This code produces a FileNotFoundException, but ultimately runs without issue:
void ReadXml()
{
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyClass));
//...
}
Here is the exception:
A first chance exception of type 'System.IO.FileNotFoundException' occurred in mscorlib.dll
Additional information: Could not load file or assembly 'MyAssembly.XmlSerializers, Version=1.4.3190.15950, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
It appears that the framework automatically generates the serialization assembly if it isn't found. I can generate it manually using sgen.exe, which alleviates the exception.
How do I get visual studio to generate the XML Serialization assembly automatically?
Update: The Generate Serialization Assembly: On setting doesn't appear to do anything.
As Martin has explained in his answer, turning on generation of the serialization assembly through the project properties is not enough because the SGen task is adding the /proxytypes switch to the sgen.exe command line.
Microsoft has a documented MSBuild property which allows you to disable the /proxytypes switch and causes the SGen Task to generate the serialization assemblies even if there are no proxy types in the assembly.
SGenUseProxyTypes
A boolean value that indicates whether proxy types
should be generated by SGen.exe. The SGen target uses this property to
set the UseProxyTypes flag. This property defaults to true, and there
is no UI to change this. To generate the serialization assembly for
non-webservice types, add this property to the project file and set it
to false before importing the Microsoft.Common.Targets or the
C#/VB.targets
As the documentation suggests you must modify your project file by hand, but you can add the SGenUseProxyTypes property to your configuration to enable generation. Your project files configuration would end up looking something like this:
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|x86' ">
<!-- Snip... -->
<GenerateSerializationAssemblies>On</GenerateSerializationAssemblies>
<SGenUseProxyTypes>false</SGenUseProxyTypes>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|x86' ">
<!-- Snip... -->
<GenerateSerializationAssemblies>On</GenerateSerializationAssemblies>
<SGenUseProxyTypes>false</SGenUseProxyTypes>
</PropertyGroup>
This is how I managed to do it by modifying the MSBUILD script in my .CSPROJ file:
First, open your .CSPROJ file as a file rather than as a project. Scroll to the bottom of the file until you find this commented out code, just before the close of the Project tag:
<!-- To modify your build process, add your task inside one of the targets below and uncomment it. Other similar extension points exist, see Microsoft.Common.targets.
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
</Target>
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
</Target>
-->
Now we just insert our own AfterBuild target to delete any existing XmlSerializer and SGen our own, like so:
<Target Name="AfterBuild" DependsOnTargets="AssignTargetPaths;Compile;ResolveKeySource" Inputs="$(MSBuildAllProjects);#(IntermediateAssembly)" Outputs="$(OutputPath)$(_SGenDllName)">
<!-- Delete the file because I can't figure out how to force the SGen task. -->
<Delete
Files="$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).XmlSerializers.dll"
ContinueOnError="true" />
<SGen
BuildAssemblyName="$(TargetFileName)"
BuildAssemblyPath="$(OutputPath)"
References="#(ReferencePath)"
ShouldGenerateSerializer="true"
UseProxyTypes="false"
KeyContainer="$(KeyContainerName)"
KeyFile="$(KeyOriginatorFile)"
DelaySign="$(DelaySign)"
ToolPath="$(TargetFrameworkSDKToolsDirectory)"
Platform="$(Platform)">
<Output
TaskParameter="SerializationAssembly"
ItemName="SerializationAssembly" />
</SGen>
</Target>
That works for me.
The other answers to this question have already mentioned the Project Properties->Build->Generate Serialization Assemblies setting but by default this will only generate the assembly if there are "XML Web service proxy types" in the project.
The best way to understand the exact behaviour of Visual Studio is to to examine the GenerateSerializationAssemblies target within the C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727**Microsoft.Common.targets** file.
You can check the result of this build task from the Visual Studio Output window and select Build from the Show output from: drop down box. You should see something along the lines of
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\bin\sgen.exe /assembly:D:\Temp\LibraryA\obj\Debug\LibraryA.dll /proxytypes /reference:.. /compiler:/delaysign-
LibraryA -> D:\Temp\LibraryA\bin\Debug\LibraryA.dll
The key point here is the /proxytypes switch. You can read about the various switches for the XML Serializer Generator Tool (Sgen.exe)
If you are familiar with MSBuild you could customise the GenerateSerializationAssemblies target so that SGen task has an attribute of UseProxyTypes="false" instead of true but
then you need to take on board all of the associated responsibility of customising the Visual Studio / MSBuild system. Alternatively you could just extend your build process to call SGen manually without the /proxytypes switch.
