Running Delphi builds under TFS MSBuild

Question

Wanting to build and test a bunch of Borland Delphi 6 projects that are integrated with ASP.NET services. Had been using WANT and CruiseControl for building Delphi. With TFS Build agent we can tie all together and do some testing. I am looking for guidance and direction.

One issue I see is that there is no "solution" in a Delphi project to be given to MSBuild as a '<'SolutionToBuild'>'.

<SolutionToBuild Include="There is no such thing as a Delphi.sln">
    <Targets></Targets>
    <Properties></Properties>
</SolutionToBuild>

Also, I have references to <UsingTask> but am a little unsure how to use them. The <UsingTask> allows run custom task for Delphi command-line compile.

Your guidance would be appreciated.

Answer 1

You can use MSBuild to run the Delphi command line compiler. It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure either the IDE supports command line compilation or there is a stand-alone compiler that can be run from the command line. In either case, you would need to create an <Exec> task that runs the appropriate command line build tool with the required parameters.

When you say you have "references to <UsingTask>" do you mean that you are importing an external MSBuild task? The <UsingTask> element is used to pull in a custom MSBuild task that resides in an external assembly (DLL). Once the task is imported, you use it just like you would any other built-in task.

Answer 2

Can you upgrade? Delphi 2006+ uses MSBuild by default. There is nothing to configure.