How to configure Cruise Control.Net to show proper error in Web Dashboard?

Question

We have setup Cruise Control.Net to build .Net projects from source control. Problem is that when the build fails the error log shows a huge build xml and we struggle to find out the actual error. How to configure Cruise Control to show error in more readable format?

Answer 1

Make sure that a xmllogger is included in your ccnet configuration and try viewing the build results via ccnet's web dashboard.

See example of failed build output.

Answer 2

To make it even more readable (bring the project name along with the error)

in webdashboard/xsl/msbuild.xsl add

<xsl:if test="parent::target/@name != ''">
            target-><xsl:value-of select="parent::target/@name" />&#160;
        </xsl:if>

just above

<xsl:if test="@file != ''" >

in the <xsl:template match="error"> section.

so as a whole msbuild.xsl section would be

    <xsl:template match="error">
    <div style="color:orangered">
            <xsl:value-of select="./../../@file" />&#160;   
        <xsl:if test="parent::target/@name != ''">
            target-><xsl:value-of select="parent::target/@name" />&#160;
        </xsl:if>   
        <xsl:if test="@file != ''" >
            <xsl:value-of select="@file"/>&#160;(<xsl:value-of select="@line"/>,<xsl:value-of select="@column"/>):&#160;
        </xsl:if>
        error&#160;<xsl:value-of select="@code"/>:&#160;<xsl:value-of select="text()" />
    </div>
</xsl:template>