If you read the documentation for SGen they are fairly clear that Microsoft wanted to limit the use of this facility. Given the amount of noise on this topic, it's pretty clear that Microsoft did not do a great job with documenting the Visual Studio experience. There is even a Connect Feedback item for this issue and the response is not great.
creating a new sgen task definition breaks a fly on the wheel. just set the needed variables to make the task work as intended. Anyway the microsoft documentation lacks some important info.
Steps to pre-generate serialization assemblies
(with parts from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff798449.aspx)
In Visual Studio 2010, in Solution Explorer, right-click the project for which you want to generate serialization assemblies, and then click Unload Project.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the project for which you want to generate serialization assemblies, and then click Edit .csproj.
In the .csproj file, immediately after the <TargetFrameworkVersion>v?.?</TargetFrameworkVersion> element, add the following elements:
<SGenUseProxyTypes>false</SGenUseProxyTypes>
<SGenPlatformTarget>$(Platform)</SGenPlatformTarget>
In the .csproj file, in each platform configuration
e.g. <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|x86'">
add the following line:
<GenerateSerializationAssemblies>On</GenerateSerializationAssemblies>
Save and close the .csproj file.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the project you just edited, and then click Reload Project.
This procedure generates an additional assembly named .xmlSerializers.dll in your output folder. You will need to deploy this assembly with your solution.
Explanation
SGen by default only for proxy types generates for “Any CPU”. This happens if you don't set the according variables in your project file.
SGenPlatformTarget is required to match your PlatformTarget. I tend to think this is a bug in the project template. Why should the sgen target platform differ from your project's? If it does you will get a runtime exception
0x80131040: The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference
You can locate the msbuild task definition by analyzing your project file:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
where MSBuildToolsPath depends on your <TargetFrameworkVersion> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb397428.aspx
Look inside the SGen task definition for TargetFrameworkVersion 4.0 from
Windows installation path\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.CSharp.targets
to see the undocumented variables like $(SGenPlatformTarget) you are free to set in your project file
<Target
Name="GenerateSerializationAssemblies"
Condition="'$(_SGenGenerateSerializationAssembliesConfig)' == 'On' or ('#(WebReferenceUrl)'!='' and '$(_SGenGenerateSerializationAssembliesConfig)' == 'Auto')"
DependsOnTargets="AssignTargetPaths;Compile;ResolveKeySource"
Inputs="$(MSBuildAllProjects);#(IntermediateAssembly)"
Outputs="$(IntermediateOutputPath)$(_SGenDllName)">
<SGen
BuildAssemblyName="$(TargetFileName)"
BuildAssemblyPath="$(IntermediateOutputPath)"
References="#(ReferencePath)"
ShouldGenerateSerializer="$(SGenShouldGenerateSerializer)"
UseProxyTypes="$(SGenUseProxyTypes)"
KeyContainer="$(KeyContainerName)"
KeyFile="$(KeyOriginatorFile)"
DelaySign="$(DelaySign)"
ToolPath="$(SGenToolPath)"
SdkToolsPath="$(TargetFrameworkSDKToolsDirectory)"
EnvironmentVariables="$(SGenEnvironment)"
SerializationAssembly="$(IntermediateOutputPath)$(_SGenDllName)"
Platform="$(SGenPlatformTarget)"
Types="$(SGenSerializationTypes)">
<Output TaskParameter="SerializationAssembly" ItemName="SerializationAssembly"/>
</SGen>
</Target>
In case someone else runs into this problem suddenly after everything was working fine before: For me it had to do with the "Enable Just My Code (Managed Only)" checkbox being unchecked in the options menu (Options -> Debugging) (which was automatically switched off after installing .NET Reflector).
EDIT:
Which is to say, of course, that this exception was happening before, but when "enable just my code" is off, the debugging assistant (if enabled), will stop at this point when thrown.
I'm a little late to the party, but I found the previous answer difficult to work with. Specifically Visual Studio would crash whenever I tried to view the properties of my project. I figure this was due to the fact that it no longer understood how to read the csproj file. That said...
Add the following to your post-build event command line:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools\sgen.exe" "$(TargetPath)" /force
This will leverage sgen.exe directly to rebuild the Xml Serialization assembly every time you build your project for Debug or Release.
