95% of my time I program ASP.NET (MVC) web sites.
Should I care about MSBuild?
lol, Good one !
Daniel
2009-07-07 12:20:09
+4
A:
That depends on your development environment.
If you have other folks that do deployment of your systems, and they take care of the build and deployment environment, then MSBuild probably won't be necessary for your work.
On the other hand, if you need to configure the build script to understand special situations that your code comes up with, then you will definitely need to understand MSBuild scripts.
Even for a one-man shop, it's a useful tool to know, especially if you are configuring a continuous integration server like Hudson.
Jeremy McGee
2009-07-07 12:17:43
Even for Hudson (which I love) the only thing I needed to know was where the executable was physically located.
dhulk
2009-07-07 12:29:29
Ah, but some more complex stuff (like incorporating StyleCop and FxCop checks into your CI) need a working knowledge of how to manually adjust .csproj files, which in turn means a bit of MSBuild. Again, though, much depends on your deployment environment; I think ours is on the complex side, so MSBuild is an absolute essential.
Jeremy McGee
2009-07-09 05:02:20
+2
A:
Its not absolutely necessary to know MS Build, but it is useful to know.
It might not be needed for all kind of projects, but it is extremely useful when you are working on a huge code base with automated custom build solution/ nightly build/developer builds so on and so forth.
Prashanth
2009-07-07 12:23:24
+1
A:
It's unlikely, unless you choose to use it, or you start to make use of Team Foundation Server's Team Build.
Your development processes need to get to a certain complexity before automated builds really deliver their true value and/or if you find need for automatic deployment (including database changes if applicable).
The coming Visual Studio 2010 is going to make it far easier to use, but for now it retains a fairly steep learning curve which you can avoid by using alternatives, or commercial products (e.g. Visual Build Pro, Final Builder etc).
The nice thing is that it is part of the .Net framework, so it's already available as long as you have the framework installed (which it probably is).
So, in short, not really. It's something very useful and powerful though, setting up deployments using MSBuild can be very, very useful.
RobS
2009-07-07 12:51:01
+4
A:
We use MSBuild with CruiseControl.Net to manage the builds of most of our big ASP.NET projects. For every commit of one member of the team, a build is launched. It helps us detect quickely incompatibilities before moving a feature to "staging" or "production".
I think it is really usefull when working with a team on the same ASP.NET project or if you are working alone on a big project.
jdecuyper
2009-07-07 12:53:50
+1
A:
What should a developer know about MsBuild?
Every developer should know it exists and it's basic capabilities. If know it exists you won't duplicate its features and will know what it can do for you, when you need it.
Minimum:
- As an exercise, build your project through the command line:
msbuild myproj.sln - Know the role of continuous integration
A little more than minimum:
- Hack your csproj (or vbproj) with a message task, so it outputs something during clean.
All done. When you need to know more, you'll figure it out.
Precipitous
2009-07-12 17:27:02