CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#buildprojectsolution
Paul Grinberg
Paul Grinberg

Reputation: 1407

How to deliver a C# project directory to a solution output directory

I have a VS2010.NET solution with many projects. One of the projects has a non-source code directory in it. When I build this solution, I need to have that directory copied over to the solution build output directory. What I am trying to do is access the files in that folder at my solution runtime. Since this application will be distributed to multiple computers, I need to also distribute this set of data files.

To review, here's what my (simplified) solution hierarchy looks like

solution
|
+----MainProject
|    |
|    +----source.cs
|
+----SupportPorject
     |
     +----source.cs
     +----MyFolder
          |
          +----DataFile1
          +----DataFile2
          +----DataFile3

When I build the solution, I would like to have the following

solution
|
+----bin
     |
     +----Debug
     |    |
     |    +----Solution.exe
     |    +----SupportProject.dll
     |    +----SupportProject.pdb
     |    +----MyFolder
     |         |
     |         +----DataFile1
     |         +----DataFile2
     |         +----DataFile3
     |
     +----Release
          |
          +----Solution.exe
          +----SupportProject.dll
          +----MyFolder
               |
               +----DataFile1
               +----DataFile2
               +----DataFile3

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1615

Answers (4)

Paul Grinberg
Paul Grinberg

Reputation: 1407

After a lot more research, I stumbled on the answer (in part based on this answer to a similar question). The solution involved hand modifying the SupportProject.cproj file with the following

<ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="MyFolder\**">
        <Link>%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)</Link>
        <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
    </Content>
</ItemGroup>

Upvotes: 1

denys-vega
denys-vega

Reputation: 3697

Another solution is edit yours .csproj and search for OutputPath tags. For Debug output, it must look similar to: 

<OutputPath>bin\Debug\</OutputPath>

According to your requirements, set it to:

<OutputPath>..\bin\Debug\</OutputPath>

Upvotes: 1

gaiazov
gaiazov

Reputation: 1960

Visual Studio also has an option to copy files to the output directory. Just change your content from "Do Not Copy" to "Copy Always". You can find the setting in file properties.

Upvotes: 0

Max Kimambo
Max Kimambo

Reputation: 416

You may want to use Xcopy in your Visual Studio Build Pre/Post events depending on the sequence you need the files in. xcopy SourceFolder $(SolutionDir)YourFolderNameHere*.*" /E /H

As explained in this post over here

Upvotes: 1

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