.net - trigger config transformation in TFS 2010 or msbuild

Question

I'm attempting to make use of configuration transformations in a continuous integration environment.

I need a way to tell the TFS build agent to perform the transformations. I was kind of hoping it would just work after discovering the config transform files (web.qa-release.config, web.production-release.config, etc...). But it doesn't.

I have a TFS build definition that builds the right configurations (qa-release, production-release, etc...) and I have some specific .proj files that get built within these definitions and those contain some environment specific parameters eg:

<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)'=='production-release' ">
    <TargetHost Condition=" '$(TargetHost)'=='' ">qa.web</TargetHost>
    ...
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)'=='qa-release' ">
    <TargetHost Condition=" '$(TargetHost)'=='' ">production.web</TargetHost>
    ...
</PropertyGroup>

I know from the output that the correct configurations are being built. Now I just need to learn how to trigger the config transformations. Is there some hocus pocus that I can add to the final .proj in the build to kick off the transform and blow away the individual transform files?

Answer 1

I found another way to accomplish this instead of creating a custom activity. You just need to modify the visual studio project file of the web application that is being built.

Add the following (a placeholder for the 'AfterBuild' target can be found towards the end of the project file):

<Target Name="AfterBuild" Condition="$(IsAutoBuild)=='True'"> 
  <ItemGroup> 
         <DeleteAfterBuild Include="$(WebProjectOutputDir)Web.*.config" /> 
  </ItemGroup> 
  <TransformXml Source="Web.config" Transform="$(ProjectConfigTransformFileName)" Destination="$(WebProjectOutputDir)Web.config"/> 
  <Delete Files="@(DeleteAfterBuild)" />
</Target> 

Then you just have to add /p:IsAutoBuild="True" to the 'MSBuild Arguments' field found in the 'Advanced' section of the build definition.

This will force TFS 2010 to do the transformations on the web.config when TFS does the build.

More details can be found on Kevin Daly's Blog.