MSBuild

From RemObjects Software

This is a Technical Glossary entry
Feel free to add your notes to this topic below.

MSBuild is a build platform for VS.NET, it's XML based. It's comparable to NAnt in features, but is the main file format since Visual Studio 2005.

MSBuild uses Tasks to build projects. The XML file contains 1 or more targets that are used to decide what should be called to compile that project. Oxygene includes a Visual Studio MSBuild task to compile .oxygene (and legacy .chrome) project files.

<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="3.5">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <RootNamespace>ConsoleApplication</RootNamespace>
    <OutputType>exe</OutputType>
    <AssemblyName>ConsoleApplication</AssemblyName>
    <AllowGlobals>False</AllowGlobals>
    <AllowLegacyOutParams>False</AllowLegacyOutParams>
    <AllowLegacyCreate>False</AllowLegacyCreate>
    <ApplicationIcon>Properties\App.ico</ApplicationIcon>
    <Configuration Condition="'$(Configuration)' == ''">Release</Configuration>
    <ProjectGuid>{B2431351-08A7-4E87-B834-B3971386D5E6}</ProjectGuid>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' ">
    <DefineConstants>DEBUG;TRACE;</DefineConstants>
    <OutputPath>.\bin\Debug</OutputPath>
    <GeneratePDB>True</GeneratePDB>
    <GenerateMDB>True</GenerateMDB>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Release' ">
    <OutputPath>.\bin\Release</OutputPath>
    <EnableAsserts>False</EnableAsserts>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\RemObjects Software\Oxygene\RemObjects.Oxygene.targets" />
  <ItemGroup>
    <Reference Include="mscorlib">
      <HintPath>$(Framework)\mscorlib.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="System">
      <HintPath>$(Framework)\System.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="System.Data">
      <HintPath>$(Framework)\System.Data.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
    <Reference Include="System.Xml">
      <HintPath>$(Framework)\System.Xml.dll</HintPath>
    </Reference>
  </ItemGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <Compile Include="Program.pas" />
    <Content Include="Properties\App.ico" />
    <Compile Include="Properties\AssemblyInfo.pas" />
    <EmbeddResource Include="Properties\Resources.resx">
      <Generator>ResXFileCodeGenerator</Generator>
    </EmbeddResource>
    <Compile Include="Properties\Resources.Designer.pas" />
    <None Include="Properties\Settings.settings">
      <Generator>SettingsSingleFileGenerator</Generator>
    </None>
    <Compile Include="Properties\Settings.Designer.pas" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

The target import used to instruct MSBuild to compile the project. Although Visual Studio depends on MSBuild, MSBuild can be installed and used without Visual Studio installed. MonoDevelop also supports MSBuild formatted files.