Using Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft has made deploying your
web applications easier. They have created the "Visual
Studio Web Deployment Projects" download. Installing this gives the
user an option on the Build menu to create a Web Deployment project. Using the
GUI shown in Figure 1, you can do some of the things you want, like changing a
connection string in your web.config. Utilizing this tool helps you to get
started with your build file quickly.
In this scenario, we are setting up for an initial deploy to
our development environment. Let's start with the Dev scenario. For each
scenario, there are a few steps to add. First, create a build directory (check
it, then delete files out of it). Next, copy the files from the source
directory of the application. This step could also get your source files from
your Source Control provider and place them into the build directory. Then we
compile the project. Finally, we copy the files, including the Crystal Report
and Crystal assemblies, to the destination directory of the dev server. Now
let's see how that's done.
Look at the file that you created by clicking "Add Web
Deployment Project" from the Build menu.
Figure 1
The web Deployment project, once open, has xml elements, including
Projects. For a complete description of MSBuild and its tasks, check this link. MSBuild,
like NAnt, utilizes targets to section off different work areas. For an overview
of MSBuild, go to this link.
In this example, in the Project tag, we put the default
target as DEV_Build. If you are familiar with NAnt, then the way targets work
should be familiar for you. For instance, before the DEV_Build target fires, if
the DependsonTarget tag contains a name, that fires before the tag. Below in Code
Listing 1 is a sample of how that works.
Code Listing 1
<Target Name="DEV_Build"
DependsOnTargets="DEV_BeforeBuild">
So the above target depends on DEV_BeforeBuild. In the
case of this build file there is also a DEV_Clean target.
The Dev_Build target compiles the project, then copies the
report file, aspx file and the web.config file. There are ways to modify the
web.config in your build file for the environment you wish to send the
information to. Finally, the dependent assemblies are copied to the projects
bin directory. Code Listing 2 has the entire build
file for a dev environment for a simple Crystal Web file.
Code Listing 2
<Project DefaultTargets="DEV_Build"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<BuildDirectory>c:\build\</BuildDirectory>
<SourceDirectory>C:\Dev\MSBuildCrystalExample\</SourceDirectory>
<CrystalSourceDirectory>C:\Program Files\Common Files\Crystal Decisions\1.1\Managed\</CrystalSourceDirectory>
<DevDirectory>c:\inetpub\wwwroot\SampleDevServer\</DevDirectory>
<ProgramName>MSBuildCrystalExample</ProgramName>
<AppName>CrystalBuildSample</AppName>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
</ItemGroup>
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\WebDeployment\v8.0\Microsoft.WebDeployment.targets" />
<!-- To modify your build process, add your task inside one of the targets below and uncomment it.
Other similar extension points exist, see Microsoft.WebDeployment.targets.-->
<Target Name="DEV_Clean">
<Delete Files="$(BuildDirectory)$(ProgramName)\*.*" TreatErrorsAsWarnings="true"></Delete>
</Target>
<Target Name="DEV_BeforeBuild" DependsOnTargets="DEV_Clean">
<MakeDir Directories="$(BuildDirectory)$(ProgramName)" ContinueOnError="true"></MakeDir>
<MakeDir Directories="$(BuildDirectory)$(ProgramName)\bin" ContinueOnError="true"></MakeDir>
<!-- Copy aspx files, then others-->
<Copy
SourceFiles="$(SourceDirectory)default.aspx;$(SourceDirectory)
CrystalReport1.rpt;$(SourceDirectory)Default.aspx.cs;$(SourceDirectory)web.config"
DestinationFiles="$(BuildDirectory)$(ProgramName)\default.aspx;$(BuildDirectory)$(ProgramName)
\CrystalReport1.rpt;$(BuildDirectory)$(ProgramName)\Default.aspx.cs;$(BuildDirectory)$(ProgramName)\web.config"
/>
<Copy
SourceFiles="$(CrystalSourceDirectory)CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine.dll;
$(CrystalSourceDirectory)CrystalDecisions.Shared.dll;
$(CrystalSourceDirectory)CrystalDecisions.Web.dll"
DestinationFiles="$(BuildDirectory)$(ProgramName)\bin\CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine.dll;
$(BuildDirectory)$(ProgramName)\bin\CrystalDecisions.Shared.dll;
$(BuildDirectory)$(ProgramName)\bin\CrystalDecisions.Web.dll"
/>
</Target>
<Target Name="DEV_AfterBuild" DependsOnTargets="DEV_Build">
</Target>
<Target Name="DEV_Build" DependsOnTargets="DEV_BeforeBuild">
<Csc Sources="$(BuildDirectory)$(ProgramName)\*.cs"
OutputAssembly="$(BuildDirectory)$(ProgramName)\msbuildexample.dll"
EmitDebugInformation="false"></Csc>
</Target>
</Project>
Within this deployment project, there are tasks for
deploying to a dev server. You can then add similar targets for your testing
environment.
