TFS 2015 build issues

Question

Hi I am banging my head for last few days.

Here is the situation ...
1. I have VSO account which maintains the TFS in cloud.
2. Installed a build server/agent on another machine. (Works fine)
3. Tried to build(XAML build) one solution using that server/controller.
4. Got an error saying ...

"The imported project "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" was not found. Confirm that the path in the declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk."

The build server and the agents are from TFS 2015 and the project is a Visual Studio 2015 project using framework 4.6. I was expecting "v14" folder for target files during build. Why it is trying to find things from "v11" folder ? And how do I solve this.

I know I can copy files to "v11" but I don't want to escape the facts. There should be a reason and a proper fix. Any help would be nice.

Answer 1

Several solutions for you to correct this error:

S1: Install MSBuild.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.targets from NuGet gallery via running the following command: Install-Package MSBuild.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.targets.
Then replace the following line in your .proj file

<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />

with

<Import Project="$..\packages\MSBuild.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.targets.14.0.0\tools\VSToolsPath\WebApplications" />

S2: Set the /p:VisualStudioVersion=12.0 MSBuild argument in the build definition.
S3: Copy the Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.targets file to the C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\WebApplications folder on the build agent machine.
S4: Install VS2012 on the TFS build agent machine just like Patrick mentioned above.

And related cases: Microsoft.WebApplication.targets and Microsoft.WebApplication.targets was not found, on the build server. What's your solution?

Answer 2

The WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets (11.0) (which comes from VS2012) is referenced in your web application, so the Visual Studio 2012 should be installed on your build server to resolve this issue.

Be note that, to guarantee TFS build runs successful, you should make sure your build agent machine has the some environment as dev machine.

Answer 3

Did you restore a previous collection on TFS 2015 from a previous TFS version? Did your solution or any projects in your solution get created prior to VS2015?