How to Publish Web with msbuild

Question

Visual Studio 2010 has a Publish command that allows you to publish your Web Application Project to a file system location  I d like to do this on my TeamCity build server  so I need to do it with the solution runner or msbuild  I tried using the Publish target  but I think that might be for ClickOnce   msbuild Project csproj  t Publish  p Configuration Deploy   I basically want to do exactly what a web deployment project does  but without the add-in  I need it to compile the WAP  remove any files unnecessary for execution  perform any web config transformations  and copy the output to a specified location   My Solution  based on Jeff Siver s answer   lt Target Name  Deploy  gt       lt MSBuild Projects    SolutionFile                 Properties  Configuration   Configuration  DeployOnBuild true DeployTarget Package                ContinueOnError  false    gt       lt Exec Command   amp quot   ProjectPath  obj   Configuration  Package   ProjectName  deploy cmd amp quot   y  m   DeployServer  -enableRule DoNotDeleteRule             ContinueOnError  false    gt   lt  Target gt

User · Answer

found two different solutions which worked in slightly different way:

1. This solution is inspired by the answer from alexanderb [link]. Unfortunately it did not work for us - some dll's were not copied to the OutDir. We found out that replacing ResolveReferences with Build target solves the problem - now all necessary files are copied into the OutDir location.

msbuild /target:Build;_WPPCopyWebApplication  /p:Configuration=Release;OutDir=C:\Tmp\myApp\ MyApp.csproj

Disadvantage of this solution was the fact that OutDir contained not only files for publish.

2. The first solution works well but not as we expected. We wanted to have the publish functionality as it is in Visual Studio IDE - i.e. only the files which should be published will be copied into the Output directory. As it has been already mentioned first solution copies much more files into the OutDir - the website for publish is then stored in _PublishedWebsites/{ProjectName} subfolder. The following command solves this - only the files for publish will be copied to desired folder. So now you have directory which can be directly published - in comparison with the first solution you will save some space on hard drive.

msbuild /target:Build;PipelinePreDeployCopyAllFilesToOneFolder /p:Configuration=Release;_PackageTempDir=C:\Tmp\myApp\;AutoParameterizationWebConfigConnectionStrings=false MyApp.csproj

AutoParameterizationWebConfigConnectionStrings=false parameter will guarantee that connection strings will not be handled as special artifacts and will be correctly generated - for more information see link.

User · Answer

You can Publish the Solution with desired path by below code  Here PublishInDFolder is the name that has the path where we need to publish we need to create this in below pic   You can create publish file like this  Add below 2 lines of code in batch file  bat    echo OFF  call  C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise Common7 Tools VsMSBuildCmd bat  MSBuild exe  D   Solution  DataLink sln  p DeployOnBuild true  p PublishProfile PublishInDFolder pause

User · Answer

I don t know TeamCity so I hope this can work for you   The best way I ve found to do this is with MSDeploy exe   This is part of the WebDeploy project run by Microsoft   You can download the bits here     With WebDeploy  you run the command line  msdeploy exe -verb sync -source contentPath c  webApp -dest contentPath c  DeployedWebApp   This does the same thing as the VS Publish command  copying only the necessary bits to the deployment folder

User · Answer

this is my working batch  publish-my-website bat  SET MSBUILD PATH  C  Program Files  x86  Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise MSBuild 15 0 Bin  SET PUBLISH DIRECTORY  C  MyWebsitePublished  SET PROJECT  D  Github MyWebSite csproj    cd  d  MSBUILD PATH  MSBuild  PROJECT    p DeployOnBuild True  p DeployDefaultTarget WebPublish  p WebPublishMethod FileSystem  p DeleteExistingFiles True  p publishUrl  PUBLISH DIRECTORY    Note that I installed Visual Studio on server to be able to run MsBuild exe because the MsBuild exe in  Net Framework folders don t work

