HowTo: Zipping with MSBuild

In my last Blogpost I talked about howto integrate tests into the Buildscript. Today I´m going to write down an easy way how to zipp the build automatical.

You will find the magic trick in the MSBuildCommunity Tasks project.

Szenario

I just continued the solution from my last blogpost and by the way I downloaded the latest version of MSBuild Community Tasks.

As a side note: The MSI installer doesn´t work so I downloaded Zip with source. These files are from interest:

The following reference should be included into the MSBuild Script:

<Import Project="$(MSBuildStartupDirectory)\Lib\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets"/>

Zipping or the problem with the documentation

The MSBuildCommunity Task Project is really huge but in my eyes it´s kind of undocumented. With the help of this post I found out how to open the ZipTasks.

Here you can see my entire MSBuild Script. Take a look at the target "zip"

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" DefaultTargets="Build">
<Import Project="$(MSBuildStartupDirectory)\Lib\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets"/>
   <PropertyGroup>
		<OutDir>$(MSBuildStartupDirectory)\OutDir\</OutDir>
		<SolutionProperties>
					OutDir=$(OutDir);
					Platform=Any CPU;
					Configuration=Release
		</SolutionProperties>
   </PropertyGroup>
	<ItemGroup>
		<Solution Include="..\MsBuildSample.sln">
			<Properties>
							$(SolutionProperties)
			</Properties>
		</Solution>
	</ItemGroup>
	<Target Name="Build">
		<MSBuild Projects="@(Solution)"/>
	</Target>
	<Target Name="RunTests">
		<Exec Command='"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\mstest.exe" /testcontainer:"$(MSBuildStartupDirectory)\OutDir\MsBuildSample.WebApp.Tests.dll" /testcontainer:"$(MSBuildStartupDirectory)\OutDir\AnotherTestProject.dll"' />
	</Target>
	<ItemGroup>
	  <!-- All files from build -->
	  <ZipFiles Include="$(OutDir)_PublishedWebsites\**\*.*" />
  </ItemGroup>
	<Target Name="Zip">
		<Zip Files="@(ZipFiles)"
			 WorkingDirectory="$(OutDir)_PublishedWebsites\"
			 ZipFileName="$(OutDir)Package.zip"/>
	</Target>
</Project>
 

The item "ZipFiles" includes all websites in my "OutDir". In the zip target I zipp all the files and deside from which folder they should be zipped. Last but not least: enter a name.

The call workes the same way like in my last posts with a .bat file:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\msbuild.exe Buildsolution.targets /t:Build,RunTests,Zip

Thats the easy but effective way to create a kind of "deployment-package". Even if there is a lot of more stuff you can make with the help of Msdeploy, never say no to a little zip. ;)