It's hard to underestimate the value of the dependency analysis msbuild provides in building large scale projects. The abstraction provided - where you only need to understand your immediate (1-level) dependencies - wouldn't be trivial to reproduce elsewhere. For small projects, it may not be of much help - but for projects with multiple layers of "framework" it becomes important quite quickly.
Scott Colestock www.traceofthought.net From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mitch Denny Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 1:28 AM To: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: RE: [OzTFS] Building MSI's using TFS Build Server [SEC=UNOFFICIAL] Hi Justin, I don't know whether these tools totally eclipse each other. I am definitely a PowerShell fan-boy, and while I've often wondered why we can't use PowerShell for more of these kinds of automation tasks, I don't think that I would completely give up on MSBuild. Its set based expansion is nice, and if you can grab tasks off th shelf rather than building your own (usually an issue of awareness more than anything) then it can be more productive. PowerShell is a beautiful language too - and I've used it a fair bit (inside build scripts and to support deployments). Regards, Mitch Denny Readify - Senior Consultant M: +61 414 610 141 E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *This message was sent to you from a Microsoft Windows Mobile device* -----Original Message----- From: "Butcher, Justin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: 11/09/07 3:00 PM Subject: RE: [OzTFS] Building MSI's using TFS Build Server [SEC=UNOFFICIAL] I agree Keith, and I'm not a PowerShell user. MS have effectively created an XML schema (read sub-language) for defining build scripts, however they already have languages that can do that job admirably - PowerShell, or dare I suggest, good old .Net code (which I guess most build managers are used to anyway??). Why have the XML schema and then define custom tasks in C#, when you could just have a nice clean C# programming model (or VB, or J#, or whatever). As simple nicer way to define build tasks I'm not sure MSBuild really cuts it for me. _____ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, 4 September 2007 19:01 To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [OzTFS] Building MSI's using TFS Build Server Hmm, we've been building products for years using shell scripts. Lately we have been using PowerShell. I've been reading "The Build Master" book by Vincent Maraia (the Microsoft build lab guru), and even he says the way to go is to use command line scripts (Chapter 5, First, Every Build Needs A Script). So I don't know about using TeamBuild - unless I can have it just fire off a PowerShell script before & after the solutions build. Anybody doing this? I think that MSBUILD is great for dependency analysis and provides a much better file format for VS project files but as a complete build lab environment - I don't know. We do stuff like search/replace version numbers, ZIP files for stashing PDBs, run IsCmd.exe to build the installer, maintain separate lists of folks to mail when the build fails vs succeeds. I know you can do all this stuff within TeamBuild/MSBuild but the PowerShell script files are so much easier to read and deal with than all the angle brackets in a MSBUILD file. Shell scripts really are good at doing these sort of tasks. Force fitting these tasks into MSBUILD seems a bit over the top to me. What think ye? -- Keith P.S. Yeah, yeah I'm a Window PowerShell MVP but I would feel the same way if I weren't - really. J From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Prior, David Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2007 5:25 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [OzTFS] Building MSI's using TFS Build Server Hi, I have several projects (ASP.Net and WinForms) that we build MSI's for deployment. I have just migrated these projects into TFS (was using Source Safe) and am now setting up the Build Server to run automatic builds. The problem I have at the moment is that the deployment projects are not generating an MSI file, or at least I can't find the file generated? I have checked that the build configuration in Visual Studio includes the deployment projects in its configuration, and I can manually build the deployment project to create an MSI, so I know that the project compiles successfully. Am I missing something here or has anyone had success in building deployment projects to create MSI's using TFS Build Server? I am now investigating WiX, not sure what it's all about yet. Cheers, David This communication may contain confidential information and/or copyright material of KAZ Group Pty Ltd ABN 25 002 124 405 and its related bodies corporate. It may also be the subject of legal professional privilege. 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