User · Answer

You must set your environments    lt  WebSite name   lt  domain    and reference my blog  sorry post was Korean    http   xyz37 blog me 50124665657 http   blog naver com PostSearchList nhn SearchText webdeploy amp blogId xyz37 amp x 25 amp y 7   ECHO OFF    http   stackoverflow com questions 5598668 valid-parameters-for-msdeploy-via-msbuild   -DeployOnBuild -True    -False       -DeployTarget -MsDeployPublish    -Package       -Configuration -Name of a valid solution configuration       -CreatePackageOnPublish -True    -False       -DeployIisAppPath - lt Web Site Name gt   lt Folder gt        -MsDeployServiceUrl -Location of MSDeploy installation you want to use       -MsDeployPublishMethod -WMSVC  Web Management Service     -RemoteAgent       -AllowUntrustedCertificate  used with self-signed SSL certificates  -True    -False       -UserName   -Password SETLOCAL  IF EXIST   SystemRoot  Microsoft NET Framework v2 0 50727  SET FXPath   SystemRoot  Microsoft NET Framework v2 0 50727  IF EXIST   SystemRoot  Microsoft NET Framework v3 5  SET FXPath   SystemRoot  Microsoft NET Framework v3 5  IF EXIST   SystemRoot  Microsoft NET Framework v4 0 30319  SET FXPath   SystemRoot  Microsoft NET Framework v4 0 30319   SET targetFile  lt web site fullPath ie    trunk WebServer WebServer csproj SET configuration Release SET msDeployServiceUrl https    lt domain gt  8172 MsDeploy axd SET msDeploySite   lt WebSite name gt   SET userName  WebDeploy  SET password  USERNAME  SET platform AnyCPU SET msbuild  FXPath  MSBuild exe  MaxCpuCount  NUMBER OF PROCESSORS   clp ShowCommandLine   MSBuild   targetFile   p configuration  configuration  Platform  platform   p DeployOnBuild True  p DeployTarget MsDeployPublish  p CreatePackageOnPublish False  p DeployIISAppPath  msDeploySite   p MSDeployPublishMethod WMSVC  p MsDeployServiceUrl  msDeployServiceUrl   p AllowUntrustedCertificate True  p UserName  USERNAME   p Password  password   p SkipExtraFilesOnServer True  p VisualStudioVersion 12 0  IF NOT   ERRORLEVEL     0  PAUSE  ENDLOCAL

User · Answer

I got it mostly working without a custom msbuild script  Here are the relevant TeamCity build configuration settings    Artifact paths   system teamcity build workingDir  MyProject obj Debug Package PackageTmp  Type of runner  MSBuild  Runner for MSBuild files   Build file path  MyProject MyProject csproj  Working directory  same as checkout directory  MSBuild version  Microsoft  NET Framework 4 0  MSBuild ToolsVersion  4 0  Run platform  x86  Targets  Package  Command line parameters to MSBuild exe   p Configuration Debug   This will compile  package  with web config transformation   and save the output as artifacts  The only thing missing is copying the output to a specified location  but that could be done either in another TeamCity build configuration with an artifact dependency or with an msbuild script   Update  Here is an msbuild script that will compile  package  with web config transformation   and copy the output to my staging server   lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  utf-8    gt   lt Project DefaultTargets  Build  xmlns  http   schemas microsoft com developer msbuild 2003  gt       lt PropertyGroup gt           lt Configuration Condition      Configuration           gt Release lt  Configuration gt           lt SolutionName gt MySolution lt  SolutionName gt           lt SolutionFile gt   SolutionName  sln lt  SolutionFile gt           lt ProjectName gt MyProject lt  ProjectName gt           lt ProjectFile gt   ProjectName    ProjectName  csproj lt  ProjectFile gt       lt  PropertyGroup gt        lt Target Name  Build  DependsOnTargets  BuildPackage CopyOutput    gt        lt Target Name  BuildPackage  gt           lt MSBuild Projects    SolutionFile   ContinueOnError  false  Targets  Rebuild  Properties  Configuration   Configuration     gt           lt MSBuild Projects    ProjectFile   ContinueOnError  false  Targets  Package  Properties  Configuration   Configuration     gt       lt  Target gt        lt Target Name  CopyOutput  gt           lt ItemGroup gt               lt PackagedFiles Include    ProjectName  obj   Configuration  Package PackageTmp          gt           lt  ItemGroup gt           lt Copy SourceFiles    PackagedFiles   DestinationFiles    PackagedFiles- gt    build02 wwwroot   ProjectName    Configuration    RecursiveDir   Filename   Extension      gt       lt  Target gt   lt  Project gt    You can also remove the SolutionName and ProjectName properties from the PropertyGroup tag and pass them to msbuild   msbuild build xml  p Configuration Deploy SolutionName MySolution ProjectName MyProject   Update 2  Since this question still gets a good deal of traffic  I thought it was worth updating my answer with my current script that uses Web Deploy  also known as MSDeploy     lt Project xmlns  http   schemas microsoft com developer msbuild 2003  DefaultTargets  Build  ToolsVersion  4 0  gt     lt PropertyGroup gt       lt Configuration Condition      Configuration           gt Release lt  Configuration gt       lt ProjectFile Condition      ProjectFile           gt   ProjectName    ProjectName  csproj lt  ProjectFile gt       lt DeployServiceUrl Condition      DeployServiceUrl           gt http   staging-server MSDeployAgentService lt  DeployServiceUrl gt     lt  PropertyGroup gt      lt Target Name  VerifyProperties  gt       lt  -- Verify that we have values for all required properties -- gt       lt Error Condition      ProjectName           Text  ProjectName is required     gt     lt  Target gt      lt Target Name  Build  DependsOnTargets  VerifyProperties  gt       lt  -- Deploy using windows authentication -- gt       lt MSBuild Projects    ProjectFile                Properties  Configuration   Configuration                                MvcBuildViews False                               DeployOnBuild true                               DeployTarget MSDeployPublish                               CreatePackageOnPublish True                               AllowUntrustedCertificate True                               MSDeployPublishMethod RemoteAgent                               MsDeployServiceUrl   DeployServiceUrl                                SkipExtraFilesOnServer True                               UserName                                Password                 ContinueOnError  false    gt     lt  Target gt   lt  Project gt    In TeamCity  I have parameters named env Configuration  env ProjectName and env DeployServiceUrl  The MSBuild runner has the build file path and the parameters are passed automagically  you don t have to specify them in Command line parameters    You can also run it from the command line   msbuild build xml  p Configuration Staging ProjectName MyProject DeployServiceUrl http   staging-server MSDeployAgentService

