MSBuild: Web application, build once package and deploy many

2
votes

I'm sure this question has come up before, but I can't seem to find an elegant solution.

I have a web application project with multiple configurations based on deployment environment (Test, QA, Production) along with web.config transforms for each environment. We are using a web deployment package to automatically create the .zip of the app which can be deployed via MSDeploy. It's easy enough to call the package target multiple times, each with a different configuration:

msbuild MyProject.csproj /t:Package /p:Configuration=QA

msbuild MyProject.csproj /t:Package /p:Configuration=Test

But this triggers a complete rebuild of the web project each time before packaging. I want to build once, then apply the web.config transforms, and create separate packages for each environment. Is there an easy way to accomplish this without forcing a complete rebuild for each environment?

1
asp.netdeploymentmsbuildpackaging

1 Answers

0
votes

Dupe of Build once and deploy to multiple environments with msdeploy & Visual Studio 2012

I've also been wanting a solution to this, but apparently there isn't any real COMPLETE MS solution that I know of. Visual Studio provides the following (as noted here):

  1. Web.Config transformation
  2. Parameterization

Vishal Joshi concluded with the following:

If you can know your environment settings during build time use Web.Config transformation.

If you would want to create deployment package only once and then enter the settings during install time then use Parameters.xml

What I would like to see, though, is have the best of both worlds. I want to "package" up a target having ALL the configuration transformations embedded. Therefore, when the IT guy runs the WebDeploy cmd file (that gets generated when you "package"), they can provide a switch of which environment configuration they want (i.e. Dev, Test, Stage, Prod, Release, etc). I don't believe there is a solution from MS out there that does that. :(