I have a solution that contains several c# projects and I would like to be able to set the output path and other properties on all the projects together in a single place. Property Sheets (vsprops) do not seem to be able available for C# projects and the $(SolutionDir) variable is ignored. Are there any other methods to set properties across several C# projects?
Update
By Following the information in the answer by Bas Bossink I was able to set the output path of several projects by creating a common csproj and importing it into the individual project. A few other points:
When building in Visual Studio if changes are made to the common project it is necessary to touch/reload any projects that reference it for the changes to be picked up.
Any properties which are also set in a individual project will override the common properties.
Setting $(SolutionDir) as the output path via the Visual Studio UI does not work as expected because the value is treated as a string literal rather than getting expanded. However, Setting $(SolutionDir) directly into the csproj file with a text editor works as expected.
A csproj file is already an msbuild file, this means that csproj files can also use an import element as described here. The import element is
exactly what you require. You could create a Common.proj that contains something like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="3.5"xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<OutputPath>$(SolutionDir)output</OutputPath>
<WarningLevel>4</WarningLevel>
<UseVSHostingProcess>false</UseVSHostingProcess>
<TreatWarningsAsErrors>true</TreatWarningsAsErrors>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
You can import this Common.proj in each of your csprojs, for instance like so:
<Import Project="..\Common.proj" />
The import statement should precede any tasks that depend on the properties defined in Common.proj
I hope this helps. I can't confirm your problems with the $(SolutionDir) variable I've used it many times. I do know however that this variable does not get set when you run an msbuild command via the commandline on a specific project that is contained in a solution. It will be set when you build your solution in Visual Studio.
Unfortunately, these bits of information such as output path are all stored inside the individual *.csproj files. If you want to batch-update a whole bunch of those, you'll have to revert to some kind of a text-updating tool or create a script to touch each of those files.
For things like this (apply changes to a bunch of text files at once) I personally use WildEdit by Helios Software - works like a charm and it's reasonably priced.
But I'm sure there are tons of free alternatives out there, too.
I would suggest you to use a build tool such as MSBuild or NAnt which would give you more flexibility on your builds. Basically the idea is to kick off a build using (in most cases) a single configurable build file.
I would personally recommend NAnt.
You could find an awesome tutorial on NAnt on JP Boodhoo's blog here
Set the $(OutputPath) property in a common property sheet. Then delete that entry in all the project files you want to it to affect. Then import that property sheet into all your projects.
For hundreds of projects that can be very tedious. Which is why I wrote a tool to help with this:
https://github.com/chris1248/MsbuildRefactor
Related
I have an application that needs to parse the ProjectReference elements from *.csproj files. It could do this well with the old (.net) format where I used the Name element to get the name of a project:
<ProjectReference Include="..\MyProject\MyProject.csproj">
<Project>{guid..}</Project>
<Name>MyProject</Name>
</ProjectReference>
The new format however (.net-core) makes it crash now because there is no Name element anymore.
I found a few differences between both files but I'm not sure which one I should use tell that I'm working with the new core-file. The differences are:
the new format does not contain xml declaration
the root element starts with the <Project Sdk= attribute and does not contain any default namespace wheres the old one has xmlns=" declared
the ProjectReference element does not contain any children
Which property would be the most reliable way to recognize the core-file like Visual Studio does? Am I on the right track or is there any other criteria I should use to tell the file formats apart?
If you are using MSBuild to evaluate the project file, the sdk sets the UsingMicrosoftNETSdk property to true.
If you are only use XML based tooling to read the file, you can check if a <TargetFramework> or <TargetFrameworks> (plural) property (inside a <PropertyGroup>).
This is the same mechanism that visual studio uses to determine whether the new or classic project system is used for the project (see Opening With CPS document).
Scenario
I am in a situation at the moment where one of the projects I am working on depends upon a 3rd party API, which exposes a swagger descriptor in JSON which we consume using auto rest to generate the C# files for use in the system.
The c# files are generated as part of the build script however there have been instances where the API is updated, and although we do not use any of the new changes it does change some of the c# code which is generated which in turn may depend upon new files which are output from the build script but VS does not know they exist so does not include them.
Issue
So I am trying to find a way to tell visual studio from a build script or some sane way (Without manually changing a *.csproj file) to automatically include everything within a folder in its project, so is there a way to do this?
Other Info
I have deliberately not mentioned build script technologies as it is not really important, so I don't mind if I have to use msbuild tasks or other command line stuff as long as it works I can probably find a way to hook it in.
Also I know some people will think "why do you need to keep re-generating the files?", and we don't really, and currently we try to keep to a specific version, however ignoring that the question still stands, i.e how do you update files VS knows about from outside VS.
You can use wild cards in .csproj file. You only need to do this once
since you didn't give the folder name, I am suggesting a generic solution for you.
To prevent the Visual studio from expanding the wild card once you modify the porject list in Visual studio, you have to add it as property.
