(1) The AbsolutePath
value in your example is copy/pasted from my skip rule example. You need to change that value to the path of your Downloads
folder.
<Target Name="AddCustomSkipRules">
<Message Text="Adding Custom Skip Rules" />
<ItemGroup>
<MsDeploySkipRules Include="SkipDownloadsFolder">
<SkipAction>Delete</SkipAction>
<ObjectName>filePath</ObjectName>
<AbsolutePath>Downloads</AbsolutePath>
</MsDeploySkipRules>
</ItemGroup>
</Target>
(2) You cannot use a custom skip rule when publishing from within Visual Studio. You must publish using MSBuild from a command prompt. The nature of my question was about combining the convenience of the publishing profile managed within VS, with the utility of a custom skip rule (which requires the command line), because as of VS 2012 Update 3, the limitation of the command line has not been lifted.
My MSBuild command looks like this:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe My.Website.sln /p:Configuration=Release;DeployOnBuild=true;PublishProfile="Test Server - Web Deploy"
If I attempt to publish from within VS 2012, I get the following error, even though "-verb:sync" is clearly visible in the output:
2>Start Web Deploy Publish the Application/package to http://my.website.example.com/MSDEPLOYAGENTSERVICE ...
2>C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy V3\msdeploy.exe
-source:manifest='C:\inetpub\wwwroot\My.Website\obj\Release\Package\My.Website.SourceManifest.xml'
-dest:auto,ComputerName='http://my.website.example.com/MSDEPLOYAGENTSERVICE',UserName='...',Password="...",IncludeAcls='False',AuthType='NTLM'
-verb:sync
-disableLink:AppPoolExtension
-disableLink:ContentExtension
-disableLink:CertificateExtension
-skip:skipaction='Delete',objectname='filePath',absolutepath='ErrorLog'
-skip:objectname='dirPath',absolutepath='obj\\Release\\Package\\PackageTmp\\App_Data$'
-skip:objectname='dirPath',absolutepath='MyWebsite/\\App_Data$'
-setParamFile:"C:\inetpub\wwwroot\My.Website\obj\Release\Package\My.Website.Publish.Parameters.xml"
-retryAttempts=2
2>MSDEPLOY(0,0): Error : The verb must be specified by using the -verb argument.
2>MSDEPLOY(0,0): Error count: 1.