Develop Reference

How do I build a node project during a visual studio build, separately from a C# project?

Visual Studio 2019 comes with Single Page App templates for .net Core apps. The React typescript template sets up the project like the following:
Create a Solution in the Project/Project.sln
Create an ASP.NET Core REST endpoint example in Project/WebApi/WebApi.csproj
Contains a Single Page app in the Project/WebApi/ClientApp folder.
Build that project as part of building the rest of that project.
I'd like to do the same, but instead of having the node project embedded in the C# project folder, have them be separate projects within the same solution. So instead of:
* Project/Project.sln
* Project/WebApi/Startup.cs // and all other C# code
* Project/WebApi/ClientApp/package.json // and all other node/typescript code
I'd rather set up the project like:
* Project/Project.sln
* Project/WebApi/Startup.cs // and all other C# code
* Project/ClientApp/package.json // and all other node/typescript code.
What's the best way to go about separating out the node project from the C# project, and still get it to all build as part of the solution's build?
Bonus: how do I do this with just the dotnet command?

The basic idea behind how this can be accomplished involves touching two things:
You have to be able to serve static content (or front-end libraries) from node_modules that will be located inside a separate project
Every time you build a project, npm install should be triggered to make sure that all front-end dependencies are in place.
To be able to serve from node_modules, you either have to modify the UseStaticFiles() middleware yourself, or use OdeToCode.UseNodeModules and tweak it so that the path points to the folder inside the different project.
Finally, automatic postbuild actions can be set up inside .csproj file. Sample:
<Target Name="PostBuild" AfterTargets="ComputeFilesToPublish">
<Exec Command="npm install"/>
</Target>

Azure DevOps XML Transformation During Release Not Working

I want to configure our pipeline to allow one build to be used for multiple environments without having to create separate builds. According to the docs, it seems like it is possible, as it says:
You can use this technique to create a default package and deploy it to multiple stages.
I named my stage as my environment (preview), and I created a web.config file for that environment (web.preview.config) file. All my environment configuration files in the same path as Web.Config file.
The logs say transformation was complete:
2018-11-17T00:26:52.0383966Z [command]D:\a_tasks\AzureRmWebAppDeployment_497d490f-eea7-4f2b-ab94-48d9c1acdcb1\3.4.13\ctt\ctt.exe s:D:\a_temp\temp_web_package_06958915987488234\Content\D_C\a\1\s\Microsoft.Xbox.Mvp\Microsoft.Xbox.Mvp.Api\obj\Preview\Package\PackageTmp\bin\Web.config t:D:\a_temp\temp_web_package_06958915987488234\Content\D_C\a\1\s\Microsoft.Xbox.Mvp\Microsoft.Xbox.Mvp.Api\obj\Preview\Package\PackageTmp\bin\Web.Release.config d:D:\a_temp\temp_web_package_06958915987488234\Content\D_C\a\1\s\Microsoft.Xbox.Mvp\Microsoft.Xbox.Mvp.Api\obj\Preview\Package\PackageTmp\bin\Web.config pw i
2018-11-17T00:26:52.4335280Z [command]D:\a_tasks\AzureRmWebAppDeployment_497d490f-eea7-4f2b-ab94-48d9c1acdcb1\3.4.13\ctt\ctt.exe s:D:\a_temp\temp_web_package_06958915987488234\Content\D_C\a\1\s\Microsoft.Xbox.Mvp\Microsoft.Xbox.Mvp.Api\obj\Preview\Package\PackageTmp\bin\Web.config t:D:\a_temp\temp_web_package_06958915987488234\Content\D_C\a\1\s\Microsoft.Xbox.Mvp\Microsoft.Xbox.Mvp.Api\obj\Preview\Package\PackageTmp\bin\Web.Preview.config d:D:\a_temp\temp_web_package_06958915987488234\Content\D_C\a\1\s\Microsoft.Xbox.Mvp\Microsoft.Xbox.Mvp.Api\obj\Preview\Package\PackageTmp\bin\Web.config pw i
2018-11-17T00:26:52.5443873Z XML Transformations applied successfully
I can see that it first transformed to release and then it applied preview as the doc says (release then environment). However, although it says XML Transformations applied successfully, when I check the config variables, they are not changed. The only way I could make the transformation work was to define the buildConfiguration variable when I queue a new build, which blocks me from using the same build for different environments.
When I was researching, I found this from this link:
Web.config is transformed during the build process, if you generate the deployment package from "Build" and then deploy it in "Release", then you cannot transform it before deployment.
But the doc said I can use one default package for multiple stages...Does that still mean I have to create separate build for each environment? Is XML transformation not what I should be looking at for the scenario I wanna solve?
Thank you in advance!
++ Edit:
Release Settings:
Release steps (I think? I have a strong feeling that this is what you are looking for...):

