When does MSBuild set the $(ProjectName) property?
- by bwerks
I'm fairly new to MSBuild, and I've done some customization on a Wpf project file that I'm building both in VS2010 and TFS2010. I've customized the output path as follows:
<OutputPath Condition=" '$(TeamBuildOutDir)' == '' ">$(SolutionDir)build\binaries\$(ProjectName)\$(Configuration)\$(Platform)</OutputPath>
<OutputPath Condition=" '$(TeamBuildOutDir)' != '' ">$(TeamBuildOutDir)binaries\$(ProjectName)\$(Configuration)\$(Platform)</OutputPath>
This allows me to build to a centralized binaries directory when building on the desktop, and allows TFS to find the binaries when CI builds are running.
However, it seems that in both cases, the $(ProjectDir) property is evaluating to '' at buildtime, which creates strange results. Doing some debugging, it appears as if $(ProjectName) is set by the time BeforeBuild executes, but that my OutputPath property is evaluating it prior to that point.
<ProjectNameUsedTooEarly Condition=" '$(ProjectName)' == '' ">true</ProjectNameUsedTooEarly>
The preceeding property is in the same property group as my OutputPath property. In the BeforeBuild target, $(ProjectNameUsedTooEarly) evaluates to true, but $(ProjectName) evaluates to the project name as normal by that point.
What can I do to ensure that $(ProjectName) has got a value when I use it?
edit: I just used Attrice's MSBuild Sidekick to debug through my build file, and in the very first target available for breakpoint (_CheckForInvalidConfigurationAndPlatform) all the properties seem to be set already. ProjectName is already set correctly, but my OutputPath property has already been set using the blank value of ProjectName.
