Web.Config transforms outside of Microsoft MSBuild?

Question

Is it possible to use Microsoft\'s XML document transform, for preparing web.configs, outside of MSBuild? I would like to use PowerShell to do these transform without having

Answer 1

The logic of the transformation is contained inside of the TransformXml task itself. If you want to call it from code you would have to use the MSBuild API with a mock engine and execute it. I have some code for this if you want.

In your case since you mentioned PowerShell the best thing for you to do is to just create a wrapper MSBuild file to invoke the TransformXml task. I say this because PowerShell is configured to run under .NET 2.0, but the TransformXml task requires .NET 4.0. In order to call it from a dummy MSBuild file you can check my blog at http://sedodream.com/2010/04/26/ConfigTransformationsOutsideOfWebAppBuilds.aspx, but I've also pasted a sample from that link below.

For mono, this should work (tested on mono 6.4, macos, 2019) :

  
  
    Web.config
    Web.Live.config
    Output.Web.config
  
  
    
    
    
    
    
  

which you can run with just msbuild or supply parameters with

msbuild /p:TransformSource=... /p:Transformer=...