Publish WCF Service (or ASP.NET Web Application) using command line

Question

I would like to simulate "Publish..." menu item from WCF Service project (or ASP.NET Web Application or...) context menu in Visual Studio 2008. I do not have a need to publish it to a running IIS instance, just to put the web content together with bin folder on some local dir. Is there any way to add it in post build events, or as a MSBuild task?

Allen Rice · Accepted Answer · 2010-08-10 14:53:21Z

9

Here is the answer, thanks to this link: http://codingcockerel.co.uk/2008/05/18/how-to-publish-a-web-site-with-msbuild/ So, I have just modified the .csproj file of web application, and wrote this into AfterBuild target (that was already there):

<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
    <Message Text="##############Before build##################" Importance="high"/>
    <RemoveDir Directories="publish"
        ContinueOnError="true"/>
</Target>
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
    <Message Text="##############After build##################$(OutputFolder)" Importance="high"/>
    <MSBuild Projects="$(ProjectName).csproj"
           Targets="ResolveReferences;_CopyWebApplication"
           Properties="WebProjectOutputDir=publish\;OutDir=publish\bin\" />
</Target>

edited Aug 10, 2010 at 14:53

Allen Rice

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answered May 25, 2009 at 7:25

Aleksandar Vucetic

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:08:38Z

0

You should be able to write an xcopy command to copy the files you need to the right location. Microsoft has an article about xcopy deployment for asp.net.

Once you have the command right you can put it into the Post Build actions so it automatically fires after a build.

Also see VS Post Build Event for examples on copying just the dll output (note the use of $(TargetPath) & $(TargetDir)).

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:08

CommunityBot

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answered May 22, 2009 at 16:10

mundeep

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Comments

Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi · Accepted Answer · 2009-05-24 22:16:11Z

0

HI, You should take a look at Web Deployment Projects. These are actually MSBuild files with Visual Studio GUI support. They will pre-compile your site. You can extend the behavior of these to copy the generated files to your web server.

Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi

My Book: Inside the Microsoft Build Engine : Using MSBuild and Team Foundation Build

answered May 24, 2009 at 22:16

Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi

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1 Comment

Aleksandar Vucetic Over a year ago

I'm having problems with Web Deployment Projects, since they deploy the .csproj file, obj folder and all the other unnecessary stuff. I would just like to reproduce the bahavior of "Publish..." command from the context menu of Web Application (not Web Site) project. Is there some easier way, or I have to exclude them manually, just like with the xcopy?

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