MSBuild in a Client Environment

Question

I'm wondering if anyone has some solid advice for me. I'm trying to see if MSBuild is an appropriate tool for a client-side application (sold, commercial product). For example, if on the client machine there is .NET 4.0 and my program, I want users to be able to create screen savers and save them as an EXE.

So far, all I've seen is MSBuild being used for ASP.NET and build machines in a controlled environment, but is it appropriate to use it "in the wild" for a scenario such as described above?

Answer 1

I can't advise whether it is appropriate or not in your particular case, but since it is included in the .NET Framework setup, it is reliable to use it.

Answer 2

Overkill

MSBuild is great for managing complex projects with many interdependencies. If all you want to do though is generate an EXE from a simple set of inputs, like the screensaver scenario you used, I'd just use the C# APIs for calling the compiler or call csc.exe directly.

Answer 3

What you have to ask yourself here is how transparent you want msbuild to be? I would not advise using a command line and giving clients these commands and parameters, but if you mask it and have a good presentation layer that keeps all the technical stuff hidden then it's a pefectly good idea.

My current project relies pretty heavily on msbuild when installing, it works great and no one would know unless they seen the code.

Hope this helps.