MSBuild target _CopyWebApplication does not copy all necessary files to the bin folder

Question

Elsewhere on the Web, you can find recommendations on using something like this to simulate the Publish feature in the VS 2005-2008 IDE from a command-line (I hope I did not

Answer 1

This is just a workaround.

In the build script for publishing Web sites, after running MSBuild on the Web project itself to publish it (Targets="ResolveReferences;_CopyWebApplication"), I added a copy operation:

<Copy SourceFiles="@(ProjectBinFiles)" DestinationFolder="$(StageBin)\%(ProjectBinFiles.RecursiveDir)" />

where ProjectBinFiles is an Item representing the files in the bin directory in the source directory, and StageBin is a Property representing the bin folder in the published site's directory. So far, it seems to work.

Answer 2

I had this same issue in VS 2012 and eventually fixed it by doing the following to any files which needed to be copied:

• Set the Copy to Output file property to Copy if newer
• Set the Build Action file property to Content (or Compile if the file needs to be compiled)

Answer 3

I was having a similar issue as well. I think the answer is using MSDeploy. Investigating it now, but may provide functionality required...