Automating builds with MSBUILD/TFS 2010/MSBuild.ExtensionPack

Question

I need to create a build that is schedule from TFS 2010 and does the following:

1. Get latest source
2. Compile the project
3. Check AssemblyInfo.cs files out and increment the version using Msbuild.ExtensionPack
4. Check the files back in
5. Deploy the Database project against a target database
6. Run unit tests

I am thinking of putting all these steps into one of my project's .csproj files and scheduling the build from Visual Studio using Team Explorer. Is this a good strategy? In preparation to this, I tested out the MSBuild.ExtensionPack.VistualStudio.TfsSource Checkout, and I get an error on my assembly files with the following message:

c:\_dev\NDA\API\API.csproj : warning : Exit Code 1. Partial success: No matching items found in c:\_dev\nda\API\Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs in your workspace.

However, if I run tf checkout from command line, it works fine. What could be causing this error?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I have created a post how you can increase the assemblyversion without using the MSBuild Extension Pack: http://www.ewaldhofman.nl/post/2010/05/13/Customize-Team-Build-2010-e28093-Part-5-Increase-AssemblyVersion.aspx

The how-to deploy a database project is still on my backlog to add to the series. So if you find the solution, please inform me.

Answer 2

It's not a good idea to check-out or check-in items during a build process. By the way for versioning purposes I use Jim Lamb's ActivityPack described here. It works very well for me.