teambuilding and deploying a dll (e.g. wpftoolkit.extended.dll)

Question

The app I work on needs to use the wpftoolkit.extended.dll (i.e. no source, no msi/installer, we've only got the dll). So far we've placed the dll in a c:\libs folder on both the dev's laptop and the teambuild server and it built ok on both; now for deploying we want to add it to an installer (.vdproj) and we think we'll need it in tfs's repository somewhere. However, when tested the app now only builds on the dev's laptop and not on the teambuild server (looks like a relative path thing).

So... rather than fixing the actual problem, I'm wondering what's the best/cleanest/commonlyAccepted way to do this? where should I keep the dll in the repository and where should I place the dll on the host we're deploying to? thanks

Answer 1

You should use folder structure on the source control like the following

/Main                                 Contains the .sln file                                  

    /Source
        /MyApp1                       Contains MyApp1.sln file
           /Source                    Contain folder for all
               /ClassLibrary1         Contains ClassLibrary1.csproj
                  /MyApp1Web          Contains Default.aspx

    /Build                            Contains build output (binaries)

    /Docs                             Contains product docs etc

    /Tests

   **/3rdpartyDlls**                      Contains all vesions of third-party dlls

For more information about the source control folders and best practices, it's recommended to read the book patterns & practices Team Development with TFS Guide (Final Release)