<solution> Task

# <solution>

Compiles VS.NET solutions (or sets of projects), automatically determining project dependencies from inter-project references.

This task support the following projects:

- