I've just setup a TFS (2012) server and now I'm trying to build the complete code (written in .NET 4.0 in VS 2010) via the TFS Build server. But in my solutions I have also a WCF RIA project which contains linked files because they are used somewhere else also and there is no possibility to add a reference to a general .NET binary in WCF/Silverlight.
Everything builds without any problem on my development machine but when I check it all in, create a standard build definition and run that build definition I get the following problem. The linked files have usings (UsingNamespace for example) to other projects that are also build by us and build before the WCF/Silverlight but the following error pops up while building through TFS Build server:
The type or namespace 'UsingNamespace' could not be found (are you
missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)'
Is there any solution for this problem that I looked over?
EDIT 1
Just tried to set the Copy to Output Directory propertie of the linked files to Copy Always but this still gives me the same error as I was expecting. The problem is that the linked file is placed somewhere that it can use the usings but the WCF RIA service cannot access/find that using.
EDIT 2
Just tried out my local test TFS where I can do what I want and there I made a build definition with just the solutions needed to make that the project with the linked files builds. This worked without any problem. Then I tried the same on our TFS server with a new build definition that has the same solutions as on my test TFS and here it did not work. The only difference that I know for sure is that my test TFS is TFS 2012 Update 1 and that my production TFS does not have the update 1 yet. I'll try to install it next week.
EDIT 3
I've just updated our production TFS to Update 1 but it is still not working with my temporary build definition which only contains the projects that are needed to build the silverlight application with the linked files. The 2 workspaces are the same on both server and the projects to build are also the same.
You need to specify the workspace information in the Build Definition for the build to use. The workspaces are what the build process copies from source control to the build server. If you don't have everything in the build server's workspace, it can't build properly.
The Source Control Folder in the workspace tab is the location of the files you need from TFS. The Build Agent Folder is a relative path from the build server's pre-defined base location. You'll usually use $(SourceDir)\Folder to specify the "Folder" that your build process needs.
This sounds like an $(Outdir) problem. A build definition in TFS automatically overrides the Bin folder. All Binaries are redirected to the bin folder upon compile. Sounds to me that you are using a mixture of project references and file references. The file references are probably what is causing your build failures.
Example if you compile in the same build the following solutions
Solution1.sln (TFS Build Pass)
project1.csproj
project2.csproj (references project 1)
Solution2.sln (TFS Build Failure)
project3.csproj (references binary output of project 1)
Expectations from TFS out of the box without customizing your workflow is that this simple build will fail. The reason is that in your development box all projects produce output to one destination while in a tfs build your projects will build to $(Outdir).
Some Things to try
Simple (best practice in my view)
Create 1 solution and use project references instead of file references.
Complex
Build using MSBuild project files
Modify your windows workflow to not override the $(Outdir)
Copy the binaries after a build is complete.
Best practice on Automating Builds
Build from command line
Build from cmd a NON vs2010 command line.
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\msbuild.exe FullpathtoSolutionFile.sln
Cheers!
Apparently there was just missing the WCF RIA services V1.0 SP2 on the TFS server. If that was installed the problem was solved.
Related
I just started using TFS not to long ago and I ran into a slight issue. I have a class library project called EplanInterface.Addin. This class library project is used as a way to load functionality into a 3rd party program through their API. All of this is working fine but the issue comes into play here:
The Issue:
So the problem I am running into is that this Addin library is not referenced by any other projects but still needs to be output to my Drop folder within my TFS build. Typically to load the Addin into the 3rd party program I would copy the debug/release folder to the server and select/load the dll accordingly. My TFS build does not seem to grab the anything from the Addin though?
App.Config
Along with that I am using SlowCheetah to try and transform my app.config file resources correctly. Whatever solution provided I need to also figure out how to select a transform when doing the build configuration and output the dlls with the correct build configuration config file.
Build Definition
My build definition is the basic asp.net template they provide which works great for my web api and MVC projects. I guess I am unsure how to force it to also build the addin / output the dll files for my addin to reference?
