Question

I have a solution in Visual Studio 2010 that creates a vsix to install a custom project template to VS. I have the actual template (unzipped) added as a project in my solution for easy modification. It does not build because of all the $replacements$ in illegal in buildable code.

Right now, here’s my workflow to build the solution:

1. Build is disabled on the Template project
2. Manually zip the template up in Windows Explorer
3. Manually copy the zip into the Project Templates folder of the VSIX project
4. Run Build on the solution so the VSIX will build with the new zipped template

I was hoping to streamline this process by redefining how VS should build my template project… namely that instead of compiling, it should zip it up and move the zip into my VSIX project. Is that possible?

Answer 1

You can change the build action of the items in the template to ZipProject. Then you can copy the zip file whereever you need it to go. Might need to edit the project file manually or do a post build action…