Using msbuild to execute a File System Publish Profile

Question

I have a c# .Net 4.0 project created with VS2010 and now being accessed with VS2012.

I'm trying to publish only the needed files from this website to a destination location (C:\builds\MyProject[Files])

My file structure: ./ProjectRoot/MyProject.csproj ./ProjectRoot/Properties/PublishProfiles/FileSystemDebug.pubxml

I'm running the following via MSBuild:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe ./ProjectRoot/MyProject.csproj /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=./ProjectRoot/Properties/PublishProfiles/FileSystemDebug.pubxml

Here's the xml in FileSystemDebug.pubxml

<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <WebPublishMethod>FileSystem</WebPublishMethod>
    <LastUsedBuildConfiguration>Release</LastUsedBuildConfiguration>
    <LastUsedPlatform>Any CPU</LastUsedPlatform>
    <SiteUrlToLaunchAfterPublish />
    <ExcludeApp_Data>False</ExcludeApp_Data>
    <publishUrl>C:\builds\MyProject\</publishUrl>
    <DeleteExistingFiles>True</DeleteExistingFiles>
  </PropertyGroup>
</Project>

The resulting behavior is:

• a zip file is created here:./ProjectRoot/obj/Debug/Package/MyProject.zip
• Nothing is deployed to <publishUrl>C:\builds\MyProject\</publishUrl> WTF
• the zip file that is created is a pigs breakfast and full of files that aren't needed for the application.

When I run this publish profile through visual studio a folder is created at *C:\builds\MyProject* and contains the exact artifacts that I want.

How do I get this simple result from msbuild?

Answer 1

FYI: I had the same issue with Visual Studio 2015. After many of hours trying, I can now do msbuild myproject.csproj /p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:PublishProfile=myprofile.

I had to edit my .csproj file to get it working. It contained a line like this:

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" 
  Condition="false" />

I changed this line as follows:

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v14.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />

(I changed 10.0 to 14.0, not sure whether this was necessary. But I definitely had to remove the condition part.)