Is there a way to have different application settings per each build configuration?
I would like to be able to batch build a few configurations with different settings, instead of having to change the settings and build, rinse repeat.
Thanks in advance!
I don't know much about the appsettings architecture (I've never really used it), but you can define different values for constants using a bit of MSBuild magic.
Create two .cs files, Constants1.cs and Constants2.cs (or name them after your configurations).
In each file, define a class called Constants (or whatever) -- but do it as if each file were the only definition (ie. use the same class name). Typically, this should just define public static readonly fields -- do not use const, as that can get you into trouble with partial builds.
Now Unload your project file and Edit it. Find the entries that look like this:
<Compile Include="Constants1.cs" />
<Compile Include="Constants2.cs" />
and change them like so:
<Compile Include="Constants1.cs" Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='Debug'" />
<Compile Include="Constants2.cs" Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='Release'" />
Finally Save and Reload your project. Now only one of the files will actually be built at a time, depending on your build configuration.
You could add a prebuild or postbuild task to the proj, you have access to the ConfigurationName from there. Would be fairly easy to do something like "copy Web.config.debug Web.config"
Besides all these, MS promised to add this feature in VS 2010.
What do you mean under 'application settings' ? Project's property for each configuration such as Debug or Release? Or defirent app.conf file for each of them?
If first, you can create a number of configurations with suitable settings and use Batch Build to build them by turn.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/169az28z.aspx
or as Google Ninja said, use pre-build task:
del Web.config app.config
copy Web.config.Debug Web.config
(create a number of configuration files before it)
Related
I am trying to build two dlls using the same TargetFramework. I am using MSBuildSdkExtras to be able to have multiple TargetFramework <TargetFrameworks>Xamarin.iOS10;MonoAndroid10.0</TargetFrameworks> and conditional compilations for the source files, e.g. <ItemGroup Condition=" $(TargetFramework.StartsWith('MonoAndroid')) ">.
However I want to be able to generate two different .dlls for MonoAndroid, with different source files, and can't see how to do this without replicating the .csproj file, along with a common .csproj for common source code.
Is there a simpler way?
You can add a new, user defined configuration type (in addition to Debug and Release). Use the configuration manager for this (easiest from the dropdown menu in the toolbar, where it says Debug or Release). Select the last entry to add new configurations. The downside is that maintaining this extra configuration may be cumbersome.
I have a c# ClickOnce application that I need to be able to publish multiple times for OEM purposes.
The way I understand it now is that publish settings are located in the .csproj file.
However, this is inconvenient in the case where I want to publish multiple versions.
for example, Company A needs totally different icons, start menu location, product name etc. from Company B, but the assemblies need not be renamed.
Here are a couple approaches/questions that I can think of to solve this issue...
1.Is there a way to create a separate publish settings file to use during build time?
2.Can I edit specific publish settings (like Start Menu location, etc) at build time with MSBuild.exe? I think this would be ideal...
e.g.
MSBuild.exe project.sln /target:Publish /property:edit-project-publish-settings-here
3.Maybe create a 2nd .csproj file? (Would prefer not to do this...)
Please share your thoughts as to the best approach, or any other clever ways to make this happen. Thanks!
I wish I could give you some brilliant solution, but personally I would probably go with option 3.
I mean, its pretty simple, the changes should be pretty static and it will be difficult(ish) to totally screw it up and deploy the wrong changes to the wrong company.
If you copy the .csproj in your project folder, it will reference all of the same source files and you can just change the executable name. Create another VS solution and you can reference the copied .csproj and get rid of your first one so that you can publish two separate versions.
This isn't ideal for ClickOnce however.
If you use a Singleton object that specifies the "mode" (Company A, B, C, etc.) you can easily store that in the app.config (or another xml file). Then just re-publish your ClickOnce Application but copy the correct version of your configuration file in so it gets shipped with the build. This way, you don't need any additional csprojects Just include all of your icons and set them at run-time on App Start based on your Singleton object.
I found that you are able to edit certain properties using MSBuild.exe like this
MSBuild Solution.sln /target:publish /property:ProductName=ProductA\;Publisher=CompanyA\;ApplicationIcon=companyA.ico
I found another useful post on modifying.csproj files programatically with .NET code. (This would only be needed if you're modifying things that are deeper than just the project properties specified in the ClickOnce documentation below)
The MSBuild documentation here was also useful -- especially under Publishing Properties
I have a solution which is built for several customers, and I need to be able to specify different xml files for each customer. How can I do this automatically. I was thinking it might be done with different configurations, but can't seem to figure out how.
Any suggestions?