Look in the properties on the solution. On the build tab at the bottom there is a dropdown called "Generate Serialization assembly"
A slightly different solution from the one provided by brain backup could be to directly specify the platform target right where you have to use it like so:
<!-- Check the platform target value and if present use that for a correct *.XmlSerializer.dll platform setup (default is MSIL)-->
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(PlatformTarget)'=='' ">
<SGenPlatform>$(Platform)</SGenPlatform>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(PlatformTarget)'!='' ">
<SGenPlatform>$(PlatformTarget)</SGenPlatform>
</PropertyGroup>
<!-- Delete the file because I can't figure out how to force the SGen task. -->
<Delete Files="$(TargetDir)$(TargetName).XmlSerializers.dll" ContinueOnError="true" />
<SGen
BuildAssemblyName="$(TargetFileName)"
BuildAssemblyPath="$(OutputPath)"
References="#(ReferencePath)"
ShouldGenerateSerializer="true"
UseProxyTypes="false"
KeyContainer="$(KeyContainerName)"
KeyFile="$(KeyOriginatorFile)"
DelaySign="$(DelaySign)"
ToolPath="$(SGenToolPath)"
SdkToolsPath="$(TargetFrameworkSDKToolsDirectory)"
EnvironmentVariables="$(SGenEnvironment)"
Platform="$(SGenPlatform)">
<Output TaskParameter="SerializationAssembly" ItemName="SerializationAssembly" />
</SGen>
For anyone interested in doing so for .NET Core - please refer to this MS article: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/additional-tools/xml-serializer-generator
Basically, you just need to add one nuget package to your project.
Related
I need to build a solution, but exclude one project. How should I do it?
I searched a lot about this issue, but nothing could help.
An ItemGroup section rises the following exception:
Invalid element . Unknown task or datatype.
PropertyGroup also rises the exception.
Below is my code sample:
<project name="TI 8.1.6 build script">
<ItemGroup>
<Solution Include="${ROOT}\Core\TI Core.sln" Exclude="${ROOT}\Utilities\DTS Indexing Service\Tdi.Origami.IndexUpdaterServiceSetup\Tdi.Origami.IndexUpdaterServiceSetup.wixproj"/>
</ItemGroup>
...
</project>
How can I do this?
You can exclude projects at the solution level for a specific build configuration by using the Configuration Manager Dialog in Visual Studio:
Then you can simply invoke msbuild on the solution file specifying the build configuration to use:
msbuild /property:Configuration=Release MySolution.sln
The solution suggested by Enrico is the most versatile solution that would work always. An alternative solution might be to use a <MSBuild> task directly. This will work for you if you have all your project files under a particular directory, or be able to easily enumerate all projects you want to build (i.e. number of projects in your solution is not very big).
For example, this MSBuild file will build every project under your current directory except for a specific project:
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<MyProjectReferences Include="**\*.*proj" />
<MyProjectReferences Exclude="Utilities\DTS Indexing Service\Tdi.Origami.IndexUpdaterServiceSetup\Tdi.Origami.IndexUpdaterServiceSetup.wixproj" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="BuildAllExceptWixProject">
<MSBuild Projects="#(MyProjectReferences)" Targets="Build" />
</Target>
</Project>
Then you can build that using command line msbuild <myproject> /t:BuildAllExceptWixProject
In your solution file (.sln), remove the Build.0 entries. For example:
Project("{8BC9CEB8-8B4A-11D0-8D11-00A0C91BC942}") = "MyProject", "MyProject.vcxproj", "{2281D9E7-5261-433D-BB04-176A61500CA3}"
EndProject
GlobalSection(ProjectConfigurationPlatforms) = postSolution
{2281D9E7-5261-433D-BB04-176A61500CA3}.Debug|x86.Build.0 = Debug|x64
If you delete this "Build.0" entry, it will load in the solution fine, but will not be built, either through the GUI or via external MSBuild.
Since VS 2019 and MSBuild 16.7, the right way is to use Solution filters. Ref
create a master.proj file:
in another ItemGroup add DefaultExclude properties for programs - put it in front of the solution
-- BA was Canadian
Configuration=Release
Release
drop the master.proj into the directory with the programs and msbuild the master.proj
compiles everything except... that HelloWorld
I have many C# script source files in the project tree marked as Build Action: None
The problem is: if the source file is marked as Build Action: None then Go To Declaration, Go To Implementation and other navigation and refactoring functions of Visual Studio and Resharper doesn't work anymore.
The script files are eventually compiled by the CSharpCodeProvider once the app is running and generally behave 100% the same as if they were in the actual code base (the original executable assembly).
