TFS Build Drop Folder

Question

I'm currently working on a custom build process and have a problem with the understanding of drop folder. The process creates only some reports which we need for further development. We are using TFS/VS 2012.

What I actually need is either a folder on the buildserver where the Reports are going to be saved and accesable from everyone or on each team members local machine a drop folder. In my opinion the first solution should be better but is it possible, since I'm the only one out of my team which has Access to the buildserver.

If I select the UNC path to the drop folder on the buildserver can other People without Access to this Server use the "Open Drop Folder" button? And how do I even copy files to the drop folder? Is it enough to just do CopyDirectory? In the moment it always says: "This build did not produce any Outputs. The drop Location field is empty..."

I would be really glad if someone could help me.

Answer 1

The purpose of the drop folder is to copy the result of the build from the working folder of the agent and somewhere where it will not be changed by a later build. The share can be on the build server or on another server. No matter what you need to control the permissions to that folder so that whomever needs access has it. Otherwise the Open Drop Folder button will not work.

You can enable so that the build results are copied to the drop location upon build completion. This is a bit different whether you use Build vNext or XAML build. Since you are using TFS 2012, I guess that you are using XAML builds. Drop location is specified under the Build Defaults tab of the build definition.

The output folder from your build will be copied so assemblies, test results etc. will be copied to the drop location when enabled. If there is something extra that you want to be included in your drop, then copy it to the output folder or create it there directly.