Hi I want to build my Wix-Project on my TFS-Server.
I checked in a local copy of the wix-binaries - which are looking good.
Now i want to reference my local copy in my wix-v3-project like that:
<PropertyGroup>
<WixToolPath>$(SourceCodeControlRoot)\wix\[[Version]]\</WixToolPath>
<WixTargetsPath>$(WixToolPath)Wix.targets</WixTargetsPath>
<WixTasksPath>$(WixToolPath)wixtasks.dll</WixTasksPath>
</PropertyGroup>
It is described here: Link
But it tells me that - WixToolPath is an unknown node. So how can i reference my local wix toolset? And also what do i need to reference so that it can build only with my local copy on the toolset.
My main target is - to not change the tfs agent - to make wix working.
EDIT:
This is working in v4 - how can i achieve this in v3?
I dont think that's the right way to do this, avoid checking-in the binaries to source control when possible. Here is a list of steps that you can do:
Change the Nuget.config to point to your local Nuget repo. If your TFS agents have internet access and go to the nuget repo, then it can point to the web nuget repo as well.
Check-in the Nuget Config/Nuget.exe file to TFS (you can avoid this step, if you have access to the TFS agents or if you have Nuget on it already).
In your wix solution/project, add the WIX nuget package as a reference and then check-in those changes to TFS.
Within your build script, before you compile the wix project add a step to do the Nuget restore based on the packesg.config/wix solution file.
Related
I have a solution with bunch of C# projects with bunch of tests. Some of these tests require few native dlls (provided by related nuget packages). To address this .testsettings file was created that is copying dlls (that nuget coped to $(OutDir)) to test directory before running tests.
All this works fine on local machine, but when executed under TFS Build 'deployment' section of .testsettings file (or maybe entire file) gets ignored -- these dlls never materialize in test directory (nor there are any entries in the logs about them). .testsettings file is mentioned in related section of TFS build configuration.
Any ideas what could be wrong? (MSVC 2015, TFS 2013)
For TFS 2013, it only has XAML build. For XAML build, the testsetting file couldn't copy the assemblies from Nuget package $(OutDir) to the C:\Builds\...\builddefinition\...\TestSetting(tst)\...\Out folder before tests run.
I suggest that you could upgrade your TFS to TFS 2015 or upper version to use VNext build. And I have already tested that in Vnext build, it works. This is my build definition example: just add 3 steps.
Have you try to see if they are installed on your TFS server?
Did you check on GAC of the TFS server if they are registered?
Bellow is an explanation of how I deal with my dependencies, hope it helps.
This is my HMO about this topic. Must of the time I avoid to give the responsibility to the TFS to restore the NuGet packages in a separate folder.
How I do that?
1- I create a separate folder at the level of my project. (Common)
If you see on the bottom there is a Nuget.config file. Bellow is the configuration it has
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<config>
<add key="repositoryPath" value="$\..\Common\Packages" />
</config>
</configuration>
Now all my Packages are hosted inside Common folder. Now, place all you extra dlls there in a separate folder if you need. If you depend on native dlls that are hosted on the GAC, then you should take a look on the TFS Server if those are installed there.
With that said, I put all my project reference pointing to my Common folder, even my Nuget Repository is getting the files from that location also.
The advantage:
you centralize all your dlls(remember if you depend on a Native dlls, you should install on the TFS the version of the Framework you need in order to run the MSBuild correctly)
all projects point to the same dependencies
you just mantain the Common folder.
Once you check-in a package inside the Common folder, you are guaranteeing that the dependency is also hosted on the TFS, and when the MSBuild runs it can find them.
I used NuGet to add CastleWindsor to a project. Eveything works ok.
When I check it into tfs, I get the following message.
Unable to find version '3.3.3' of package 'Castle.Core'.
Any idea how I can get the build server to get the new version of Castle.Core?
First just as Dave commented, please check if you have add the nuget install task in your build definition and before your build task.
Also make sure you are using the right version of Nuget. For example, if you already use V3.0 and the config file are still point to V2.0. You will get this error.
Moreover, double check if the packages can be restored successfully on you dev PC and build agent manually, you can also compare the nuget.config file on your TFS server and dev PCs to see if there is any difference between them. The nuget.config file locates at "%APPDATA%\NuGet\NuGet.Config".
TFS2012 does not restore the nuget packages automatically, you need to add a build step to call the nuget command to restore the nuget packages. Refer to this link for details: Package Restore with Team Foundation Build.
With TFS 2013 and later, packages are automatically restored by
default during build, provided that you're using a Team Build Template
for Team Foundation Server 2013 or later.
If you're using a previous version of build templates (such as in a
project that's been migrated from earlier versions of TFS), you'll
need to also migrate those build templates to TFS 2013. This
essentially means recreating the custom parts of the Build Templates
using the appropriate template for your source control (TFVC or Git).
For earlier version of TFS, you can simply include a build step to
invoke command-line restore as described earlier.
I'm looking for advice on how to have team build 2013 use a pre-compiled common that is not checked in or part of the workspace.
Everything we build is QNX based and we are refactoring out a common set of components to be shared across all projects. I've looked at Go and NuGet but that seems like a lot effort for something like this.