The difference here is that the source files are not compiled by MSBuild, but by the app itself.
How can I force Visual Studio/build process to analyze the files (as if they were going to be compiled) without including them into final executable assembly?
If you edit the main project file (.csproj) and add an AfterBuild target, you can invoke any custom action on post build. The following example calls compile.exe for all Build Action=None items in the project with extension of .proj.
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<ItemGroup>
<Scripts Include="#(None)" Condition="'%(Extension)' == '.proj'" />
</ItemGroup>
<Message Text="Scripts files: #(Scripts)" Importance="high" />
<Exec Command="Compile.exe %22%(Scripts.FullPath)%22"
WorkingDirectory="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)"
Condition="'#(Scripts)' != ''" />
</Target>
One possible option is to have different build configurations, with different settings for the files in question.
You can have a development configuration, where the files are set to 'compile', and a deployment configuration, where they're set to 'none'.
That way, you'll get nice Intellisense when working on your code, and no compilation happening when you flip to 'deployment' configuration before you build.
This seems like an obvious thing to want to do but I have pulled most of my hair out trying to find any examples on the web or do it myself.
I have a c# solution with 19 projects and a Jenkins build server running a build script to drive MSBuild. MSBuild will of course determine what does and does not need to be compiled based on inputs versus outputs.
I am trying to create a custom target to conditionally update the AssemblyInfo.cs of those projects MSBuild is going to compile to increment the file versions. Of course I want to leave the projects not being compiled alone.
I know how to inject a target prior to the CoreBuild that runs every time so if there is some variable I can test to see if a compile will occur that can work. I also know how to determine if a compile ran and therefore conditionally do some post processing which is possible but not ideal.
How can I tweak my build process to achieve this?
Since it seems there's no straight answer to the question, does anyone know how to perform the same logic as MSBuild to determine what projects require a rebuild?
In the end the solution was a combination of Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi's blog entry and information from the MSDN Forum entry 'Execute target when (core)compile will execute'.
I basically took Sayed's injection method to get my target to run 'extend-corecompile.proj' on all projects without having to edit each proj file but replaced it's contents with an override for 'CoreCompileDependsOn' that points to a custom target that adopts the same inputs and outputs as the 'CoreCompile' target. The end result is a target that only runs when 'CoreCompile' will run while being centrally managed in the build script.
Thanks to all for their input and here is the skeleton code I used in 'extend-corecompile.proj':
<!--The following property group adds our custom post-target to the post compile call list -->
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetsTriggeredByCompilation>
$(TargetsTriggeredByCompilation);
CustomPostTarget
</TargetsTriggeredByCompilation>
</PropertyGroup>
<!--The following property group adds our custom pre-target to CoreCompileDependsOn to ensure it is called before CoreCompile -->
<PropertyGroup>
<CoreCompileDependsOn>
$(CoreCompileDependsOn);
CustomPreTarget
</CoreCompileDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>
<!-- The following custom pre-target has the same inputs and outputs as CoreCompile so that it will only run when CoreCompile runs.
Because we have injected this file and Targets are resolved in sequence we know this Target will fire before CoreCompile.-->
<Target Name="CustomPreTarget"
Inputs="$(MSBuildAllProjects);
#(Compile);
#(_CoreCompileResourceInputs);
$(ApplicationIcon);
$(AssemblyOriginatorKeyFile);
#(ReferencePath);
#(CompiledLicenseFile);
#(EmbeddedDocumentation);
$(Win32Resource);
$(Win32Manifest);
#(CustomAdditionalCompileInputs)"
Outputs="#(DocFileItem);
#(IntermediateAssembly);
#(_DebugSymbolsIntermediatePath);
$(NonExistentFile);
#(CustomAdditionalCompileOutputs)">
<!--Do pre-compilation processing here-->
</Target>
<!--This target will be called by CoreCompile-->
<Target Name="CustomPostTarget" >
<!--Do post-compilation processing here-->
</Target>
Not sure what will happen if CoreCompile fails, does it still call our target? I guess in time we'll find out :)
I just blogged the answer to this at http://sedodream.com/2012/07/28/MSBuildHowToExecuteATargetAfterCoreCompilePart2.aspx but I've pasted the solution for you below.
A couple of months ago I wrote a blog post MSBuild how to execute a target after CoreCompile in which I describe how you can execute a target if the CoreCompile target is executed, if CoreCompile is skipped then so will your other target. The draw back of the approach that I outlined in my previous post was that it required you to edit your .csproj/.vbproj/etc file itself. So if you had a scenario where you were building multiple projects then you would have to edit all of the project files. In this post I’ll describe how you can perform the same customization without having to edit the project file itself.
