I am trying to do a full CI-CD cycle using TFSonline.
when I go with 'AzureWebsite' along with Visual Studio Online, it provides me with a build definition using 'tfvccontinuousdeploymentTemplate.12.xaml'.
On check-in I get the output, the build triggers and deployment also happens to the azure website. The log contains build along with my deployment details, which is also reflected on the TFS portal
When I go the conventional iis route, I tried 2 steps
With Default build template and the good old ms build arguments /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:VisualStudioVersion=12.0 /p:PublishProfile="dasd.pubxml" this does the build and deploy but I don't get the 'deployment summary', which is to be expected, because i did it via ms deploy...
I used the tfvccontinuousdeploymentTemplate and provided the build settings as the publish xml... well... build happens but the deployment does not
I'd like the build to contain the deployment summary for my deployment.
TFS Online has since been replaced by Visual Studio Online and since by Visual Studio Team Services. The XAML based build engine has been marked for deprecation and will be removed from Team Services in the near future.
The hosted build controller has since been upgraded with build templates for Visual Studio 14, upgrading to the latest tfvccontinuousdeploymentTemplate.14.xaml may also sole your issue until the XAML build engine is removed.
The new Build Engine ships with a "Deploy to IIS" task and there is a 3rd party MSDeployAllTheThings extension which makes it very easy to pick up packaged Web projects.
Your solution to switch to InRelease has since also been replaced by 2 different versions of Release Management and the latest release management feature uses the same tasks as the new build engine uses. So it's able to use the same Deploy to IIS and MSDeployAllTheThings task.
Due to the fact that this question is related to a SaaS solution, the old options are no longer available or will soon be removed.
Related
Currently, we are using TFS 2012 and we have a heavily customized build process as described below.
1. Build the source
2. Run an EXE as console to host WCF services
3. Restore databases on local sql server
4. Run functional test
5. delete databases
6. close the exe started in step 2.
7. Create an Installable exe using WiX ( Wix with custom bootstratpper)
8. Update version number file to TFS
Now we want to move to Visual Studio online from onpremise. Trying to setup a build process with Private Build agent. I have created an VM , installed and registerd agent. I do see agent name back in website.
When I go back to Visual studio and try to create new xaml build definition I am getting below error.
TFS22501: Creating a build definition requires a build controller be defined for this team project collection. There may not be any controllers configured or you may not have permissions to view them. contact your team foundation server administrator.
can somebody please help ?
If you're using XAML build, you have to use the old-style XAML build controller/agent. The VSTS agent is for the new build system.
I would strongly recommend migrating your builds to the new build system as part of your migration to VS Team Services, as the XAML build system is effectively dead.
I'm currently setting up continuous integration using TFS/Visual Studio Team Services (was VS Online), and I'm using the Team Foundation Build 2015 tasks. So not the XAML builds.
I'm using it to build a Xamarin Android project, but that's pretty irreverent I guess,
The process should be like this:
After a check-in:
TFS should download the sources
TFS should increment the version number within AndroidManifest.xml
I've managed to do this by making a PowerShell script for this.
After the AndroidManifest.xml file is modified, it should be committed back into the TFS repository
Then the rest, build deploy into hockeyapp etc
The first steps are all configured, but I'm struggling with the commit part. How do I get TFS to commit the file? I don't really see any task suitable for it. I've tried using the Copy and Publish Build Artifacts Utility - But that did not seem to work, and I'm not even sure if that's the right utility
I'm using the default hosted build agent btw. Any help would be appreciated
Warning
I do want to point out that checking in changes as part of the build can lead to some features of VSTS/TFS not working. Association of work items to the checkin, sources and symbol generation, tractability from changes to build to release and integration with Test Manager, remote debugging, will likely not yield the expected results because the Changeset/commit recorded in te build may not match the actual sources. This may lead to unexpected funny behavior.
Also, if any new changes have already been committed/checked-in after the build has started, the version number may be updated in Source Control for code that was not actually released under that version.
So: First of all, it's considered a bad practice to change the sources from the build process.
Alternatives
There are better ways of doing it, one is to use the build version (Build_BuildNumber or Build_BuildID variables). Alternatively you an use a task like GitVersion to generate the semantic version based on the branch and tag in your git repository. That way your build will generate the correct version number and will increment the revision in case the same sources are built multiple times.
I understand, but I still want to check in my code as part of the build
If these things don't work for you and you still want to check in the changes as part of the build, you can either use the TFVC Build Tasks if you're using TFVC or use the Git Build Tools to add the remote to the local repository and then use the git commandline tools to commit and push the changes back to the repository.