1) Make sure you transform works. Test it
here.
2) Ensure in your VS project that you are including the transform file, Web.Preview.config, and copying to output dir.
3) Disable the config transform during the build, you just need to add argument /p:TransformWebConfigEnabled=False in MSBuild Arguments section of your Build task. You also need to add /p:AutoParameterizationWebConfigConnectionStrings=False if you want to update the connection string during the release. This will use the Web.Preview.config to "transform" the web.config.
4) Double check that in your release for the IIS Web App Deploy task under File Transforms & Variable Substitution Options you have XML transformation checked.

None of the answers I found on the internet worked for me on their own for my build and release pipeline. The web.config I got from the release pipeline was always pointing to the non transformed values.
After a few hours pulling my hair I got it to work though.
Some short info about my setup
I want to be able to deploy on all environments with just one build and one release pipeline.
My setup:
One build pipeline that builds all of our standard branches (test,
release, master).
One release pipeline that has different stages
depending on branch that started the release.
Our test stage releases the test branch on our test server.
Stage/Production comes from the same release branch but have their own transform files.
Solution
I followed some of the guide from Microsoft and set up my web.<environment_name>.config to match the release stage names.
I did not need to remove the <Dependent Upon> rows from my .csproj for each transform. Instead all I did was set the property Build Action of each transform to Content as shown by the image bellow.
I then added these commands to the build pipeline's Build Solution -> MSBuild Arguments:
/p:MarkWebConfigAssistFilesAsExclude=false
/p:TransformWebConfigEnabled=false
/p:AutoParameterizationWebConfigConnectionStrings=False
The build now does not try to transform the .config on it's own and also does not exclude the transform files from the artifact, allowing the release pipeline to do the transformation instead. Also, keeping the <Dependent On> for the transform files lets us have a "cleaner" look inside our code editors.

I just got this working so I could have one build with deployment to multiple environments. This is what I did.
In the code, I set each Web.<Environment>.config property to Build Action = "Content". I also set all mine to Copy to Output Directory = "Copy Always". I also unloaded the project and edit the csproj file, then removed the <DependendUpon>Web.config</DependentUpon> lines. This dumps all your web.configs to the root (no file nesting).
In the build, I set pipeline variable BuildConfiguration = "Release". I don't have a Web.Release.config in my project.
In the release, I named the deployment stage after the environment (in my case, Development, Staging, and Production). In all stages, on the Azure deployment task, I checked the XML transform checkbox.
In Azure, I set the ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT to the naming of the staging environment, in my case, Development, Staging, and Production).

I just got this working as well. My issue was actually at the Visual Studio Solution level. I had the MVC project pointed to a different Configuration than the others. So always double check the configs!