Before we get to the solution for this particular case let me describe an extensibility hook that the C# and VB projects have. Most of the logic for building C# and VB projects is captured in the MSBuild targets file at C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Microsoft.Common.targets. If you take a look in that file you will notice at the top an import looking like the one below.
<Import Project="$(CustomBeforeMicrosoftCommonTargets)" Condition="'$(CustomBeforeMicrosoftCommonTargets)' != '' and Exists('$(CustomBeforeMicrosoftCommonTargets)')"/>
This statement will import a file (located at the value for CustomBeforeMicrosoftCommonTargets) if the property is not empty and the file exists. The default value for CustomBeforeMicrosoftCommonTargets is C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\v4.0\Custom.Before.Microsoft.Common.targets. So if you drop an MSBuild file at that location it will modify the build process for every C#/VB project built on that machine. Alternatively if you do not want (or cannot due to ACLs) then you can drop the file somewhere else and then specify its location by overriding the CustomBeforeMicrosoftCommonTargets property. This is the approach that I will take here. I have created a sample solution which consists of two projects ProjA and ProjB. I also have a build script, build.proj, to automate the build for this. Below is the entire contents of build.proj.
build.proj
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<FileToInject Condition=" '$(FileToInject)'=='' ">$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)extend-corecompile.proj</FileToInject>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectsToBuild Include="ProjA\ProjA.csproj"/>
<ProjectsToBuild Include="ProjB\ProjB.csproj"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="Build">
<MSBuild Projects="#(ProjectsToBuild)"
Properties="CustomBeforeMicrosoftCommonTargets=$(FileToInject)" />
</Target>
<Target Name="Clean">
<MSBuild Projects="#(ProjectsToBuild)" Targets="Clean"/>
</Target>
<Target Name="Rebuild" DependsOnTargets="Clean;Build"/>
</Project>
In the Build target above I use the MSBuild task to build both ProjA and ProjB. As you can see I am passing the property CustomBeforeMicrosoftCommonTargets=$(FileToInject) which points to extend-corecompile.proj. By passing this property when ProjA, and ProjB, is built it will automatically import the extend-corecompile.proj file for the build process. You can see the contents of extend-corecompile.proj below.
extend-corecompile.proj
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<TargetsTriggeredByCompilation>
$(TargetsTriggeredByCompilation);
MyCustomTarget
</TargetsTriggeredByCompilation>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="MyCustomTarget">
<Message Text="MyCustomTarget called" Importance ="high"/>
</Target>
</Project>
This project file uses the technique outlined in my previous blog post to execute the MyCustomTarget only if CoreCompile is executed.
Note: You can get the latest version of this sample at https://github.com/sayedihashimi/sayed-samples/tree/master/ExtBuildMultiple.
Alternately, you can use a single auto-generated VersionInfo.cs file that is referenced by all of the projects. To use this technique, strip out the version, company info, etc. attributes from your projects' AssemblyInfo.cs file (yes, this is a pain, but you only have to do this once), and have a batch command spit out a VersionInfo.cs file based on a template. To reference the common file in Visual Studio, you choose Add Existing Item from the project context menu, and after you've navigated to the VersionInfo.cs file in the file browser, click the drop-down arrow next to Add and select Add as Link.
Below is an example of one I use. This script is checked into our SCC system and is executed at the beginning of the build, supplying %BUILD_NUMBER% to the script.
SET BUILD=%1
#echo using System.Reflection; > "%~p0Version.cs"
#echo [assembly: AssemblyCompany("MyCompany, Inc.")] >> "%~p0Version.cs"
#echo [assembly: AssemblyProduct("MyProduct")] >> "%~p0Version.cs"
#echo [assembly: AssemblyCopyright("Copyright © 2012 MyCompany, Inc.")] >> "%~p0Version.cs"
#echo [assembly: AssemblyTrademark("")]#echo [assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.%BUILD%.0")] >> "%~p0Version.cs"
#echo [assembly: AssemblyFileVersion("1.0.%BUILD%.0")] >> "%~p0Version.cs"
#echo ^<Include xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi"^> > "%~p0Version.wxi"
#echo ^<?define VersionBuild="%BUILD%"?^> >> "%~p0Version.wxi"
#echo ^</Include^> >> "%~p0\Version.wxi"
Even if you got the list of projects needing compilation, if you update the assemblyinfo.cs of one of them, it may induce a change that triggers a compilation of another project.
