile for WebDeploy? , I set up a publish profile in my web application that will precompile the web application if I use msbuild.exe using the Developer Command Prompt for VS2013
msbuild.exe WebSite.csproj /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=TfsPrecompile
Publish Profile named TfsPrecompile, with some help from https://stackoverflow.com/a/13267694/595473
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<WebPublishMethod>FileSystem</WebPublishMethod>
<LastUsedBuildConfiguration>Debug</LastUsedBuildConfiguration>
<LastUsedPlatform>Any CPU</LastUsedPlatform>
<SiteUrlToLaunchAfterPublish />
<ExcludeApp_Data>False</ExcludeApp_Data>
<PublishUrl>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\PublishDirectory</PublishUrl>
<DeleteExistingFiles>True</DeleteExistingFiles>
<PrecompileBeforePublish>True</PrecompileBeforePublish>
<EnableUpdateable>False</EnableUpdateable>
<DebugSymbols>False</DebugSymbols>
<WDPMergeOption>DonotMerge</WDPMergeOption>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
Running MSBuild locally, I end up with the precompiled site in a new PublishDirectory folder and all seems to have gone well.
To link TFS and Release Management, I'm using the ReleaseTfvcTemplate.12.xaml template.
Build > Projects: $/Insert_Directory_Here/WebSite.csproj
Advanced > MSBuild arguments: /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=TfsPrecompile
When I run the build with the MSBuild arguments there are no significant time differences in the nine-or-so minute build when compared to a build without the precompile arguments. When I run MSBuild locally I see references to ASPNETCOMPILER scroll by, though I see no references to ASPNETCOMPILER or aspnet_compiler in any of the TFS diagnostics logs.
It turned out that the build box didn't have all the targets it needed in order to perform the publish, so it just ignored it.
Answer From https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/c2d10c74-ed44-4635-acb9-ab08612701e2/deployonbuild-not-working?forum=tfsbuild
Finally! I have the solution. Whether deploying from Team Build or you are using MSBuild directly you will need to copy the MSBuild targets onto your build machine in order for publishing to succeed.
We do not install Visual Studio onto our build machine (waste of a license) - however we do install the Visual Studio Shell. It seems the shell installs some of the MSBuild targets - but not all - and certainly not Publishing.
Therefore on a machine with VS installed go to C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft
Copy this entire folder to your build machine and replace the same folder there. Maybe back up the original first. You could also probably figure out exactly which targets you actually need...
This fixed it for me!
I believe that there is a bug in the Release templates that affects how web sites are pre-compiled. Look to use the Default Template and instead add the RM bits manually.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2013/12/09/how-to-modify-the-build-process-template-to-use-the-option-trigger-release-from-build.aspx
First switch to the default template and verify that it does as you want. Then follow the trail above.
I have a long-time-to-build (setup) project in a Visual Studio 2010 Solution. It is set not to build in the Solution configuration. That way, when a developer builds locally they are not burdened with waiting for the setup to compile in Visual Studio.
However, I am looking for a way to change the configuration in tfsbuild or msbuild files so whenever things are built on the server, the setup project is always built, regardless of what the setting might be when a developer checks in their solution. TFS 2008 is the source control system but just a plain Server 2008 (with devenv fully installed) is the build server.
All clues appreciated.
Thanks.
I would suggest creating a new configuration in your solution, named e.g. Release_Setup, that way you have seperate configurations for developer and setup build (note that developers can choose that config and build everything locally if they so choose, which is quite nice when all Build agents are busy and you want to check that everything's fine).
In Solution Properties->Configuration Properties->Configuration you can even tell it to build the normal Release Configuration and still choose which projects to build and which to exclude.
Hope this helps. I haven't actually tested this, so please try it and comment back if there are any problems or this doesn't solve your specific question.