Run a c# console application in build process

Suppose we have a solution with three projects:
DownloadDataBase is a console application that downloads data from web and creates a sqlite db file
Test is the main windows from application that uses the downloaded sqlite database.
TestLibrary is a class library that is referenced by the Test project.
I know How I can reorder the build of these three projects using Configuration Manager from build menu. But The main question is : How can I customize build process of the solution so that:
It first builds the DownloadDataBase
Then executes this console application DownloadDataBase
After that copy the created sqlite file from the last step to the resource directory of the Test Project
And Finally builds the Test project using the updated sqlite file?
Therefore every time that I build the new release I will have the latest data needed by my application.
Thanks for any help

You'll need to customize your MSBuild project files (i.e. .csproj files).
For example, in your DownloadDatabase project, add at the bottom of the XML file, inside the <project> element:
<Target AfterTargets="AfterBuild">
<Exec Command="$(ProjectDir)$(OutputPath)$(AssemblyName).$(OutputType)" />
<Copy SourceFiles="$(ProjectDir)$(OutputPath)file.db" DestinationFolder="$(SolutionDir)Test" />
</Target>
Maybe there's some mistake, but at the end of the day, you need to use MSBuild tasks to perform these actions.
See Exec and Copy MSBuild task documentation pages to get further details.

Post build events in Script#

I'm trying to create post build events to copy the final .js and .debug.js files for my script# projects into the proper directories. I can't use the regular output folder, since I have more than one project that references another project, and that always results in a build error (Unable to copy referenced script because it is being used by another process).
The problem is that the C# compiler appears to run the post build events BEFORE it writes the actual .js files, so they don't exist when the post build event happens.
Is there any other solution to make this work?

You can set up a DeploymentPath property in your csproj and the generated scripts will be copied there.
All of the logic is in here: https://github.com/nikhilk/scriptsharp/blob/cc/src/Core/Build/Tasks/ScriptCompilerTask.cs ... so another option is to customize the build task to exactly your requirements.
The latest work if you check out the github repo, also has the script# part of the build process done during the build step of an msbuild project, so that should free up the post-build step for you to do what you'd like with the generated scripts. See https://github.com/nikhilk/scriptsharp/blob/cc/src/Core/Build/ScriptSharp.targets. Again, its just msbuild stuff, so you could potentially customize the .targets file to your liking as well if it doesn't fit your needs.

I got around this by adding the "copy" command as a pre build step on the projects that were using the script# project output, then adding a dependency so that the script# project would be built first.

TransformXml Web.config while publishing

I'm trying to use the TransformXml task to get all the config transformed at one shot irrespective of the build configuration that is selected in visual studio. I'm able to accomplish it by editing the .csproj file and here is it.
<UsingTask TaskName="TransformXml" AssemblyFile="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.Tasks.dll"/>
<Target Name="TransformWebConfig" AfterTargets="AfterPublish">
<TransformXml Source="$(SolutionDir)WCFServices\Web.config"
Transform="$(SolutionDir)WCFServices\Web.Release.config"
Destination="$(OutDir)WebRelease.config"
StackTrace="true" />
</Target>
The problem here is while I do a publish, the transformed config files gets placed in the output dir but this happens before the delete operation. I would need the configs to be transformed after the delete operation.
Please advise?

Beware MSBuild and VSBuild DO differ. Afterpublish is VERY limited
Try having msbuild save the emitted sln Also here.
Have you verified the file is getting transformed at the expected time? Add in a <message importance="high" text="Doing Custom Transform" /> before your transformxml call, then another message with different text Finished Custom Transform after this call.
This post speaks directly to your desire to do things involving the specialized publishing targets.
General msbuild debugging information:
Hopefully this behavior IS msbuild dependant instead of VSBuild, since the two build processes differ. If you are in luck and this is following the same behavior as MSBuild would follow the msbuild debugging process:
As with any magical behavior in msbuild, in your CSProj file look for any import target= code and go find those files. Following these through will lead you to the part that is making the decision about any of this.
Also you can attach VS's debugger to your build process - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2010/07/06/debugging-msbuild-script-with-visual-studio.aspx + http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudio/archive/2010/07/09/debugging-msbuild-script-with-visual-studio-2.aspx
Determining build order
Also in crank up the build verbosity temporarily http://blogs.msdn.com/b/msbuild/archive/2005/09/29/475157.aspx