Other Info:
TFS Version: 16.122.27102.1
Addin Project .Net Framework 4.5.2
Slow Cheetah Version: 3.2.26
You can simply add another build task to your pipeline to build the specific addin project and then have it output to the artifacts directory (as the default "Build Solution" task should already be doing).
The other option is to edit the solution file in Visual Studio and include the addin as a project dependency. You may still need to manage the binary output though.
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 website, a windows service, and some shared class libraries in a single Visual Studio solution. I use Octopack on both the website and windows service, and on my machine these builds work as expected.
When using the TFS Build Server, the website nuget package is generated as expected, but the windows service nuget package contains all files from the website, as well as the service. E.g. it includes the _PublishedWebsites folder as well.
This is because TFS uses a single location to build projects.
What is the best way around this?
I know this question has since been closed, but I cam across this issue and solved it in a different way.
My solution is compromised of a number of websites and windows services and had the same issue of the OctoPack created nuget packages including all the solution assemblies from the 'pooled' output folder when building with Team Build. The reason the nuget packages get all the assemblies is OctoPack uses the outdir msbuild argument as the location to include assemblies from.
The way I got around it was to use the msbuild argument GenerateProjectSpecificOutputFolder=true. This instructs Team build to create a folder for each project in your output folder in the same way Visual Studio uses the bin folders under each project when building locally.
My build definition msbuild arguments looks like:
/p:GenerateProjectSpecificOutputFolder=true;RunOctoPack=true;OctoPackPublishPackageToFileShare=\\<NugetServer>
I currently just push the packages onto a shared folder but the OctoPackPublishPackageToHttp and OctoPackPublishApiKey parameters can also be used.
The benefit of this solution over the one above is you don't need to specify the files to include the nuget package.
Hope this helps someone.
I ended up using this nuget package to ensure the console app built to a seperate directory on the TFS server.
https://nuget.org/packages/PublishedApplications/2.1.0.0
I then had to specify in the nuspec file, which files should be included for the console app. e.g
This works and I can now deploy using Octopus deploy.
The downside of this apporach is that the PublishedApplications build only works on the TFS build server, so I can't build the project locally in release mode. Still looking on how to overcome this.
I have an application which compiles and runs all okay on our TFS build server.
Now I need to place the files in a deployment area in TFS, as part of the build process on our build server, which is not a workspace that is being used by the build.
I have tried using MSBuild.ExtensionPack.VisualStudio.TfsSource and the Working Directory but this does not work and I need an alternative
We've done something similar by adding an msbuild proj to our source control and then after building our solution, we build this proj which then calls a copy task which moves some files to another folder. Think you can do something similar by editing the default template too (which we didn't want to do)
The packages created by a TFS 2010 Build only contain our Sources, not the binaries. When this is (automatically) deployed to IIS, the site does not run because it is missing DLLs that are created during the build process.
We have a Web Project created in VS2010. If I select "Build Deployment Package" from a right click in VS we get a zip file in the obj\Release\Package folder that contains the fully build site.
However, if ask our TFS build process to create the package by adding "/p:CreatePackageOnPublish=true /p:DeployOnBuild=true" to the MSBuild arguments (as advised in amongst other places here) we get an zip file in _PublishedWebsites\_Package\.zip that only contains the sources.
My best guess is that the CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackage is picking up the files from the wrong place.
I notice a similar issue asked here - TFS 2010 and creating a package - although his workaround in not appropriate in many cases, I'd guess.
My concern is that this is using a built-in, but poorly documented feature of MSBuild/TFS so when it doesn't work you're a little in the wilderness.
It seems that deployOnBuild runs some "package"-like target on each of the projects. If you have built the projects into a separate directory (which the default TFS 2010 build does by default) the packaging won't pick up the compiled files.
One solution is to get rid of the custom output folder for the MSBuild Command within the TFS build workflow. This will cause the compiled files to be located in-situ and be included in the package.
Now the rest of the TFS workflow is require some changes because it'll be expecting to transfer the files from the output directory, and they won't be there.