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

I came to this post well after it original posting but it helped resolve my issue so I thought I'd put my solution (based on the solution above) here for anyone having the same problem with a current visual studio / msbuild install.

Currently in VS build time transforms are done using the SlowCheetah nuget pkg. If you can rely on this package in your project you can use the script I have placed below and it will automatically find the required assembly based on the installed cheetah version and perform your transform as needed.

Hope this helps someone.

param(  
  [ValidateScript({$(Test-Path $_) -eq $true})]
  [string] $NuGetRootPath,

  [ValidateScript({$(Test-Path $_) -eq $true})]
  [string] $BaseFile,

  [ValidateScript({$(Test-Path $_) -eq $true})]
  [string] $TransformFile,

  [string] $TargetPath
)

"[INFO] Creating Custom XML Transform..." | Out-Default   
"[INFO] ==> Source:    $BaseFile" | Out-Default   
"[INFO] ==> Transform: $TransformFile" | Out-Default   
"[INFO] ==> Target:    $TargetPath" | Out-Default   

$cheetahDir = Join-Path $NuGetRootPath *SlowCheetah* | Resolve-Path | Select-Object -Last 1 -ExpandProperty Path
$xformDll = Join-Path $cheetahDir "tools\Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.dll" | Resolve-Path | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Path
Add-Type -LiteralPath $xformDll

$xmldoc = New-Object Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.XmlTransformableDocument;
$xmldoc.PreserveWhitespace = $true
$xmldoc.Load($BaseFile);

"[INFO] Running Transform..." | Out-Default
$transf = New-Object Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.XmlTransformation($TransformFile);
if ($transf.Apply($xmldoc) -eq $false) {
    throw "[ERROR] Transformation failed."
}

$xmldoc.Save($TargetPath);
"[INFO] Transformation Complete..." | Out-Default