Another Build Glitch

So here I am cruising along on my TFS Implementation.  Got the code into version control redoing the File References in a way that will end the misery we're living with on the old system and ready to start building the Application.  Instead of one big solution, I'm breaking the Application into it's "Deployable Components".  For this app, they have two Web Services Projects, a Web application, a DLL for Notification Services, a Console Application and a Click-Once Deployed Windows Form Application.  So I created six solutions instead of the one.  I create my build types and build.

 I start with one of the Web Services and the web application.  I get my DLL's built quite nicely, but there's no _PublishedWebSites folder in my binaries tree (let alone on the drop site).  I try to dig in and see what's wrong with my build type definition.  Can't find anything.  I first try Googleing on "How to build Web Applications in TFS" and just about EVERYTHING refers me to a page on MSDN that no longer exists (gotta love that).  I keep digging and I'm SURE I'm doing everything correctly.

So I get frustrated and post the problem to the MSDN Forum.  That helps me focus - and I decide the next step is to build a "Hello World" application.  I build a Web Application with a single page that says "Hello World" and an <ASP:Label> where I pass in the date.  Add it to Source Control, setup a build type, build it, and yup - I get the proverbial _PublishedWebsites folder nicely organized to deploy to a server.

Then I did some more Googleing and ran across This blog post from Donn Felker, which I had scanned past and initially didn't realize was my problem.  So I open up the .csproj for Hello World - and yup there is a line in there for the Microsoft.WebApplication.targets.  I then opened up the csproj for the application I'm migrating from VSS and unlike Don's where the line was commented out, in my projects, it was missing entirely.

So I edited the file, inserted the lines - and presto - I get a _publilshedWebsites folder!

So thanks Donn for blogging about your solution - saved me some serious time! 

Now to move on to ClickOnce publishing....