How do I build a 3.5 solution with MSBuild 4.0?

Question

Hi,

I've been trying to move one of our projects to TFS 2010 Beta 2 to benefit from the new Agile process template and the Test And Lab Manager without moving to VS2010 yet (since it is missing CF support). The problem is that our .NET 3.5 Compact Framework projects don't build in Team Build 2010. It's complaining about a AddHighDPIResource task that is missing. So apparently, it is looking at the wrong Microsoft.CompactFramework.Build.Tasks assembly.

I've tried the suggestion mentioned here to change the ToolsPath. It did result in the correct msbuild.exe being called, but the .rsp file that Team Build passes along refers to a logging class build using .NET 4.0. As a result, msbuild.exe throws an exception mentioning a class that is built in a newer version of the CLR. I have no clue how to fix this, but if I don't find a solution or workaround before the end of the week, management is forcing us to go back to TFS 2008.

Answer 1

It's actually not specifically a TFS problem at this point. I'm not exactly sure the reason, but they have decided not to ship support for Smart Device Development in Visual Studio 2010. Because of this, the components needed to build solutions against the .NET Compact Framework won't be installed on the build machine.

Excerpt from here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/sa69he4t(VS.100).aspx

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 does not support Smart Device Development.

Microsoft is committed to making Visual Studio a great development tool for the mobile device developer, and will deliver mobile device tools for Visual Studio 2010, but cannot share details now. For existing Visual Studio 2008 mobile developers, Microsoft released the Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit that works with the Windows Mobile 6 SDK.

Because Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 does not support Smart Device Development, you cannot use the following features: .NET Compact Framework projects, Visual C++ device projects, smart device CAB projects, Device Emulator and Device Emulator Manager, testing tools for device projects, and Device Security Manager.

Smart device development is still supported in earlier versions of Visual Studio, such as Visual Studio 2008. For the more information about smart device projects, see Windows Mobile Developer Center and Smart Device Development in Visual Studio 2008.

Answer 2

Actually, it does work. Check out this blog post written by Jim Lamb. That solved all problems for me. I can now happily build a CF 3.5 project in TFS 2010, including CAB generation.

Answer 3

Just as an FYI, you can go here and vote to have Microsoft add Compact Framework Support for Visual Studio 2010.