CODEWITHSUNDEEP
azuremsbuildvisual-studio-2012
user1152113
user1152113

Reputation:

VS 2012 Publishing Profiles and Copy Files Using MSBuilld Commands

I've set up asp.net website on Azure with TFS online for source control using VS 2012. I'm trying to copy files using VS 2012 new publishings profiles and MSBuild. Reading this article Visual Studio 2012 Web Deployment Projects are Dead – Long Live Publishing Profiles, in which Doug says you can use build scripts in your publishing profile.

So I setup a test that works in my .csproj on my local build. I'm just simply copying the robots.txt file from the root directory to the css directory. Here is my test. I set my pubxml in the TFS Build Process template under process > 6. Publishing -- Azure Website, Web Deploy Pubish Profile.

<Target Name="AfterBuild">
    <Copy SourceFiles="$(ProjectDir)robots.txt" DestinationFolder="$(ProjectDir)css\" />
</Target>

I dropped this Code into my my pubxml file and I get a big nothing. What am I doing wrong? Is it possible to copy files afterbuild on Azure?

Additional Information

The log file contains these lines so I'm sure the publishing profile is running.

AfterBuild:
  Creating directory "C:\a\src\...\css".
  Copying file from "C:\a\src\...\robots.txt" to "C:\a\src\...\css\robots.txt".

Here are the build steps that Azure's default build template uses:

  1. ValidateSolutionConfiguration:
  2. PrepareForBuild:
  3. CoreCompile:
  4. _CopyFilesMarkedCopyLocal:
  5. CopyFilesToOutputDirectory:
  6. GenerateTargetFrameworkMonikerAttribute:
  7. CoreCompile:
  8. _CopyFilesMarkedCopyLocal:
  9. CopyFilesToOutputDirectory:
  10. _CopyWebApplicationLegacy:
  11. ValidateGlobalPackageSetting:
  12. CollectFilesFromIntermediateAssembly:
  13. CollectFilesFromContent:
  14. CollectFilesFromIntermediateSatelliteAssembliesWithTargetPath:
  15. CollectFilesFromReference:
  16. CollectFilesFromAllExtraReferenceFiles:
  17. CollectFilesFrom_binDeployableAssemblies:
  18. PipelineCollectFilesPhase:
  19. ExcludeGeneratedDebugSymbol:
  20. PreTransformWebConfig:
  21. TransformWebConfigCore:
  22. PostTransformWebConfig:
  23. PreProfileTransformWebConfig:
  24. PipelineTransformPhase:
  25. ProcessPublishDatabaseSettings:
  26. PreAutoParameterizationWebConfigConnectionStrings:
  27. AutoParameterizationWebConfigConnectionStringsCore:
  28. PostAutoParameterizationWebConfigConnectionStrings:
  29. PipelineMsdeploySpecificTransformPhase:
  30. ValidatePublishProfileSettings:
  31. CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForMsdeploy:
  32. PipelineCopyAllFilesToOneFolderForMsdeploy:
  33. Package:
  34. GenerateMsdeployManifestFiles:
  35. PackageUsingManifest:
  36. GenerateSampleDeployScript:
  37. PipelineDeployPhase:
  38. AfterBuild:

So it looks like Azure packages all the files up during the "31. CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForMsdeploy" step. It would appear that running copy during the AfterBuild step is to late. I moved the Copy command to the target "BeforeBuild" but the files are still not ending up in the CopyAllFilesToOneFolderForMsdeploy step.

Upvotes: 5

Views: 4663

Answers (1)

user1152113
user1152113

Reputation:

Thanks to Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi for his article How to compress CSS/JavaScript before publish/package for helping me solve this.

It's possible to copy directly Package Temp Directory. I ended up adding this target to my publishing profile (pubxml) file. After the "CopyAllFilesTOSingleFolderForMsdeploy" step finishes this step will run which will copy a file from one part of the solution into the destinationfolder you specify.

<Target Name="AdditionalFilesForPackage" AfterTargets="CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForMsdeploy">
    <Copy SourceFiles="$(ProjectDir)robots.txt" DestinationFolder="$(_PackageTempDir)\css\" />  
</Target>

Upvotes: 7

Related Questions