MSBuild Example

It’s been a while since my last blog post, but as promised here is an example of a MSBuild script. I have made a simple .NET 2.0 web application utilizing the MSBuild script.  The web application source code can be downloaded here.

Web Application Folders and Files

• Config – contains the environment (dev, test, prod), user, and machine configurations
• Core – contains the application’s source code
• Library – contains the third party libraries and tools used by the application
• PrecompiledWeb – generated folder containing binaries for the web application
• Publish – generated folder containing NCover and NUnit results
• Web – contains the web application files
• build.bat – batch file used to execute MSBuild script
• main.build - MSBuild script

Executing MSBuild Script

To simplify running the MSbuild script, a batch file has been created to allow the user to specify the MSBuild target to execute and which configurations to use.

Usage

build [target] [environment]

[target] – Specifies the MSBuild target to execute

[environment] – Specifies the environment (dev, test, prod)

Notes

• If the environment is not specified, the build will attempt to use the configurations from <user>.config
  • if <user>.config does not exist, it will attempt to use the configurations from <machine>.config
  • if <machine>.config does not exist, it will use dev.config
• If the target is not specified, the build will use the build target

MSBuild Targets

These are the available targets for the MSBuild file:

• Config – generates the Web.config and App.config based off the specified environment
• Clean - performs a Clean on the solution and deletes the generated folders
• Prepare – generates the folders for NUnit and NCover results
• Compile - performs a Build on the solution
• Test - runs NUnit for the Unit Tests
• Coverage – runs NCover for the code coverage
• Build - default target
• Cruise - Cruise Control target
• CleanDeploy – removes the folders and files from the deployment folder
• PrepareDeploy – performs a Build on the solution
• Deploy - deploys the application’s binaries to the deployment folder

Please take a look over the MSBuild file and feel free to contact me with any feedback.  In my next post, I will walkthrough the elements in the MSBuild file.

<!– Application Configurations –>

<PropertyGroup>

<SolutionFileName>MSBuildExample.sln</SolutionFileName>

<WebDir>Web</WebDir>

</PropertyGroup>

<!– Test Assemblies –>

<ItemGroup>

<TestAssemblies Include=“UnitTests\bin\Debug\MSBuildExample.UnitTests.dll“ />

</ItemGroup>

<!– Build Configurations –>

<PropertyGroup>

<Default>default</Default>

<Dev>dev</Dev>

<Test>test</Test>

<Prod>prod</Prod>

<ConfigDir>Config</ConfigDir>

<DevConfig>$(ConfigDir)\$(Dev).build</DevConfig>

<TestConfig>$(ConfigDir)\$(Test).build</TestConfig>

<ProdConfig>$(ConfigDir)\$(Prod).build</ProdConfig>

<UserConfig>$(ConfigDir)\$(USERNAME).build</UserConfig>

<MachineConfig>$(ConfigDir)\$(COMPUTERNAME).build</MachineConfig>

<PrecompiledWebDir>PrecompiledWeb</PrecompiledWebDir>

<WebOutputDir>$(PrecompiledWebDir)\$(WebDir)</WebOutputDir>

<PublishDir>Publish</PublishDir>

<NUnitPublishDir>$(PublishDir)\NUnit</NUnitPublishDir>

<NCoverPublishDir>$(PublishDir)\NCover</NCoverPublishDir>

</PropertyGroup>

<!– Tool Configurations –>

<PropertyGroup>

<NCoverExplorerToolPath>Library\NCoverExplorer</NCoverExplorerToolPath>

<NCoverToolPath>Library\NCover</NCoverToolPath>

<NUnitToolPath>Library\NUnit</NUnitToolPath>

</PropertyGroup>