Ahmed Al-Asaad's Blog

In this post I will go through a different way to accomplish what I posted in Part-1. Actually this approach is way simpler and less error prone than the first one.

I will create a new configuration named TFS, change the output path for each project for that configuration to  SolutionPath\bin\Projectname, Create a team build project and update Team build template.

Create a New Configuration

We want to create a new configuration for TFS team build and we don’t want to change the Release or Debug configurations. To do so

• Right click on the solution
• Click configuration manager menu

• From the “Active solution configuration” drop down select <New…>

• Type TFS in the name textbox
• Select the configuration to copy configuration from (e.g. Release, or debug)
• Click OK

• In the Solution configuration, I am changing the Active Solution Platform to Mixed Platform because the projects in the solutions are targeting different platforms

• Click Close

Preparing the Projects in the Solution

The following steps will change the output path from bin folder to SolutionPath\bin. I my solution I had a webApplication and a windowsApplication

• Make sure that the TFS Configuration is selected
• Change the Output location for each project on the solution to ..\bin\ProjectName.
  • Right click on the projectà properties
  • Click the build tab
  • Fill the “output path” textbox with ..\bin\ProjectName

• Build the solution to make sure it is working

• Check in the solution

Create a new Team Build

• Open Team Explorer
• Right click on the Builds node
• Create a new Build, I named it CustomizeBinariesFolder
• In the Process Tab
• Expand Items to build
• Select the solution we configured above
• Expand Items to build
• Click the ellipsis next Configurations to Build

• Type TFS under Configuration and the Platform of that configuration
• Fill the other fields as you want

Create new Team Build Template

• Edit your Team Build Definition
• Go to the process tab
• Under Build Process Template click the New… button
• Select an existing template that you want to copy, I am selecting the DefaultTemplate
• Name the new File
• Click OK

• Save the definition
• Open Source Control from Team Explorer
• Get latest from BuildProcessTemplates

• Open CustomizeFolderTemplate.xaml
• Find “Run MSBuild for Project” Activity under “Try to Compile the Project” block.
• Clear the OutDir property

• OutDir property over writes the default output path on each project. By Clearing the OutDir property for the MsBuild Activity, Team build will use the Output Path defined in the project. In my case, C:\Builds\{AgentNumber}\Lajak\CustomizedBinariesFolder\Sources\WindowsFormsApplication1\bin
• Now we want to copy the contents of the bin folder from the above path (i.e. solutionPath\bin) to the binaries folder
• Add Copy Directory Activity under Run MsBuild for Project

• Change the Source Property to IO.Path.Combine(IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(localProject), “bin”), which means, Path of solution file + “\” + bin. By using the combine method we don’t have to worry about the Locale of the machine
• Change the Destination property to BinariesDirectory
  
• Save the Template
  
• Go to Source Control Explorer and Check in the Template
  
• Run the Team build definition that uses the template you have just modified. I am building the CustomizedBinariesFolder Definition