How can I consistently automate, using TFS vNext build steps, building whatever solution files our development teams get working using Visual Studio?

Question

Developers use the Visual Studio (VS) GUI to develop their solutions and get their projects all building using a solution file (.SLN). The build teams using vNext then have to automate those builds using MSBuild instead of devenv.exe (the Visual Studio executable file). This is a serious and chronic problem because not only is MSBuild incapable of building several project types, but the build order is defined in a completely different, and complex, way.

Some Microsoft advice ( https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/msbuild/incorrect-solution-build-ordering-when-using-msbuild-exe ) is to switch to explicit dependencies in each .*proj file and remove all dependency specifications in the .SLN file. This sounds like a person who has never worked in a relatively powerless build team trying to get development teams to:

• do a lot of what they perceive as time-wasting extra work and to
• change how they do things

What build teams need is a way to automate whatever VS allows dev teams to build. If VS is given a SLN to build, then a vNext build needs to be able to use that same SLN in the same way. Instead vNext currently only offers MSBuild as the build tool. MSBuild has many more options than devenv, so that would be great, IF it could be made to use the SLN to govern dependencies in the same way as VS, and would be upgraded to build all the same project types.

There have been prospective efforts, referenced by PatrickLu-MSFT at Build project using devenv.exe in TFS 15RC1 Build Server , to enhance a vNext build step to allow devenv to be used instead of MSBuild, but those efforts seem to have been dropped.

Maybe someone has developed a custom vNext build step to build using devenv?

Answer 1

Here is an existing extension you can reference, which provides a build task in your TFS/VSTS instance that will allow you to build your projects using DevEnv.com (Visual Studio):

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mmajcica.devenv-build

If you want to automatically use TFS/DevOps build whatever solution files our development teams get working using Visual Studio, you could set CI trigger in build pipeline, when the solution build successfully on local, you can check in/commit the changes, and trigger TFS/DevOps builds.