Extending TFS Builds - Specifically working with the Drop Location

I've seen a few different posts regarding getting to the Drop Location when working with MSBuild. In short, the DropLocation property isn't set when PropertyGroup variables are evaluated.

A workaround to this is to use the CreateProperty task and the GetBuildProperties task in a target just before you call other targets that need the folder location.

For starters, our script adds the AfterDropBuild target so we get into the workflow right after the build has been dropped to its drop location. An example drop location might look like "d:\builddrop\MyProject_Staging\Build_20101001.1".

Once you have the folder, you can then target specific published projects and do meaningful tasks like changing configuration to match the target environment.

Take a moment to look at builds that have been dropped and you should see beneath the build flavor (Debug, Release) a folder called "_PublishedWebSites". Each of the web sites defined (or services) in your solution will exist beneath that folder.

To get the folder, you need to configure a dependency target that is called through the "DependsOnTargets" attribute for the AfterDropBuild target.  The target calls the same task that is used by the Microsoft targets specifically "GetBuildProperties".  If you traverse the targets stored in the Microsoft folder under the MSbuild directory you'll see how it is used.  What you want to do is acquire just the DropLocation value.

Next, use the CreateProperty task to [re]populate a property variable with the DropLocation value.

You can accomplish this without having to wrap the TFSBuild.proj targets at all (as I've seen in other posts).

The following is an example:

<xmp>
  <PropertyGroup>
    <CurrentDropLocation></CurrentDropLocation>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <Target Name="AfterDropBuild" DependsOnTargets="ReinitializeBuildProperties;ConfigureUnityMappingFile;ConfigureWebConfigFile;CopyAndConfigureService">
    <!-- do your other stuff here such as configuring your .config files. -->
  </Target>

  <Target Name="ReinitializeBuildProperties">
      <GetBuildProperties TeamFoundationServerUrl="$(TeamFoundationServerUrl)"
                          BuildUri="$(BuildUri)">
        <Output TaskParameter="DropLocation" PropertyName="MyDropLocation" />
      </GetBuildProperties>
       
    <CreateProperty Value="$(MyDropLocation)\%(ConfigurationToBuild.FlavorToBuild)">
      <Output PropertyName="CurrentDropLocation" TaskParameter="Value" />
    </CreateProperty>
</xmp>