These extensions require TFS Update 2 to install. But you can push the individual build tasks using the tfx commandlien tool. For the TFVC tasks the process is explained here.
On mac
On the mac it's going to be harder since you're using TFVC. My TFVC tasks leverage the TFS Client Object Model and Powershell to communicate to the TFS Server. The tf.exe tool doesn't even work on windows when you're in the context of a build, which is why I need to call into the VersionControlServer object directly. Given I'm dependent on these technologies, the tasks won't run on a Mac or Linux agent.
You could try to see whether the Team explorer Everywhere X-platform commandline works from the build agent (using a shell script). I have no way to test this on an actual Mac.
Given the cross platform nature of your project I'd recommend to move to Git, it integrates into XCode and Android Studio, making it easier to do a native UI or build on top of native libraries.
Alternative 2
You could setup a build which does the required changes to the code and then checks in the modified code. Then have a (CI) build run the Android and the Mac builds using the modified code.
I have a project inside a solution and Visual Studio Team Services is setup to do continuous build.
The test project that includes the Web API project builds fine and even includes the artifacts from the web api project, but when I look at the drop folder from artifacts view it doesn't have a sub folder for the website.
This is done with a new default Visual Studio Build definition with bone stock settings. (no amount of playing around works either)
(I'd put in a screen shot but literally just create a new build definition as choose visual studio and continuous integration and click ok, and that's exactly what this is.)
The log file for the build step doesn't show that it even tries to build the csproj for the web api project and just skips right to the Tests project. (and no errors in the log either)
Going to configuration manager for that configuration (and all configurations) and the project in question is set to build.
It builds properly in that configuration with that project just fine.
It publishes from Visual Studio with that project just fine.
Any ideas why it won't build the project?
According to the information you provided, you are using a default build definition for Visual Studio CI without any other settings. This definition does not generate the web app publish files.
Try adding following MSBuild Arguments in "Visual Studio Build" step and then queue a new build:
/p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:outdir=$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)
Update:
Since you want to deploy the website by Azure Deploy from Release Management, you can just upload the deployment packages to drop. To do this, change the MSBuild Arguments to following:
/p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:PackageLocation="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)\\"
And then you can go to Release Managament, in the "Azure Web App Deployment" step, set "Web Deploy Package" to "$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)\**\ProjectName.zip".
I just downloaded the Automatic Versions add-in for VS here (https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/dd8c5682-58a4-4c13-a0b4-9eadaba919fe/view/Discussions) and it works great locally, but how do I get it to work with Team Builds? Is there something I should install on the build server?
Firstly, the Automatic Version addin is not called in TFS build even if it is installed on TFS build server machine. In other words, you can't use it to generate incremental assembly version during TFS build process.
Instead, you need to create one custom build process activity to update assembly version, then customize the TFS build process template to add the activity. Please check the following links for the details of the sample build activity and how to customize build process template to use it.
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/705482/Updating-Assembly-Versions-During-TFS-Builds
http://tfssimpleversioning.codeplex.com/
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jjameson/archive/2010/11/29/incrementing-the-assembly-version-for-each-build-in-tfs-2010.aspx
I want to create MSI build package as part of a TFS build.
What options there are?
i know about:
install VS on TFS server (http://geekswithblogs.net/jakob/archive/2010/05/14/building-visual-studio-setup-projects-with-tfs-2010-team-build.aspx)
Use 3rd party software on tfs
I do not wish to rely on 3rd party software or install vs 2010 on server as i have no licence to spare
Wix: http://wix.sourceforge.net/
It can be invoked using MsBuild.
I am using it quite successfully in one of my projects
This page gives some info on what is needed http://wix.sourceforge.net/manual-wix3/authoring_first_msbuild_project.htm
You should create the MSI Build package on TFS Build the same way you do it locally.
If you don't have anything yet, I strongly encourage you to look at Wix and use it. However Wix is mainly lowlevel package generation for MSI.
If you have complex needs for installation wizard you may rely on InstallShield to get the job done.
By using InstallShield (IS) you have two options:
Create a deployment project that will be 100% compatible with Windows Installer (the technology that builds .msi), no more no less. By doing that you can build your IS project pretty easily with Team Build.
Create a deployment project with the IS flavor (with a installation bootstrap) and you'll have to deploy the needed runtimes of IS in order to successfully build.
However I strongly encourage you to not choose the way you'll create your deployment package based on the Continous Integration constraints, if you have to install 3rd parties on your build agent, so be it, it won't be the toughest thing to do. (especially if those are VM you can clone)