So, simpliest way is to generate all AssemblyInfo.cs files according to source control revision number. You could even get latest revision number for each project directory, effectively knowing when was the "last" modification on this project.
See this question : How can I change AssemblyProduct, AssemblyTitle using MSBuild?
According to your comment, have you looked into the BeforeBuild and AfterBuild targets (at the end of your csproj file) :
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
</Target>
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
</Target>
When I try to compile my project from x86 debug mode in Visual Studio 2008. I am getting this error. When I looked at the property group of the project that complained, I see output path is set.
Here is the property group section for that .csproj file
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|x86' ">
<DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols>
<OutputPath>bin\x86\Debug\</OutputPath>
<DefineConstants>DEBUG;TRACE</DefineConstants>
<BaseAddress>285212672</BaseAddress>
<FileAlignment>4096</FileAlignment>
<DebugType>full</DebugType>
<PlatformTarget>x86</PlatformTarget>
<ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport>
Can any one shed the light on this?
NOTE: When I compiled this Debug and Any CPU it worked.
UPDATED: Error 1 The OutputPath property is not set for this project. Please check to make sure that you have specified a valid Configuration/Platform combination. Configuration='Debug' Platform='x86'
I had exact same error after adding a new configuration via ConfigurationManager in Visual Studio.
It turned out when the 'Production' configuration was added for the whole solution (and each project) the OutputPath element was not added to the .csproj files.
To fix, I went to the Build tab in project properties, changed OutputPath from \bin\Production\ to \bin\Production (deleted trailing \) and saved changes. This forced creation of the OutputPath element in the .csproj file and the project has built successfully.
Sounds like a glitch to me.
If you are using WiX look at this (there is a bug)
http://www.cnblogs.com/xixifusigao/archive/2012/03/20/2407651.html
Sometimes new build configurations get added to the .wixproj file further down the file, that is, separated from their sibling config definitions by other unrelated XML elements.
Simply edit the .wixproj file so that all the <PropertyGroup> sections that define your build configs are adjacent to one another. (To edit the .wixproj in VS2013 right click on project in Solution Explorer, Unload project, right-click again->Edit YourProject.wixproj. Reload after editing the file.)
You can see this error in VS 2008 if you have a project in your solution that references an assembly that cannot be found. This could happen if the assembly comes from another project that is not part of your solution but should be. In this case simply adding the correct project to the solution will solve it.
Check the References section of each project in your solution. If any of them has a reference with an red x next to it, then it you have found your problem. That assembly reference cannot be found by the solution.
The error message is a bit confusing but I've seen this many times.
This happened to me because I had moved the following line close to the beginning of the .csproj file:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets"/>
It needs to be placed after the PropertyGroups that define your Configuration|Platform.
had this problem as output from Azure DevOps after setting to build the .csproj instead of the .sln in the Build Pipeline.
The solution for me:
Edit .csproj of the affected project, then copy your whole
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCpu' ">
Node, paste it, and then change the first line as followed:
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|any cpu' ">
The reason is, that in my case the error said
Please check to make sure that you have specified a valid combination of Configuration and Platform for this project. Configuration='release' Platform='any cpu'.
Why Azure wants to use "any cpu" instead of the default "AnyCpu" is a mystery for me, but this hack works.
The error shown in visual studio for the project (Let's say A) does not have issues. When I looked at the output window for the build line by line for each project, I saw that it was complaining about another project (B) that had been referred as assembly in project A. Project B added into the solution. But it had not been referred in the project A as project reference instead as assembly reference from different location. That location contains the assembly which compiled for Platform AnyCpu. Then I removed the assembly reference from the project A and added project B as a reference. It started compiling.
Not sure though how this fix worked.
I encountered the same error but the problem turned out to be because I had created a new configuration in my solution that didn't exist in referenced assemblies from another solution.
This can be resolved by opening the related solution and adding the new configuration to it as well.
This post gave me the idea to check the referenced assemblies after I'd already confirmed that all projects within my solution had the correct configuration:
http://gabrielmagana.com/2010/04/solution-to-the-outputpath-property-is-not-set-for-this-project/
If you get this error only when you try to compile your project from commandline using MSBuild (like in my case) then the solution is to passing the outputpath manually to MSBuild with an argument like /p:OutputPath=MyFolder.
