Silverlight and Expressions components on a Build Box

Question

I have a solution that needs to build Silverlight projects on a computer that doesn't have standard editing tools like VS or Expression Blend. From Expressions, I do need the font embedding and media processing capabilities of the Blend SDK. For Silverlight, I need to build for these 3 runtimes - SL3, SL4 and Windows Phone SL3. I am going to be using MSBuild and prefer the .NET 4.0 runtime on my build box.

Can anyone recommend to me what the bare minimum for this kind of build scenario would be in terms of componenets on my build box? If I don't have to install it, I really can't (has to be justified to management why something is being installed on the build box). So, for example, can I break apart the Blend SDK and only install the dlls that I need on the build box (I mean, is this legally okay?). For the SL runtimes, do I need the developer version of those or is regular runtime okay?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Add your dependency DLLs to your build environment

A common pattern I've seen is to take any build dependencies such as your SL runtimes or Blend DLLs and check them into your depot (under say \References*.dll). If the DLLs are marked as 'redistributable' you're in good shape legally.

If possible I try to keep SDKs (e.g. Silverlight SDK, Blend SDK) that come with MSIs installed directly as it tends to avoid errors from dependencies you didn't think you needed or version mismatches. In the case of Silverlight and Blend, there are downloadable SDK MSIs:

Silverlight 4 SDK

Blend 4 SDK for Silverlight