Question

I can’t figure out how to pass values into an MSBuild task like I would a method. Take the following project file…

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Main">
<PropertyGroup>
    <Var1>Foo</Var1>
    <Var2>Bar</Var2>
</PropertyGroup>

<Target Name="Main">
    <Message Text="$(Var1)" Importance="high" />
    <Message Text="$(Var2)" Importance="high" />
</Target>   
</Project>

I want to refactor the Message task into a target and then pass over Var1 and Var2 to it to get the same output. This is a very simplified example but the concept is the same.

Answer 1

I think you want to do something like this:

<ItemGroup>
  <Messages Include="Message1">
    <Text>Hello from Message1</Text>
  </Messages>
  <Messages Include="Message2">
    <Text>Hello from Message2</Text>
  </Messages>
</ItemGroup>

<Target Name="TestMessage">
  <Message Text="%(Messages.Text)"/>
</Target>

This produces the following output:

TestMessage:
  Hello from Message1
  Hello from Message2