在Visual Studio 2017中使用构建事件时的msi安装程序

Question

I installed the Visual Studio 2017 Installer and added an installer project to my solution.

When I'm building my main project, I'm using post build events to create a Production directory (in which all files are nicely sorted into directories) - for the sake of the example, let's say that this is the new path: C:\\workspace\\NewProject\\bin\\release\\Production

I saw that the installer takes the build files (located under the debug/release folder under C:\\workspace\\NewProject\\bin\\ ) and those are the files which will be installed when running the msi .

However, what I wish is that the installer will ignore all files under C:\\workspace\\NewProject\\bin\\release and use the files under C:\\workspace\\NewProject\\bin\\release\\Production

Is that possible? Or should I somehow configure the output folder's files from the installer's properties?

Answer 1

Although the "project output" option is popular as input to setup projects it's often better to just use the Add File of option in the File System view in the setup project, adding it into the target folder. It's better because you see exactly what you're adding, and the destination locations that may be scattered anywhere on the target system (Program Files, Common Files, GAC and so on).

There's no advantage to organizing files into nicely sorted folders on the build system because the setup project doesn't care. If you want the files nicely sorted on the target system you need to create those folders in the File System view on Target machine and add each file to its destination.