What is the best way to pull a prebuilt common into a TFS Team Build?
So you would nuget "publish" a package.
https://docs.nuget.org/create/creating-and-publishing-a-package
then your build would nuget restore using a packages.config file (aka, NOT a .sln file)
nuget restore [<solution>|<packages.config file>]
https://docs.nuget.org/consume/command-line-reference
What VS (in a .sln file) is auto-voodooing some of this for you.
But using command line nuget (especially for the restore)....is a way to get a package out of nuget if you're build isn't based on .sln file.
Another way to think about it is...when you run "nuget install" or "nuget update", VS is auto-voodooing you a packages.config file. While you might look at the file and find it interesting, you're not consumed on how it works in the background of VS. But if you want to manually pull nuget packages....you will be very interested in how it is created.
What I would do as a test would be:
Create a dummy .sln,csproj file.
Nuget add a few random packages (using "Manage Nuget Packages for this solution).
Take that packages.config that was auto-voodoo created for you.... and move it to a clean directory.
See if you can run nuget.exe restore on it, and get/pull the packages (aka, you're testing that you can do a pull... without a .sln file being involved).
If that works...than it becomes of matter of creating your own nuget repository..creating your own published-package...and repeating #4 above to get that package out.
Make sense?
So I have these files in a clean directory:
.\packages.config
.\.nuget\NuGet.Config
.\.nuget\NuGet.exe
.\.nuget\NuGet.targets
Then I run in the comamand-window:
.\.nuget\nuget.exe restore .\packages.config -PackagesDirectory .\MyPackages
And all the packages listed in "packages.config" will download to : .\MyPackages
Note, if you have a custom nuget repository, that will need to be configured...but cross that bridge when you get there.
From this article -
"However, there are cases where it’s not actually a person who’s doing the building and who therefore can’t provide consent this way. (And where Visual Studio isn’t even installed.) The prototypical example is a build server. In that case, NuGet will also look for an environment variable called EnableNuGetPackageRestore. To enable package restore for scenarios where the Visual Studio option is not practical, set this variable to true."
How does TFS even know how to call nuget? Do I install the nuget exe?
As you've stated in a comment, "Enable NuGet Package Restore" is no longer the recommended method for accomplishing this. The NuGet docs explain it best. Basically, because that method is integrated into MSBuild, packages that extend the build will be downloaded too late. While I'm not sure what packages do this currently it appears that there are big plans for the future of NuGet (the new ASP.NET vNext custom CLR implementation is one example of where it's headed).
The good news is that the alternative is really easy to set up. If you're in VS, you literally do nothing (unless you've disabled the automatic package restore in the past). If you have a build server you just have to make some small changes to your .proj file. If you're not familiar with MSBuild it may seem challenging but it's really quite simple. The secret is this chunk of code:
<Target Name="RestorePackages">
<Exec Command=""$(ToolsHome)NuGet\NuGet.exe" restore "%(Solution.Identity)"" />
</Target>
Again, the details are in the docs (this one specifically). If you have any questions don't be afraid to reach out: the SO community is here to help!
How does TFS even know how to call nuget? Do I install the nuget exe?
No, you should enable package restore for the solution which can be done from the context menu for the solution file in the solution explorer. This will add a folder named .nuget to your solution and in this folder you will find NuGet.exe.
If you add the solution to source control and build it on a build server the NuGet.exe executable will be used by the NuGet msbuild targets to restore packages from NuGet as part of the build.
So you do not need to install NuGet on the build server - it becomes part of your project and is placed under version control.
If you set your solutions to restore NuGet packages, and then on the build server with the build account, open vs and set Allow NuGet to download missing packages during build in Visual Studio. Your builds should restore packages ok.
So the past few days i've been setting up NuGet, making packages of our internal libraries, updating our projects, getting our TFS Build server to Build. all of this is awesome! Now I have a problem though, before NuGet and package restore I could search TFS for the .dll files, as an example I could search for Company.Common.dll in TFS and find all projects that utilized this dll with the following command:
tf dir "$/*Company.common.dll" /recursive
/server:http://tfs-server:8080
Now after we have started using NuGet and using package restore the dll file Company.Common.dll will not be present in TFS in the projects that uses it. that means I can't use the above search command to find the .dll file I want to update
I was contemplating writing a powershell script that would find all packages.config files in TFS and download them to a folder structure indicating where in TFS the different projects are located. Then I would traverse the packages.config file to figure out what projects used the specific NuGet package I wanted to update.
The reason for this is ofcourse that all our projects should have the Common.dll updated when there is an update too it.
What I would like to know is if anyone has already solved this "problem", so I don't have to invent the wheel again, or perhaps have some perspective or constructive comments on this. I guess the core question is this:
How do you handle updating a package across ALL projects, when there are multiple teams that create / update projects in TFS?
One solution would be to use the "repositoryPath" NuGet config settings and make it point to a central UNC share. More details here # http://docs.nuget.org/docs/release-notes/nuget-2.1.
You can use NuGet.exe Update packageName -RepositoryPath xxx -Source xxx command to update the specific package if needed.