I had the same error, so I looked on project settings and there in "Build" section is "Build output path" option. And value was empty. So I filled in "bin\" value a error disappeared. It solved my problem.
I have:
Right-click on project with issue -> Unload Project
Right-click on project and choose Edit *.csproj
Copy-paste
the configuration from existing configuration which works with specific name and targeting platform (I had Release |
x64):
<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|x64'">
<OutputPath>bin\x64\Release\</OutputPath>
<DefineConstants>TRACE</DefineConstants>
<Optimize>true</Optimize>
<DebugType>pdbonly</DebugType>
<PlatformTarget>x64</PlatformTarget>
<ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport>
<CodeAnalysisRuleSet>MinimumRecommendedRules.ruleset</CodeAnalysisRuleSet>
<Prefer32Bit>true</Prefer32Bit>
</PropertyGroup>
Right-click project -> Reload Project
Rebuild project/solution
I had the same problem after I have added new configurations and deleted the "debug" and "release" configs.
In my case I was using a cmd file to run the build and publish process, but the same error was thrown.
The solution for me:
In the csproj file the following:
<Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug< /Configuration>
was setting the Configuration to "Debug" if I did not specify an explicit one. After changing the node value from "debug" to my custom configuration, it all worked smoothly. Hope this will also help whoever is reading this :)
Another crazy possibility:
If you follow a simple source control arrangement of putting Branch\Main, Main, and Release next to each other and you somehow end up adding an existing project from Main instead of Branch\Main (assuming your working solution is Branch\Main), you may see this error.
The solution is simple: reference the right project!
I encountered this problem when adding a project to a solution then referencing it from yet another project in the same solution-- got the yellow warning icon over the reference, notice that path was empty.
The solution was similar to what #Amzath suggested, my projects were being compiled with different Target Frameworks, eg. .NET 4.0 vs 4.5.
In my case the built address of my app was set to another computer that was turned off so i turned it on and restart VS and problem solved.
Another cause: you add a project reference from project A to project B in solution X. However, solution Y that already contains project A is now broken, until you also add project B to solution Y.
I had the same problem,
Just edit the .wixproj to have all of the
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' ... > elements to be side by side.
That solved my issue
The WiX project I was using was hard-set in the configuration manager for x64 across the board. When making the Custom Action project for the solution, it defaulted everything to x86 within the .csproj file. So I unloaded the project, edited it by changing all x86 to x64, saved, reloaded, and was good to go after that.
I don't understand why I had to do this. The configuration manager was set to build as x64, but just wouldn't get set in the csproj file :(
For me, the error wasn't caused by an obscure issue as seems to have been the case for others e.g. this answer. In my case, the error message was pretty spot on at describing what was wrong. It was saying that I was attempting to build for a specific build configuration & target platform, but I didn't have that combination of configuration/platform defined in my project properties file. So I explored two options:
Modify the project file to support the given target platform, as per this answer
Modify the target platform of the build to one of the existing supported configurations as per the project properties
Both worked in the sense that both made the issue go away. But the second one was the correct one for me. The problem I had was as follows:
In VS, I had a target platform of x86 and there was a PropertyGroup for this in the project file, so this was all working fine.
But when I tried to build from the command line, using MSBuild.exe the default target platform was "any cpu", unless explicitly specified as a command line argument.
So the fix in my case, since I wanted to target x86, was to explicitly tell MSBuild on the command line to build for the x86 platform, as per this answer.
To quote that answer:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\MSBuild.exe my.sln /t:build /p:Configuration=Release;Platform=x86
Notice the important part:
;Platform=x86
After trying all the other suggestions posted here, I discovered the solution for me was to remove the following section from the .csproj file:
<ItemGroup>
<Service Include="{808359B6-6B82-4DF5-91FF-3FCBEEBAD811}" />
</ItemGroup>
Apparently this service from the original project (unavailable on local machine) was halting the entire build process, even though it wasn't essential for compilation.
I got this problem after adding a new platform to my project. In my case .csproj file was under Perforce source control and was read-only. I checked it out but VS didn't catch the change until I restarted it.
I have had similar issue on a Xamarin Project. It is maybe rare case but in case anyone else is having the issue. my project structure was like below
xamarin.Android project had a reference from xamarin.android.library project.
I created a plugin using some code from android.library project.
Now here is the problem. if you add project reference or nuget installation on xamarin.android library project. You will get this error. Developers assume that code was inside Android.Library project and i must reference the new plugin on this project. NO!
you must add a reference on Main Android project. because plugin->library->main project output isnt produced.
