Copy Project action in VS

FinalBuilder Discussion
1

I am working on a deployment script in FB for a deployment currently done by a developer using Copy Project in VS. The Copy Project action is used after the solution file and puts only the needed files to run the application into a target directory after the build. Originally I was going to do a Post Build removal of the files that were not needed, but the situation is too dynamic and could require more manual intervention with the script than just deploying things manually to begin with. Is there a way to use this Copy Project feature within FB?

2

Hi Patrick,

This isn’t something that we can do at the moment, but I just took a look and we may be able to come up with an action package to let you do this with Visual Studio 2005. I’ll let you know if this is the case (in the past we haven’t had much success at implementing Visual Studio IDE-specific features.)
Regards,


Angus

3

Hi Patrick,

Can you give me some more information about the project you are deploying? Is it using VS 2003 or 2005?

In 2005, Copy Project functionality seems to have been totally replaced by the Publish target (which you can automate via MSBuild.) Somewhat ironically, though, the VS2005 automation API supports a CopyProject method (I just can’t seem to create a project which supports that feature.)

OTOH, in VS 2003 Copy Project is the approach to use, but the 2003 Automation API does not expose a CopyProject method.

Sorry if this makes no sense at all.

Regards,


Angus

4

Thanks for the reply on this. I was expecting the worst as I couldn’t seem to find anyone who could automate the Copy Project feature. I am using VS 2003 currently, so no hope for me.

5

Hi Patrick,

I saw a few posts on the web which suggested that Copy Project rarely does much more than pick up certain file types and copy them over. This may not be the case for you, but perhaps you could just use a FileSet followed by one of the File Copy or FTP actions.

Regards,


Angus

6

If I am correct, Copy Project will copy any newly generated files from the build + any files that are marked as part of the build (file attribute possibly), I guess something that VS does during the build process that applications outside of VS cannot pick up.