Possible to reverse order of ItemGroup elements?
- by Filburt
In MSBuild 3.5, is it possible to reverse the order elements in an ItemGroup?
Example
I have 2 projects. One can be built independently the other is dependent on the first. Each project references its specific items in a .targets file.
project_A.targets
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<AssembliesToRemove Include="@(AssembliesToRemove)" />
<AssembliesToRemove Include="Assembly_A.dll">
<ApplicationName>App_A</ApplicationName>
</AssembliesToRemove>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<AssembliesToDeploy Include="@(AssembliesToDeploy)" />
<AssembliesToDeploy Include="Assembly_A.dll">
<AssemblyType>SomeType</AssemblyType>
<ApplicationName>App_A</ApplicationName>
</AssembliesToDeploy>
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
project_B.targets
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<AssembliesToRemove Include="@(AssembliesToRemove)" />
<AssembliesToRemove Include="Assembly_B.dll">
<ApplicationName>App_B</ApplicationName>
</AssembliesToRemove>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<AssembliesToDeploy Include="@(AssembliesToDeploy)" />
<AssembliesToDeploy Include="Assembly_B.dll">
<AssemblyType>SomeType</AssemblyType>
<ApplicationName>App_B</ApplicationName>
</AssembliesToDeploy>
</ItemGroup>
</Project>
project_A.proj
<Project DefaultTargets="Start" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Import Project="project_A.targets" />
<Import Project="Common.targets" />
</Project>
project_B.proj
<Project DefaultTargets="Start" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Import Project="project_A.targets" />
<Import Project="project_B.targets" />
<Import Project="Common.targets" />
</Project>
The Problem
In this scenario the problem arises during the Task processing @(AssembliesToDeploy) because Assembly_B.dll needs to be deployed before Assembly_A.dll.
What I tried to do
I tried to influence the order of @(AssembliesToDeploy) by modifying project_B.targets like this:
<ItemGroup>
<AssembliesToDeploy Include="Assembly_B.dll">
<AssemblyType>SomeType</AssemblyType>
<ApplicationName>App_B</ApplicationName>
</AssembliesToDeploy>
<AssembliesToDeploy Include="@(AssembliesToDeploy)" />
</ItemGroup>
but when using project_B.targets inside project_B.proj the order inside @(AssembliesToDeploy) still remained Assembly_A.dll;Assembly_B.dll.
Is there a solution which would allow to reuse my .targets i.e not copying all ItemGroup elements to all .targets files?
