How can I get TFS 2010 to build each project to a separate directory?

Question

In our project, we'd like to have our TFS build put each project into its own folder under the drop folder, instead of dropping all of the files into one flat structure. To illustrate, we'd like to see something like this:

DropFolder/
  Foo/
    foo.exe
  Bar/
    bar.dll
  Baz
    baz.dll

This is basically the same question as was asked here, but now that we're using workflow-based builds, those solutions don't seem to work. The solution using the CustomizableOutDir property looked like it would work best for us, but I can't get that property to be recognized. I customized our workflow to pass it in to MSBuild as a command line argument (/p:CustomizableOutDir=true), but it seems MSBuild just ignores it and puts the output into the OutDir given by the workflow.

I looked at the build logs, and I can see that the CustomizableOutDir and OutDir properties are both getting set in the command line args to MSBuild. I still need OutDir to be passed in so that I can copy my files to TeamBuildOutDir at the end.

Any idea why my CustomizableOutDir parameter isn't getting recognized, or if there's a better way to achieve this?

Answer 1

I haven't played with getting TFS/MSBuild to put the output files in separate folders, so can't give a direct answer. However, here are a couple of suggestions that I didn't spot in your link:

• You could add post-build steps to the projects that copy the required files to a "deployment" structure. (This of course would also run on dev machines, which might be a pain). We use this approach for our libraries, whch are built and then copied into a shared libs (binaries) folder for other projects to reference them from.

• You could add an MSBuild target to copy the required files where you want them. We've overridden the default "copy to drop folder" targets to copy the files to another folder, obfuscate them, digitally sign them, build them into an installer, digitally sign the installer, and then copy it (and other useful stuff like the obfuscation map files) and a list of changes since the last build to the drop folder. Ultimately adding your own post-build target gives you maximum control over exactly what gets put where. (On the minus side, you may have to manually add any new dlls or exes to the post-build copy target, which could be an irritation)

Answer 2

I figured out a nice way to do it. It turns out that since you can set the OutDir to whatever you want within the workflow, if you set it to the empty string, MSBuild will instead use the project-specific OutputPath. That lets us be a lot more flexible. Here's my entire solution (based on the default build workflow):

In the Run MSBuild task, set OutDir to the empty string. In that same task, set your CommandLineArguments to something like the following. This will allow you to have a reference to the TFS default OutDir from your project:

String.Format("/p:CommonOutputPath=""{0}\\""", outputDirectory)

In each project you want copied to the drop folder, set the OutputPath like so:

<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCPU' ">
    <OutputPath Condition=" '$(CommonOutputPath)'=='' ">bin\Release\</OutputPath>
    <OutputPath Condition=" '$(CommonOutputPath)'!='' ">$(CommonOutputPath)YourProjectName\bin\Release\</OutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>

Check everything in, and you should have a working build that deploys each of your projects to its own folder under the drop folder.

Answer 3

We had to do this to bypass the problem where we have a Silverlight and a .Net library with the same name for CSLA serialization. The library would be overwritten and our tests would fail.

I used Jonathan's answer and Jim Lamb's post, but I found that you also need to set OutDir to empty.

So, you need to do these parameters for the MSBuild activities (if you use the following Macro, you need to set the activity parameters for Clean too, otherwise you get warnings that OutputPath is not set):

• Set CommandLineArguments to String.Format("/p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true;TeamBuildOutDir=""{0}"" {1}", BinariesDirectory, MSBuildArguments)
• Set OutDir to empty (was BinariesDirectory)

I have also created a macro that you can run in visual studio that removes the OutputPath from the configurations, and adds a PropertyGroup that contains the OutputPath for all configs like so :

<PropertyGroup Label="OutputPathLabel">
  <OutputPath Condition="'$(TeamBuildOutDir)'=='' ">bin\$(Configuration)\</OutputPath>
  <OutputPath Condition="'$(TeamBuildOutDir)'!='' ">$(TeamBuildOutDir)\$(SolutionName)\$(MSBuildProjectName)\$(Configuration)\</OutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>

Here's the Macro :

Public Sub SetTeamBuildOutDir()

    Dim projectObjects = DTE.Solution.Projects

    For Each project In projectObjects

        If project.ProjectItems IsNot Nothing Then
            SetTeamBuildOutDirRecursive(project)
        End If
    Next

End Sub

Sub SetTeamBuildOutDirRecursive(ByVal proj As Project)
    If proj.ConfigurationManager Is Nothing Then
        For Each subProj As ProjectItem In proj.ProjectItems
            If subProj.SubProject IsNot Nothing Then
                SetTeamBuildOutDirRecursive(subProj.SubProject)
            End If
        Next
    Else
        SetTeamBuildOutDir(proj)
    End If

End Sub

Sub SetTeamBuildOutDir(ByVal project As Project)
    'Do not handle .vdproj
    If project.FullName.ToLower().EndsWith(".vdproj") Then
        Exit Sub
    End If

    Dim needToSave = False
    Dim msproject = ProjectRootElement.Open(project.FullName)
    Dim outputPathGroupExists = False
    Dim outputPropertyGroup As ProjectPropertyGroupElement = Nothing
    Dim lastConfigPropertyGroup As ProjectPropertyGroupElement = Nothing

    For Each propertyGroup In msproject.PropertyGroups

        If propertyGroup.Label = "OutputPathLabel" Then
            outputPathGroupExists = True
            outputPropertyGroup = propertyGroup
        End If

        If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(propertyGroup.Condition) AndAlso _
            propertyGroup.Condition.TrimStart().StartsWith("'$(Configuration)") Then

            lastConfigPropertyGroup = propertyGroup
        End If

        'Remove the OutputPath from the configurations
        Dim outputPathElement As ProjectPropertyElement = Nothing
        For Each element As ProjectPropertyElement In propertyGroup.Children
            If element.Name = "OutputPath" Then
                outputPathElement = element
            End If
        Next
        If outputPathElement IsNot Nothing Then
            propertyGroup.RemoveChild(outputPathElement)
            needToSave = True
        End If
    Next

    'If we want to always remove the group and add it back (in case of modifications to the group)
    'If outputPathGroupExists Then
    '    msproject.RemoveChild(outputPropertyGroup)
    '    outputPathGroupExists = False
    'End If

    If Not outputPathGroupExists Then
        Dim propertyGroup = msproject.CreatePropertyGroupElement()
        propertyGroup.Label = "OutputPathLabel"
        'Need to insert the PropertyGroup before the CSharp targets are included
        msproject.InsertAfterChild(propertyGroup, lastConfigPropertyGroup)

        Dim isDbProject = project.FullName.ToLower().EndsWith(".dbproj")

        Dim outputEmpty = propertyGroup.AddProperty("OutputPath", IIf(Not isDbProject, "bin\$(Configuration)\", "sql\$(Configuration)\"))
        outputEmpty.Condition = "'$(TeamBuildOutDir)'=='' "

        Dim outputTeamBuild = propertyGroup.AddProperty("OutputPath", "$(TeamBuildOutDir)\$(SolutionName)\$(MSBuildProjectName)\$(Configuration)\")
        outputTeamBuild.Condition = "'$(TeamBuildOutDir)'!='' "

        needToSave = True
    End If

    If needToSave Then
        'checkout the project file with tfs
        Shell("C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\tf.exe checkout " & project.FullName, , True)

        'Save the project file
        msproject.Save()
    End If
End Sub

Hope this helps!!!