Similar to Philip Atz, I had the following line at the top of my .csproj file.
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Xamarin\iOS\Xamarin.iOS.CSharp.targets" />
Moving it further down solved this problem for me.
I just finished setting up an out-of-place build system for our existing C++ code using inherited property sheets, a feature that seems to be specific to the Visual C++ product. Building out-of-place requires that many of the project settings be changed, and the inherited property sheets allowed me to change all the necessary settings just by attaching a property sheet to the project. I am migrating our team from C++/MFC for UI to C# and WPF, but I need to provide the same out-of-place build functionality, hopefully with the same convenience. I cannot seem to find a way to do this with C# projects - I first looked to see if I could reference an MsBuild targets file, but could not find a way to do this. I know I could just use MsBuild for the whole thing, but that seems more complicated than necessary. Is there a way I can define a macro for a directory and use it in the output path, for example?
I'm not quite sure what an "out-of-place" build system is, but if you just need the ability to copy the compiled files (or other resources) to other directories you can do so by tying into the MSBuild build targets.
In our projects we move the compiled dlls into lib folders and put the files into the proper locations after a build is complete. To do this we've created a custom build .target file that creates the Target's, Property's, and ItemGroup's that we then use to populate our external output folder.
Our custom targets file looks a bit like this:
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<ProjectName>TheProject</ProjectName>
<ProjectDepthPath>..\..\</ProjectDepthPath>
<ProjectsLibFolder>..\..\lib\</ProjectsLibFolder>
<LibFolder>$(ProjectsLibFolder)$(ProjectName)\$(Configuration)\</LibFolder>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="DeleteLibFiles">
<Delete Files="#(LibFiles-> '$(ProjectDepthPath)$(LibFolder)%(filename)%(extension)')" TreatErrorsAsWarnings="true" />
</Target>
<Target Name="CopyLibFiles">
<Copy SourceFiles="#(LibFiles)" DestinationFolder="$(ProjectDepthPath)$(LibFolder)" SkipUnchangedFiles="True" />
</Target>
<ItemGroup>
<LibFiles Include=" ">
<Visible>false</Visible>
</LibFiles>
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
The .csproj file in Visual Studio then integrates with this custom target file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="3.5" ... >
...
<Import Project="..\..\..\..\build\OurBuildTargets.targets" />
<ItemGroup>
<LibFiles Include="$(OutputPath)$(AssemblyName).dll">
<Visible>false</Visible>
</LibFiles>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="BeforeClean" DependsOnTargets="DeleteLibFiles" />
<Target Name="AfterBuild" DependsOnTargets="CopyLibFiles" />
</Project>
In a nutshell, this build script first tells MSBuild to load our custom build script, then adds the compiled file to the LibFiles ItemGroup, and lastly ties our custom build targets, DeleteLibFiles and CopyLibFiles, into the build process. We set this up for each project in our solution so only the files that are updated get deleted/copied and each project is responsible for it's own files (dlls, images, etc).
I hope this helps. I apologize if I misunderstood what you mean by out-of-place build system and this is completely useless to you!
Is there a way I can define a macro for a directory and use it in the output path
Have you looked at the pre-build and post-build events of a project?
Actually, pre-build and post-build events seem to be solely a place to add batch-file type commands. This would not help me to set up standard build directories for our projects, unfortunately. And having these events create batch files seems like a very 1980's approach for a modern language like C#, IMO.
After digging some more, and experimenting, I have found that you can add an <Import> directive into your .csproj file. When you do this, the IDE pops up a warning dialog that there is an unsafe entry point in your project - but you can ignore this, and you can make it not appear at all by editing a registry entry, evidently. So this would give me a way to get the variables containing the directory paths I need into the .csproj file.
Now to get the Output Path to refer to it - unfortunately when you add a string like "$(MySpecialPath)/Debug" to the Output Path field, and save the project, the $ and () chars are converted to hex, and your file get's put in a Debug directory under a directory named "$(MySpecialPath)". Arrgghh. If you edit the .csproj file in a text editor, you can set this correctly however, and it seems to work as long as the <Import> tag appears before the <PropertyGroup> containing the Output Path.
So I think the solution for me will be to create a standard OurTeam.targets MsBuild file in a standard location, add an installer for changing the registry so it doesn't flag warnings, and then create custom project templates that <Import> this file, and also set the Output Path to use the properties defined in the OurTeam.targets file. Sadly, this is more work and a less elegant solution than the property sheet inheritance mechanism in C++.