In PropertyGroup , add a property with like this
<PropertyGroup>
<IncludeFolder>yourFolder\**</IncludeFolder>
</PropertyGroup>
Then in add the following line to ItemGroup
<ItemGroup>
<Content Include="$(IncludeFolder)" />
</ItemGroup>
This will add everything in that folder to your project.
Also this wild card will not be expanded by the visual studio once you modify them from Visual studio solution explorer. (A weird process from Visual Studio)
Currently I have an instance of SonarQube 5.1.2 with C# plugin and MSBuild runner in order to analyze a 1.200.000 LOC project. I intend to reduce the classes that are analyzed, I created a sonar.properties file with the line
sonar.exclusions=**/Databases/**/*.*
but after reading the log from the analysis, files inside the Databases folder were analyzed. following the instructions from Eric Starr, I set this simple exclusion rule in the call of the runner:
"C:\sonarqube-5.1.2\bin\MSBuild.SonarQube.Runner.exe" begin /k:MyProject /n:MyProject /v:2 /d:sonar.exclusions="file:C:\codesource\Databases/**/*.*" /d:sonar.scm.provider=tfvc /d:sonar.tfvc.username=************* /d:sonar.tfvc.password.secured={aes}*************************** "/d:sonar.cs.vscoveragexml.reportsPaths=C:\codesource\CodeCoverage\Results.coveragexml"
I found that the runner creates a sonar-project.properties file, and it contains a lot of files located in the databases folder:
BC78C8C4-8ECD-47CB-9781-F621AE109FE4.sonar.projectName=myDatabase
BC78C8C4-8ECD-47CB-9781-F621AE109FE4.sonar.projectBaseDir=BC78C8C4-8ECD-47CB-9781-F621AE109FE4.sonar.projectName=myDatabase
BC78C8C4-8ECD-47CB-9781-F621AE109FE4.sonar.projectBaseDir=C:\\codesource\\Databases\\myDatabase
BC78C8C4-8ECD-47CB-9781-F621AE109FE4.sonar.sources=\
C:\\codesource\\Databases\\myDatabase\\Scripts\\PreDeployment\\PATCH_20150527_01.sql,\
C:\\codesource\\Databases\\myDatabase\\Scripts\\PreDeployment\\ROCOMMON.DBVERSION.sql,\
,\.....
as I understood, there should be no files in the databases folder. Am I wrong?
You are using the SonarQube Scanner for MSBuild which is very different from the regular SonarQube Scanner used for all other languages.
The sonar.exclude line that you are trying to use would only work if you would use the regular SonarQube scanner, because that takes in the Sonar-project.properties file. The SonarQube Scanner for MSBuild only has a SonarQube.Analysis.Xml file that contains project-related settings that you can tweak.
You can use couple of overwriting strategies for the SonarQube.Analysis.Xml file:
A project-specific property defined in the MSBuild *.*proj file (corresponding to a SonarQube module) can override:
A property defined in the command line (/d:propertyName=value) has which can override:
A property defined in the SonarQube.Analysis.xml configuration file
A property defined in the SonarQube User Interface at project level which can override everything
A property defined in the SonarQube User Interface at global level which can't override anything
To exclude specific folders or extensions from your Solution:
You need to add the excludes into each individual projects' .csproj file. Here's the syntax which you should use within the main root node, called <Project...> and into one of the targets, preferably <Target Name="BeforeBuild">. Hope the syntax below is self-explanetory enough, but in case it isn't, please leave a comment under this answer and I'll update it right away.
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<ItemGroup>
<SonarQubeSetting Include="sonar.exclusions">
<Value>**/Databases/**/*</Value>
</SonarQubeSetting>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
Hope it helps!
Source
I am new to MSBuild. Just started trying it two days ago, and now I am just testing it. I have run into a problem where I get this error:
"c:\Users\martinslot\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\MultifileAssembly\SpecializedBuild.xml" (BuildNumberUtil target) (1) ->
c:\Users\martinslot\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\MultifileAssembly\SpecializedBuild.xml(4,34): error MSB4006: There is a circular dependency in t
he target dependency graph involving target "BuildNumberUtil".
My MSBuild script look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="BuildNumberUtil" DependsOnTargets="BuildStringUtil" >
<Message Text="=============Building modules for NumberUtil============="/>
<Csc TargetType="Module" Sources="NumberUtil/DoubleUtil.cs; NumberUtil/IntegerUtil.cs" AddModules="/StringUtil/StringUtil"/>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(NetModules)" DestinationFolder="../Output/Specialized"/>
</Target>
<Target Name="BuildStringUtil" DependsOnTargets="BuildNumberUtil" >
<Message Text="=============Building modules for StringUtil============="/>
<Csc TargetType="Module" Sources="StringUtil/StringUtil.cs;" AddModules="/NumberUtil/IntegerUtil;/NumberUtil/DoubleUtil"/>
<Copy SourceFiles="#(NetModules)" DestinationFolder="/Output/Specialized"/>
</Target>
</Project>
I understand the problem, actually I created this small example to see if MSBuild understood and could somehow correct the problem. How do I solve this?
