i got stuck with a problem which has to do with a managed c++ Project.
Currently we have a working Build and we are about to use CMake to generate our Solution Files in the future.
In our solution we have some Managed C++ Project and C# Projects. I tried to generate/build the Managed C++ Projects and it works. But there is one key thing that is different which atually breaks the build.
In our working build the managed C++ Project has the Xml Tag <TargetFrameworkVersion> but when I use CMake to configure/generate the Project I end up having <TargetFramework> and this breaks the build ( I confirmed by manually changing the Tag).
I got stuck with this Problem for 2 days and the following things I already tried:
I tried setting VS_DOTNET_TARGET_FRAMEWORK_VERSION which actually is deprecated but makes sense because of the name. I ended up having in the Project file.
I also tried the newer Variables DOTNET_TARGET_FRAMEWORK, DOTNET_TARGET_FRAMEWORK_VERSION but I ended up again with in the Project file.
I thought to myself I could change the Project file after I configure/generate but thats pretty hacky (but works)
There is a second solution which actually works but is not what I really want. I can tell cmake.exe to pass some options to the native MsBuild tool to build the managed C++ target. This works but I would prefer to some how tell the CMakeLists.txt to do this or even better have the right Xml tag when generating the Proect files because we don't want to use the command line when building our projects.
The approach looks like this (Target Name is NotifierLib and .NET Framework Version is 4.7.2)
cmake --build . --target NotifierLib -- /p:TargetFrameworkVersion=v4.7.2
Did anyone came across this exact issue? Or maybe has an idea how to solve this via CMakeLists.txt?
Thanks in advance.
I finally came to a pretty Solution which was there initially.
This post helped my to get on the right Track:
How can cmake add custom entry in a project's vcxproj PropertyGroup?
Basically I don't need to iterate over the .xml File myself to edit the Tag.
I can tell CMake to set it for me as a global option with:
set_target_properties(NotifierLib PROPERTIES VS_GLOBAL_TargetFrameworkVersion "v4.7.2")
This way the initial <TargetFramework> Tag is still in the .xml File but it does not bother because it is not being used.
What's the purpose of defining a Cl task in msbuild like this?
<ItemGroup>
<ClInclude Include="Something.h" />
</ItemGroup>
Is this necessary? It seems like just have #include "Something.h" in the source file should be sufficient. What purpose does the ClInclude task then fulfill?0
It's basically just for use in the Visual Studio user interface: if you view projects in Solution Explorer and 'Show All Files' is turned off, it shows only what is defined in the different Items which serve as input for the build (ClInclude/ClCompile/Resource/...). So even when the compiler happily finds the include file, the IDE won't list it in Solution Explorer. Also functions like 'Go To Files' won't consider the file.
With 'Show All Files' turned on you get to see the whole directory structure, usually a better experience in my opinion, though it still shows files which aren't listed in the project explicitly with a red sign to incidate that. But then at least you can right-click on them and choose 'Include in Project' instead of finding them manually.
I have been banging my head on a brick wall that seems to be easily worked around for everyone except me.
I want to setup css and js compression using a standard build on Team Foundation Server 2010. Below is what I've tried so far and failed. I am looking for a magic helping hand to guide me into setting this up the way professionals (SO is full of em) believe it should.
http://yuicompressor.codeplex.com/releases/view/46679 (dowload demo using post-build events)
This method looked promising as it did exactly as promised when you build your project in Visual Studio.
My msbuild Post-build command:
$(MSBuildBinPath)\msbuild.exe
"$(ProjectDir)MSBuild\MSBuildSettings.xml"
/p:CssOutputFile="$(TargetDir)..\Content\StylesSheetFinal.css"
/p:JavaScriptOutputFile="$(TargetDir)..\Scripts\JavaScriptFinal.js"
However when the build is run by TFS I get a lot of errors like these:
D:\Builds\3\CKB 2010_Build_CP\Sources\CKB
2010\My.Name.Space\MSBuild\MSBuildSettings.xml (61): Failed
to save the compressed text into the output file [D:\Builds\3\CKB
2010_Build_CP\Binaries..\Content\StylesSheetFinal.css]. Please check
the path/file name and make sure the file isn't magically locked,
read-only, etc..
So clearly the problem is the syntax in the Post-build command that is wrong. But I can't figure out how to make it work for both local and TSF builds.
Update 2011-08-17
As noted by Edward Thompson, I've tried adding a backslash to the path:
$(MSBuildBinPath)\msbuild.exe
"$(ProjectDir)MSBuild\MSBuildSettings.xml"
/p:CssOutputFile="$(TargetDir)\..\Content\styles.min.css"
/p:JavaScriptOutputFile="$(TargetDir)\..\Scripts\scripts.min.js"
And the result is this:
Failed to save the compressed text into the output file
[D:\Builds\3\CKB 2010_Build_CP\Binaries\\..\Content\styles.min.css].
Please check the path/file name and make sure the file isn't magically
locked, read-only, etc..
The problem is the difference in values with which TFS and Visual Studio run the msbuild command.
These are the steps I have taken to get proper YuiCompressor integration with Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010.
In your desired project add a folder named 'MSBuild'
In this folder you should extract the files you download from the YuiCompressor project on CodePlex
Set the properties of these files like this:
Now open the MSBuildSettings.xml file and edit it according to the scripts and css files you want to have compressed. I have uploaded mine on pastebin since pasting it here caused problems with the editor.
Add the following postbuild event to your project. Note that the paths can differ for your environment.
IF "$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)"=="" $(MSBuildBinPath)\msbuild.exe
"$(ProjectDir)MSBuild\MSBuildSettings.xml"
/p:CssOutputFile="$(TargetDir)_PublishedWebsites\$(ProjectName)\Content\styles.min.css"
/p:JavaScriptOutputFile="$(TargetDir)_PublishedWebsites\$(ProjectName)\Scripts\scripts.min.js"
IF "$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)"=="true"
$(MSBuildBinPath)\msbuild.exe
"$(ProjectDir)MSBuild\MSBuildSettings.xml"
/p:CssOutputFile="$(TargetDir)..\Content\styles.min.css"
/p:JavaScriptOutputFile="$(TargetDir)..\Scripts\scripts.min.js"
Build the project and see if the files where created as expected.
Perform a check-in and watch the tfs build create the compressed files for you.
For debugging the tfs build, you'll find the logs in the msbuild log which is linked inside the normal tfsbuild log.
I hope this helps someone out there. I couldn't find a decent guide anywhere so now there is one here! If you have other suggestions, feel free to add them or post them in the comments.
One thing that sticks out at me is that you're using $(TargetDir)..\ - which expands to \Binaries..\. I suspect that you don't have a Binaries.. directory, and that this is supposed to be \$(TargetDir)\..\. (Ie, the parent of the Binaries directory.)
I am trying to import an existing c++ application's source into visual studio to take advantage of some specific MS tools. However, after searching online and playing with visual studio, I cannot seem to find an easy way to import existing c++ source code into visual studio and keep it structurally intact.
The import capacity I did find flattens out the directories and puts them all into one project. Am I missing something?
(This is all unmanaged C++, and contains specific builds for win/unix)
With no project/solution loaded, in Visual Studio 2005 I see this menu item:
File > New Project From Existing Code...
After following the wizard, my problem is solved!
Switching the "Show All Files" button shows the complete hierarchy with all directories and files within.
If the New Project From Existing Code... option isn't available, you'll need to add it in Tools > Customize...
I am not aware of any general solution under the constraints given - specifically having to create many projects from a source tree.
The best option I see is actually creating the project files by some script.
Creating a single project manually (create empty project, then add the files),
Configure it as close as possible as desired (i.e. with precompiled headers, build configurations, etc.)
Use the .vcproj created as skeleton for the project files to be created
A very simple method would file list, project name etc. with "strange tokens", and fill them in with your generator. If you want to be the good guy, you can of course use some XML handling library.
Our experience: We actually don't store the .vcproj and .sln in the repository (git) anymore, but a python script that re-genrates them from the source tree, together with VS 2008 "property sheet templates" (or whatever they are called). This helps a lot making general adjustments.
