MSBuild target _CopyWebApplication does not copy all necessary files to the bin folder

Question

Elsewhere on the Web, you can find recommendations on using something like this to simulate the Publish feature in the VS 2005-2008 IDE from a command-line (I hope I did not goof up the syntax!):

msbuild /t:ResolveReferences;_CopyWebApplication /p:BuildingProject=true;OutDir=C:\inetpub\wwwroot\ blah.csproj

Now, it looks like the .dll's copy fine. However, there are certain configuration files and template files that are copied to the bin folder which are needed for the app to work. For example, an NHibernate configuration file shows up in blah.csproj as:

<None Include="blah.cfg.xml">
  <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
</None>

While using Publish from within the IDE copies this file as it should, the aforementioned _CopyWebApplication target does not. I need this file to be copied in the build script. Is this desired behavior for _CopyWebApplication? Any recommendations on how to fix this?

EDIT 4/21/2010:

Let me clarify that we are limited (for now) to VS 2005 and VS 2008 projects, and that our build scripts are written for MSBuild 3.x. We are not yet ready to move to VS 2010.

Let me also specify that we are looking for a solution available from within a command line so that we can automate a Publish-like command along with custom build options, and possibly automate deployments down the road.

Answer 1

Instead of calling those targets a better approach is to use Web Deployment Projects(2005 version). Using WDPs is very easy, and its much easier to customize the process versus what you are doing now. I highly encourage you to take a look at employing that solution.

Answer 2

I was having a similar issue as well. I think the answer is using MSDeploy. Investigating it now, but may provide functionality required...

Answer 3

This is just a workaround.

In the build script for publishing Web sites, after running MSBuild on the Web project itself to publish it (Targets="ResolveReferences;_CopyWebApplication"), I added a copy operation:

<Copy SourceFiles="@(ProjectBinFiles)" DestinationFolder="$(StageBin)\%(ProjectBinFiles.RecursiveDir)" />

where ProjectBinFiles is an Item representing the files in the bin directory in the source directory, and StageBin is a Property representing the bin folder in the published site's directory. So far, it seems to work.