User · Answer

I came up with such solution  works great for me   msbuild  t ResolveReferences  WPPCopyWebApplication  p BuildingProject true OutDir C  Temp build  Test csproj   The secret sauce is  WPPCopyWebApplication target

User · Answer

This my batch file  C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework v4 0 30319 MSBuild exe C  Projects testPublish testPublish csproj   p DeployOnBuild true  property Configuration Release if exist  C  PublishDirectory  rd  q  s  C  PublishDirectory  C  Windows Microsoft NET Framework v4 0 30319 aspnet compiler exe -v   -p C  Projects testPublish obj Release Package PackageTmp -c C  PublishDirectory cd C  PublishDirectory bin  del   xml del   pdb

User · Answer

Using the deployment profiles introduced in VS 2012  you can publish with the following command line   msbuild MyProject csproj  p DeployOnBuild true  p PublishProfile  lt profile-name gt   p Password  lt insert-password gt   p VisualStudioVersion 11 0   For more information on the parameters see this   The values for the  p VisualStudioVersion parameter depend on your version of Visual Studio  Wikipedia has a table of Visual Studio releases and their versions

User · Answer

With VisualStudio 2012 there is a way to handle subj without publish profiles  You can pass output folder using parameters  It works both with absolute and relative path in  publishUrl  parameter  You can use VS100COMNTOOLS  however you need to override VisualStudioVersion to use target  WebPublish  from  ProgramFiles  MSBuild Microsoft VisualStudio v11 0 WebApplications Microsoft WebApplication targets  With VisualStudioVersion 10 0 this script will succeed with no outputs     Update  I ve managed to use this method on a build server with just Windows SDK 7 1 installed  no Visual Studio 2010 and 2012 on a machine   But I had to follow these steps to make it work    Make Windows SDK 7 1 current on a machine using Simmo answer  https   stackoverflow com a 2907056 2164198  Setting Registry Key HKEY LOCAL MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft VisualStudio SxS VS7 10 0 to  C  Program Files Microsoft Visual Studio 10 0    use your path as appropriate  Copying folder  ProgramFiles  MSBuild Microsoft VisualStudio v11 0 from my developer machine to build server   Script   set WORK DIR   dp0 pushd  WORK DIR  set OUTPUTS  WORK DIR    Outputs set CONFIG   1 if   CONFIG       set CONFIG Release set VSTOOLS   VS100COMNTOOLS   if  VSTOOLS      set  PATH  PATH   WINDIR  Microsoft NET Framework v4 0 30319   amp  amp  goto skipvsinit call   VSTOOLS  1 -1 vsvars32 bat  if errorlevel 1 goto end  skipvsinit msbuild exe Project csproj  t WebPublish  p Configuration  CONFIG   p VisualStudioVersion 11 0  p WebPublishMethod FileSystem  p publishUrl  OUTPUTS  Project if errorlevel 1 goto end  end popd exit  b  ERRORLEVEL

User · Answer

For generating the publish output provide one more parameter  msbuild example sln  p publishprofile profilename  p deployonbuild true  p configuration debug or any

[asp.net] How to Publish Web with msbuild?

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