The project generation script contains information about all the projects specialties (e.g. do they use MFC/ATL, will it create DLL or an EXE, files to exclude).
In addition, this script also contains dependencies, which feeds the actual build script.
This works quite well, the problems are minor: python requried in build systems, not forgetting to re-gen the project files, me having to learn some python to make adjustments to some projects.
#Michael Burr "How complex are the python scripts and whatever supporting 'templates' you might need?"
I honestly can't tell, since I gave the task to another dev (who picked python). The original task was to provide a build script, as the VS2008 solution build was not good enough for our needs, and the old batch file didn't support parallelization. .vcproj generation was added later. As I understand his script generates the .vcproj and .sln files from scratch, but pulls in all the settings from separate property sheets.
Pros:
Adding new configurations on the fly. Some of the projects already had six configurations, and planning for unicode support meant considering doubling them for a while. Some awkward tools still build as MBCS, so some libs do have 8 configs now. Configuring that from hand is a pain, now it just doesn't bother me anymore.
Global changes, e.g. moving around relative project paths, the folder for temp files and for final binaries until we found a solution we were happy with
Build Stability. Merging VC6 project files was a notable source of errors for various reasons, and VC9 project files didn't look better. Now things seem isolated better: compile/link settings in the property sheets, file handling in the script. Also, the script mostly lists variations from our default, ending up easier to read than a project file.
Generally: I don't see a big benefit when your projects are already set up, they are rather stable, and you don't have real issues. However, when moving into the unknown (for us: mostly VC6 -> VC9 and Unicode builds), the flexibility reduced the risk of experiments greatly.
Create a new empty solution and add your source code to it.
For example,
File>New>Project...
Visual C++>Win32>Win32 Console Application
Application Settings>
- Uncheck "Precompiled Header"
- Check "Empty Project"
Project is then created. To add existing code:
Project>Add Existing Item...>
- Select file(s) to add
Recompile, done!
In the "Solution Explorer" you can click on the "Show All Files" button to have Visual Studio display the files as they exist on the file system (directories and all).
In my opinion this is an imperfect workaround, but I believe it's the best available. I'm unaware of a plug-in, macro or other tool that'll import a directory into an actual project with folders that mirror the file system's.
I know this question is already marked correct, but I was able to import existing code into a project with Visual Studio 2008 by doing "File" -> "New Project from existing code". The directory structure of my code was retained.
You can always switch view from project menu
For eg. Project->Show All Files
The above will display the files in unformated raw file system order
Not sure of older versions but it works on VS 2010
I understand you, I have the same problem: many .cpp and .h files organized in many folders and subfolders with include paths written for this folder structure. The only way you can do to import this folder structure together with the source files is to use "Show All Files" and then right-click on folders and select "Import in Project". This works for me when I am using C-Sharp projects. But it does not work for my C++ Projects. I am still searching for a solution...
I recently asked a question about importing from a list of source/header files in Eclipse
I haven't found a good solution to this, so I thought I'd check out other IDEs. I want an IDE that does not need to "own" everything from a top directory and down. When creating a new project I want to have a text file that lists source/header files (autogenerated by the build tool), and have the IDE create a project with those files. The only IDE I know of that does this is SlickEdit, which is great, but also rather expensive. Do you know of any other IDEs that have this feature.
Eclipse wants to own everything in the directory I pointed it to, and I haven't found a way to remove subfolders afterwards (to exclude them from search, indexing and annoying me).
I think CMake can be helpful for you.
Emacs does all this, and more. The desktop feature lets you store a set of files to load and save in a working directory, and the Emacs Code Browser (ECB) extension has support for browsing files and classes, and managing projects. It doesn't own anything, Emacs just gives you lots of tools to manipulate text in godly ways. Along with ECB, SpeedBar and a few other extensions, CEDET is an Emacs "meta"-extension which turns the venerable editor into an IDE. It even does UML!
Emacs IDE: CEDET
Code::Blocks can do this for you.