App.Config Transformation for projects which are not Web Projects in Visual Studio?

Question

For Visual Studio 2010 Web based application we have Config Transformation features by which we can maintain multiple configuration files for different environments. But the

Answer 1

Note: Due to reputation I cannot comment on bdeem's post. I'm posting my findings as an answer instead.

Following bdeem's post, I did the following (in order):

1. I modified the [project].csproj file. Added the tags to the ItemGroup for the different config files and made them dependent on the original config file.

Note: Using will not work with the transformation.

  App.config


  App.config

2. At the bottom of the [project].csproj file (before the closing tag), I imported the ${MSBuildToolsPath\Microsoft.CSharp.targets file, added the UsingTask to transform the XML and added the Target to copy the transformed App.config file to the output location.

Note: The Target will also overwrite the App.Config in the local directory to see immediate changes working locally. The Target also uses the Name="Afterbuild" property to ensure the config files can be transformed after the executables are generated. For reasons I do not understand, when using WCF endpoints, if I use Name="CoreCompile", I will get warnings about the service attributes. Name="Afterbuild" resolved this.

  
  

  
  
  
        
    
    
    
    

    
    
      
      
        $(TargetFileName).config
      
    
  

3. Went back into Visual Studio and reloaded the modified files.

4. Manually added the App.*.config files to the project. This allowed them to group under the original App.config file.

Note: Make sure the App.*.config files have the proper XML structure.

5. Re-built the project.