My problem is that the two targets compile modules that rely on eachother. Does someone here have a solution on how to handle this kind of problem with MSBuild? Maybe I am constructing this in the wrong way?
You simply cannot build projects with circular dependencies. How could you? Which do you build first? There may be some esoteric, convoluted, incorrect way of doing so, but why do it? Circular dependencies usually indicate a design flaw. Fix the design, and you no longer have a circular dependency issue.
It is possible to construct Circular Modules within the scope of MSBuild and Visual Studio; however, doing so has a very limited set of situations where it would be valid to do so.
One key way to do this, if you're planning on using Xaml within your code, is to remove the Sources aspect of the Csc tag and generate your own .response file which actually points to the code you wish to inject. Within the Csc tag attributes you'd specify this file yourself in the ResponseFiles attribute.
Within your .response file, you would then break your application down into its assembly and netmodule components, making sure to include the core assembly's files first at all times. Typically the Csc tag's attributes are directly translated into Csc.exe command line parameters. The parameter names do not always match up. For the sake of resolution it's best to use full, non-relative, paths when referring to files (example, partial, .response below):
"X:\Projects\Code\C#\Solution Name\InternalName\ProjectName - InternalName\SearchContexts\StringSearchType.cs"
"X:\Projects\Code\C#\Solution Name\InternalName\ProjectName - InternalName\UI\Themes\Themes.cs"
/target:module /out:bin\x86\Debug\InternalName.UI.dll
"X:\Projects\Code\C#\Solution Name\InternalName\ProjectName - InternalName\UI\EditDatabaseImageControl.xaml.cs"
"X:\Projects\Code\C#\Solution Name\InternalName\ProjectName - InternalName\obj\x86\Debug\UI\EditDatabaseImageControl.g.cs"
You'll notice that this will end up with merging your multiple sets of Targets into one, and that I've included the xaml generated code myself. This is partly why you remove the Sources aspect, as the Xaml Page generator part of the MSBuild task automatically injects information into the #(Compile) set. Since there's a Debug/Release configuration, in the area where you define the response file to use, I create two versions of the response (since I'm using a T4 template):
ResponseFiles="$(CompilerResponseFile);InternalName.$(Configuration).response"
If you intended to include more than one platform in your code you'd likely need C*P response files where C is the number of configurations (Debug|Release) and P is the number of platforms (x86, x64, AnyCpu). This kind of solution would likely only be a sane method by using a generator.
The short version of this: it is possible to create circular modules so long as you can guarantee that you'll compile it all in one step. To ensure that you maintain the build functionality that is afforded to you with the Xaml build step, your best bet is to start with a normal C# project, and create your own .Targets file from the $(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets in the <Import ... tag near the bottom. You'll also likely need a secondary csproj for design purposes since a large portion of intellisense is lost by using this workaround (or use a csproj Condition attribute where the target is selected by some flag you set). You'll also notice certain Xaml editors don't seem to like the binding to netmodule namespaces, so if you bind to types in a netmodule you'll likely have to do them in codebehind (I haven't tested workarounds for this since there's usually ways around static namespace binding)
For some reason within all this, the .baml compiled .xaml files are implicitly understood by the Csc compiler, I haven't been able to figure out where it's deriving this from a command argument, or if it's just implicit by design. If I had to guess they're inferred by the g.cs files associated to what you include in your list of included files.
Observe that this is occurred for web application (either ASP.NET standard web application or ASP.NET MVC application) and fix for this problem is to be removed the below line in ".csproj" file.
<PropertyGroup>
<BuildDependsOn>
$(BuildDependsOn);
Package
</BuildDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
I'm using VS2005 and I have a property sheet (vsprops file) that I'm adding to all the C++ projects but I can't seem to find out how to add them to the C# projects. How do I go about doing this?
Although there is no exact equivalent of property sheets in C#, there is at least one easy way to accomplish what you want: csproj files can import other project files, so you can have a common project file that only defines the output path.
It's all been covered already: How to set the output path of several visual C# projects.
I know this is an old question, but still... Just edit the project file manually and add an <import> section to use a property sheet:
<Project ...>
<Import Project="$(SolutionDir)\Local.props" />
</Project>
No need to have a real project file to import.
A project property sheet is an implementation detail of the C++ IDE. There is no equivalent for the C# IDE. Mostly because there are so few knobs to tweak. As compared with the C and C++ compiler and linker who have, what, over 100 options. The managed code way is to use [attributes] instead.
Project + Properties to change the C# settings. Rejoice in the sparsity. Actually changing any of them is quite rare, the project template takes care of them, if necessary.