CODEWITHSUNDEEP
msbuild
Olaf
Olaf

Reputation: 3986

MSBuild: Copy multiple directories in a generic way

I have a Visual Studio solution with multiple web projects (e.g. WebappA, WebappB, WebappC). When TFS builds the solution it puts the build results in a _PublishedWebsites folder. The folder structure may look like this:

$(OutDir)
|
+-- _PublishedWebsites
    |
    +-- WebappA
    |
    +-- WebappA_Package
    |
    +-- WebappB
    |
    +-- WebappB_Package
    |
    +-- WebappC
    |
    +-- WebappC_Package

I want to build a deployment package for our operations department in terms of a zip file. Therefore I let TFS run an MSBuild script which copies the _Package folders into a custom directory structure which is zipped in a subsequent step. 

$(PackageDirectory)
|
+-- Web
    |
    +-- WebappA
    |
    +-- WebappB
    |
    +-- WebappB

I was able to create a bunch of MSBuild targets which do the copy operations. But I'm unhappy with my solution. I am referencing each webapp in an explicit way that's why I ended up with much repetitive code. To make matters worse each time a new webapp is added I have to extent the build script. 

<Target Name="Pack" DependsOnTargets="Pack-WebappA;Pack-WebappB;Pack-WebappC" />

<Target Name="Pack-WebappA">
    <ItemGroup>
        <WebAppFile Include="$(OutDir)_PublishedWebsites\WebappA_Package\*.*" />
    </ItemGroup>
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(WebAppFile)" DestinationFolder="$(PackageDirectory)Web\WebappA\"  />
</Target>

<Target Name="Pack-WebappB">
    <ItemGroup>
        <WebAppFile Include="$(OutDir)_PublishedWebsites\WebappB_Package\*.*" />
    </ItemGroup>
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(WebAppFile)" DestinationFolder="$(PackageDirectory)Web\WebappB\"  />
</Target>

<Target Name="Pack-WebappC">
    <ItemGroup>
        <WebAppFile Include="$(OutDir)_PublishedWebsites\WebappC_Package\*.*" />
    </ItemGroup>
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(WebAppFile)" DestinationFolder="$(PackageDirectory)Web\WebappC\"  />
</Target>

I'm searching for a solution which does the whole thing in a generic way without to referencing the concrete webapps. In essence all what MSBuild should do is to look into the _PublishedWebsites folder and copy each subfolder with a _Package suffix to another folder and remove the suffix. This sounds pretty easy but I was not able to come up with a working solution. I've tried it with batching without success.

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1479

Answers (2)

Olaf
Olaf

Reputation: 3986

stijn came up with a excellent answer. It worked for me almost. I changed only one or two things. This is the code which does the trick, at least in my case.

<Target Name="PackWeb">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <SourceDir>$(OutDir.TrimEnd('\'))\_PublishedWebsites\</SourceDir>
    <PackDir>$(PackageDirectory.TrimEnd('\'))\Web\</PackDir>
    <PackageString>_Package</PackageString>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <Dirs Include="$([System.IO.Directory]::GetDirectories( `$(SourceDir)`, `*` ) )"/>

    <PackageDirs Include="%(Dirs.Identity)" Condition="$([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::IsMatch( %(FullPath), '.*$(PackageString)' ) )"/>

    <PackageFiles Include="%(PackageDirs.Identity)\*.*">
      <DestDir>$(PackDir)$([System.IO.Path]::GetFilename( %(PackageDirs.Identity) ).Replace( $(PackageString), '' ) )</DestDir>
    </PackageFiles>
  </ItemGroup>

  <Copy SourceFiles="%(PackageFiles.Identity)" DestinationFolder="%(PackageFiles.DestDir)" />
</Target>

Upvotes: 0

stijn
stijn

Reputation: 35911

You're pretty much right in that you're unhappy with the current solution: automating such things is a must. I agree MsBuild doesn't always make it straightforward though; batching is the right way but you have to add some filtering/manipulating of the items. Using property functions this isn't all that hard though:

In essence all what MSBuild should do is to look into the _PublishedWebsites folder and copy each subfolder with a _Package suffix to another folder and remove the suffix.

We'll translate this to:

  • list all directories in _PublishedWebsites
  • filter the list and include only those ending in _Package
  • list all files in those directories and set destination for them to a subdirectory of PackageDirectory with the suffix removed
  • copy each file to corresponding directory

Step 3 is actually two things (list+specify dir) because that is the typical msbuild way of doing things. There are other ways to do this, but this one seems appropriate here.

<Target Name="BatchIt">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <SourceDir>$(OutDir)_PublishedWebsites\</SourceDir>
    <DestDir>$(PackageDirectory)Web\</DestDir>
    <PackageString>_Package</PackageString>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <!-- step 1 -->
    <Dirs Include="$([System.IO.Directory]::GetDirectories( `$(SourceDir)`, `*`, System.IO.SearchOption.AllDirectories ) )"/>

    <!-- step 2 -->
    <PackageDirs Include="%(Dirs.Identity)" Condition="$([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::IsMatch( %(Filename), '.*$(PackageString)' ) )"/>

    <!-- step 3 -->
    <PackageFiles Include="%(PackageDirs.Identity)\*.*">
      <DestDir>$(PackageDirectory)$([System.IO.Path]::GetFilename( %(PackageDirs.Identity) ).Replace( $(PackageString), '' ) )</DestDir>
    </PackageFiles>
  </ItemGroup>

  <!-- step 4 -->
  <Copy SourceFiles="%(PackageFiles.Identity)" DestinationFolder="%(PackageFiles.DestDir)" />
</Target>

edit A more performant and maybe more logical way is to specify the DestDir directly when building the PackageDir list:

  <ItemGroup>
    <Dirs Include="$([System.IO.Directory]::GetDirectories( `$(SourceDir)`, `*`, System.IO.SearchOption.AllDirectories))"/>
    <PackageDirs Include="%(Dirs.Identity)" Condition="$([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::IsMatch( %(Filename), '.*$(PackageString)' ))">
      <DestDir>$(DestDir)$([System.IO.Path]::GetFilename( %(Dirs.Identity) ).Replace( $(PackageString), '' ))</DestDir>
    </PackageDirs>
    <PackageFiles Include="%(PackageDirs.Identity)\*.*">
      <DestDir>%(PackageDirs.DestDir)</DestDir>
    </PackageFiles>
  </ItemGroup>

Upvotes: 3

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