Visual Studio Team Services build with external dll

Question

I have to build several dozen repositories using Visual Studio Team Services. I have two problems.

1. How to build repository wich has other external .dll in reference. Can I download it somehow in definition step from sftp or other place?
2. These repositories have to be build with diferent sets of .dll references. For now we build them changing properties of the project in VS, now we would like to have this functionality in our build definition in VSTS. For example: we would like to build repository with 12.1, 12.2, 12.3 sets of external .dll reference and produce three Artifacts after one pull request.

I have no experience with VSTS, can anybody give me some advice?

Answer 1

In VSTS build, you can only build the sources from one repository for a build. So there are two options you can use:

1. Add external dll into the current repo you need to build.

You can add the dll in your current repo, and then refer the dll from your current repo. Then commit and push the changes and build by VSTS.

2. Add the repo which has the dll you are referring as a submodule for your current git repo.

By adding submodule, you can use the external dll directly. One thing to note, you just need to select checkout submodules in your VSTS build defintion.