MSBuild and _PublishedWebsites

Question

After MSbuild has built my solution (with an asp.net website), and the webdeployment project has built and put the website in the directory _PublishedWebsites:

c:\mybuilds\buildName\Daily_20090519.3\Release_PublishedWebsites\MyWebsite.

How do I copy this to the fixed directory where IIS points to for the test website?

I have found loads of code snippets, but I cannot seem to find one that will take into account the fact that this directory name changes.

Answer 1

This is pretty easy. You can edit the project and insert something similar to the following.

<PropertyGroup>
  <OutputDest>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\..\OutputCopy\</OutputDest>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
  <!-- Create an item with all the output files -->
  <ItemGroup>
    <_OutputFiles Include="$(OutputPath)**\*" Exclude="$(OutputPath)obj\**\*" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <!-- You probably don't want to include the files in the obj folder so exclude them. -->

  <Message Text="OutputDest : $(OutputDest)" />
  <Copy SourceFiles="@(_OutputFiles)"
        DestinationFiles="@(_OutputFiles->'$(OutputDest)%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')"/>
</Target>

Is this what you are looking for?

My Book: Inside the Microsoft Build Engine : Using MSBuild and Team Foundation Build

Answer 2

I'm using different technique.

<PropertyGroup>
    <BinariesRoot>c:\BinariesForIis\</BinariesRoot>
</PropertyGroup>

The c:\BinariesForIis\ will be used for direct output compiled binaries (before copy to ...\Daily_20090519.3\Release_ ...).