EDIT:
This is the code used for declaring the xml file right now:
protected readonly static string XML_PATH = #"Resources/xml/Description.xml";
And the way it is solved now is to manually copy the correct file to the Description.xml before building. This is of course error prone, and I would like to automate it, preferentially based on the configuration. I'm looking for a quick fix right now, as we unfortunately haven't got the time to refactor the code.
Build Configuration dependent config files are a tricky issue and there are multiple ways to solve it.
If you want to down the road you outlined, you would need to manually edit the *.csproj File and add a Conditional ItemGroup to include the correct xml file. The syntax below hasn't been checked, but something like this should do
<ItemGroup Condition="'${Configuration}' == 'DEBUG'">
<Content Include="blablabl.xml"/>
</ItemGroup>
I don't remember if Content was the right ItemGroup, but simply check what ItemGroup your current .xmls are in and use that.
Based on your reformulated question:
You could use conditional compilation (caveat: It's messy and not the right way to manage config files!):
protected readonly static string XML_PATH =
#if DEBUG
#"Resources/xml/Description.xml";
#else
#"Resources/xml/Description2.xml";
#endif
If you want to read up on better techniques for managing config files, this is worth a read.
Now, I now self-promotion is frowned upon, but in this case I hope it's ok as it sounds relevant to the question, and I don't gain anything from this.
Recently I wrote a couple of blog posts on how to target multiple environments/machines:
Targeting multiple environments and machines - part 1/2
Targeting multiple environments and machines – part 2/2
As I understand it, the problem in this case, is how do you automatically build the correct set of files without having to manually figure out which files belong to which customer/environment. The solution I propose in the blog posts, suggests the use of nAnt along with some extensions built on top. nAnt is the .NET versions of Ant, a build tool, which lets you generate e.g. xml files given a specific set of input files, allowing you for example to generate a customer specific web.config file.
In the following appSetting section of the web.config file, say you want to specify a different value for the CustomerName key for each customer:
<appSettings>
<add key="CustomerName" value="${CustomerName}"/>
</appSettings>
Instead of specifying a value for the CustomerName key, you define a property called CustomerName. Now, assuming we are using nAnt, you create another customer specific file with the following content:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<target xmlns="http://nant.sf.net/release/0.86-beta1/nant.xsd">
<property name="CustomerName" value="Acme Incorporated"/>
</target>
nAnt can then merge these two files and automatically build customer/environment specific files for you.
The solution I go through, allow you to automatically build environment and machine specific files, such as the web.config file, but also allow you to output static files such as license files or libraries, all depending on which environment/machine you are targeting. I also supply a sample Visual Studio 2010 solution that shows a very basic example on how to do it, which you can download here.
You can of course just go ahead and take a look at nAnt, but I thought I'd provide you with the option to use my solution.
I have finished my program in c#, hit build solution, and grabbed the exe out of the bin folder in my project directory. I noticed the description under the filename was "WindowsFormApplication1". I browsed briefly through any fields in the solutions explorer I might change, but nothing worked. Am I doing the right thing to release my program, and/or where can you change that description? I would like to just pass the exe around.
Two methods.
Right click on project=>properties=>Application=>Assembly Information...
Solution Explorer=>Project=>Properties folder=>AssemblyInfo.cs
You can change them in the project properties at Application -> Assembly Information....
If you're concerned about the meta data in general, you may want to disable the pdb at Build -> Advanced... -> Debug Info or the assembly will contain the full path to the .pdb file, wich usually contains the user name.
I'd like to add that in case you're working with multiple projects in one solution, one could create a separate build properties file. This way you don't need to set the properties per project.
Create the file Directory.Build.Props in the solution folder.
Add the following properties
<Project>
<PropertyGroup>
<Version>1.0.0.0<Version>
<AssemblyVersion>1.0.0.0</AssemblyVersion>
<FileVersion>1.0.0.0</FileVersion>
<Company>Stack Exchange Inc.</Company>
<Authors>Jeff Atwood, Joel Spolsky</Authors>
<Copyright>user contributions licensed under cc by-sa. rev 2020.10.26.37891</Copyright>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
I have a C# class library project with some settings in Settings.settings. I need to be able to change these settings at build time based on the configuration (Debug, Release, etc.).
It's fairly straightforward to add a pre-build event to copy Settings.<configuration>.settings to Settings.settings, but as it turns out - this doesn't help! The settings are taken from Settings.Designer.cs which is generated from Settings.settings as soon as you save your changes (i.e. at code edit time).
Is there a way to regenerate Settings.Designer.cs from Settings.settings at compile time? Or is this the wrong way to go about modifying configuration settings?
The Settings.Designer.cs is generated by the IDE, not MSBuild. So, no, changing that file at compile time won't have any effect. You didn't document your question well enough to offer the best alternative, but it sure sounds like using a setting wasn't the correct choice.