Team Foundation Server 2010: Build with external library

Question

Hello,

I have issues to build a project using external libraries with Visual Studio 2010 TFS.

At the root of the solution, I have a "libs" folder with all my shared libraries and I'm referencing the libraries from there.

When I'm building the project, some libraries are not considered and I get the following error message:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets (1360): Could not resolve this reference. Could not locate the assembly "Spring.Data". Check to make sure the assembly exists on disk. If this reference is required by your code, you may get compilation errors.

I tried to change the solution configuration from Debug to Release, to locate the shared library in another folder... I didn't manage to go through it.

Any idea on how I could get this library used in the build?

Thanks, David

Answer 1

The first step is to verify that you're correctly referencing the dlls using correct relative paths. Open the project files' XML and make sure the paths are relative, not absolute ("...." vs. "C:\Code\").

If the paths are all correct the next step is to make sure the files are being pulled down into the build server's Workspace. You can verify that by just examining the build folder on the server. If they aren't there then there's probably a problem with the workspace mappings that define the folders to get when beginning a build.

Those are the most common issues I've seen. If those are correct, you'll need some more diagnostic info.

Answer 2

Check your hint paths. Sometimes there are stale references there...

Maybe I can give a good practice when referencing external libraries:

• copy your external libraries or compiled stuff from other teams in your company on a development file server in the format:
• create a copy-script for every solution file and add it as solution item. Add several xcopy commands for every external lib you want from the dev server for that solution file to build correctly.
• create a script to create a subst virtual drive(with dos command subst) and map this to your workspace, for example the R drive and activate this script on windows startup to get it available at all times. This script is dedicated for the developer and has mapping to the developers workspace.
• create all file references you have with the R drive mapping in it. For example: R:\NiceLib\1.0\nicelib.core.dll

This way you get your TFS clean, with only your own sources and all compiled stuff from external parties or even from other teams in your company, are stored on the dev file server.