Visual Studio rewrite solution configuration for Web Site

Question

I have a solution with Web Site project. There are three custom Solution configuration: Dev, Test, Prod. However, Web Site project doesn't have .csproj file and there is no way(or I can't find it out) to use configurations for Web Site project. I'm using MSBuild to build the solution:

MSBuild.exe MySolution.sln /m /p:Platform=x86;TargetFrameworkVersion=v4.6.2;OutputPath=bin;Configuration=Dev /ToolsVersion:14.0

As .sln file doesn't have any information about my Dev configuration for Web Site project, there are only Debug and Release "sections":

Project("{E24C65DC-7377-472B-9ABA-BC803B73C61A}") = "Web", "Web\", "{1F81A0DB-6FF4-4F89-B988-6D327797C4FD}"
ProjectSection(WebsiteProperties) = preProject
    TargetFrameworkMoniker = ".NETFramework,Version%3Dv4.6.2"
    ProjectReferences = "{12A625AA-8B5A-4336-AA4A-3630AAB3A27D}|MyLib.dll;"
    Debug.AspNetCompiler.VirtualPath = "/localhost_54141"
    Debug.AspNetCompiler.PhysicalPath = "Web\"
    Debug.AspNetCompiler.TargetPath = "PrecompiledWeb\localhost_54141\"
    Debug.AspNetCompiler.Updateable = "true"
    Debug.AspNetCompiler.ForceOverwrite = "true"
    Debug.AspNetCompiler.FixedNames = "false"
    Debug.AspNetCompiler.Debug = "True"
    Release.AspNetCompiler.VirtualPath = "/localhost_54141"
    Release.AspNetCompiler.PhysicalPath = "Web\"
    Release.AspNetCompiler.TargetPath = "PrecompiledWeb\localhost_54141\"
    Release.AspNetCompiler.Updateable = "true"
    Release.AspNetCompiler.ForceOverwrite = "true"
    Release.AspNetCompiler.FixedNames = "false"
    Release.AspNetCompiler.Debug = "False"
    VWDPort = "54141"
    SlnRelativePath = "Web\"
    StartServerOnDebug = "false"
EndProjectSection

EndProject

And Web Site is not being built.

OK, I can manually edit solution file and change/add Dev.XXXX, Test.XXX etc related settings and everything is working well until you open solution in Visual Studio and save it. Visual Studio discharges all your changes and you are faced with the same problem again.

As a workaround, I can create a copy of .sln file and manually synchronize it with the original solution. Does anybody have a better idea?

It worked for me. But I also added Dev and Test to the Build Configuration manager first. — Jian Huang

Zhanglong Wu - MSFT Zhanglong Wu - MSFT · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-02T02:57:24

You can build the Web Site project by using different custom AspNetCompiler MSBuild task. like this:

dev.msbuild

<Project xmlns = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
        <Target Name = "PrecompileWeb">
                <AspNetCompiler
                        VirtualPath = "/dev" 
                        PhysicalPath = "D:\Project\WebSite1\"
                        TargetPath = "PrecompiledWeb\dev\"
                        Force = "true"           
                        Debug = "False"
                        Updateable = "true"/>
        </Target>
</Project>

Test.msbuild

<Project xmlns = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
            <Target Name = "PrecompileWeb">
                    <AspNetCompiler
                            VirtualPath = "/test" 
                            PhysicalPath = "D:\Project\WebSite1\"
                            TargetPath = "PrecompiledWeb\test\"
                            Force = "true"           
                            Debug = "False"
                            Updateable = "true"/>
            </Target>
    </Project>

build command like this:

MSBuild.exe dev.msbuild /m /p:TargetFrameworkVersion=v4.6.2;OutputPath=bin /ToolsVersion:14.0

Visual Studio rewrite solution configuration for Web Site

1 Answers