Team Build, 3rd Party References, and Web Deployment Projects

[mndang]

Hi All,

This may have been posted before and such, but I tried a few solutions
on the web but to no avail.

Problem: I have a web projects (not Web Application Project) with many
project references and a few 3rd party references. The 3rd party
references are automatically added to the web.config file as another
<add assembly/> element via the VS.NET 2005 IDE.

The 3rd Party References are within Source Control not under the
solution file node. e.g.

Source Control Structure:

$/Code/MyCode/MySolution.sln
$/Code/MyCode/MyNameSpace/WebProject/$/Code/MyCode/MyNameSpace/MyProj1/MyProj1.csproj
$/Code/MyCode/MyNameSpace/MyProj2/MyProj2.csproj
$/Code/ReleasedAssemblies/ThirdParty/Microsoft
$/Code/ReleasedAssemblies/ThirdParty/CrystalReports

I am using Team Build and have added a Web Deployment Project to the
solution. I am building into a Relase|Mixed Platform Mode with the RTM
Version of TFS.

I manually copied the all the 3rd party refs to the Team Build Server
into a ReleasedAssemblies folder where I could easily reference those
assemblies with Team Build.

I tried Manish's fix to add the "AdditionalReferencePath" to
TFSBuild.proj.
http://blogs.msdn.com/manishagarwal/archive/2005/10/05/477363.aspx

I put this line in my TFSBuild.proj:
<AdditionalReferencePath
Include="$(BuildDirectoryPath)\ReleasedAssemblies\ThirdParty\CrystalReports\"
/>

But that did not resolve the issue of:
web.config(113): error ASPCONFIG: Could not load file or assembly
'xxx.xxx.xxx, Version=x.x, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=7dd5c3163f2cd0cb' or one of its dependencies. The system
cannot find the file specified.

What is the proper and best method of referencing 3rd party references
within web projects (Not Web Application Projects) using Team Build?

I supply more info if required?



THanks

md

 

[mndang]

After more digging.

The Build is failing @ compiling wdproj when executing
ASPNET_Compiler.exe becuase it can not find those 3rd party references
indicated in the web.config file.

Found that the ASPNET_COMPILER.Exe does not have a reference attribute
per se like csc.exe. A target <ResolveAssemblyReferences>, located in
the Microsoft.WebDeployments.targets file, was called before the
ASPNET_COMPILER.Exe step. This should have resolved all dependencies,
but apparently it doesn't look like the 3rd party references listed in
a web.config file isn't read by that target.

Does anyone think this is a bug? Or is it by design? What is the
purpose of that if so?

I might have to install all these 3rd Party references into the GAC,
but one shouldn't have to do that.
OR
Write a custom target to override the current <AspNetCompiler> Target
to copy those assemblies into the _PublishedWebsites folder.

Which way is better??? I would imagine writing a custom target is
better.

Regards,

md