Question

I have two build environments to target; Release and Staging. The Web.config looks like this:

<system.web>     
    <authentication mode="Windows">
    </authentication>

    <authorization>
        <deny users="?" />
    </authorization>
</system.web>

I want to transform it by building to staging config: Web.Staging.config

<system.web>     
    <authentication mode="Windows">
    </authentication>

    <authorization xdt:Transform="Replace">
        <deny users="?" />
        <allow roles="StagingRoles" />
        <deny users="*" />
    </authorization>
</system.web>

I build from command line like this:

msbuild buildscript.build /p:Configuration=Staging

After the build, I don’t see the web.config file transformed in the build artifacts folder. Is there something wrong here?

Thanks

Answer 1

If you add the following xml to the bottom of the .csproj file for your web application, you’ll ensure that the config transformation occurs before every build:

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
    <TransformXml Source="Web.Base.config" Transform="Web.$(Configuration).config" Destination="Web.config" />
</Target>

Edit: In response to your comment, you should be able to use Web.config as the source parameter in the TransformXml task (see step #2). If you only want to perform the config transform in the build script, follow these instructions:

1) Import WebApplication.targets in your build script like so:

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />

2) Execute the TransformXml build task in your build script target:

<Target Name="MyBuildScriptTarget">
    <TransformXml Source="Web.config" Transform="Web.$(Configuration).config" Destination="Web.config" />
    ...other build tasks...
</Target>