Handling common JavaScript files in Visual Studio 2010

Question

We\'re beginning work on a couple of fully JavaScript-dependent web apps (our previous apps have been ASP.NET MVC, with JavaScript \'goodness\' sprinkled over-the-top).

Answer 1

In the end, this is how I've achieved it. It may not be to everyone's taste - but worked a treat for me.

Note: In all of our projects, static resources are in a root directory called 'Assets', so for example JavaScript is always in /Assets/js/ and CSS /Assets/css/.

Solution

1. In the project that is going to 'import' the common code, I simply add the common .js file 'As Link' within /Assets/js/.
2. Go to that new addition's Properties and set 'Copy to Output Directory' to 'Copy if newer'.
3. Now I simply edit the project's post-build event command line to the following: xcopy /Y /E "$(TargetDir)\Assets" "$(ProjectDir)\Assets"

When the project builds, it copies the imported files to \bin\Assets\js - the post-build event then takes a copy of those over to the project directory - in time for the site to use them.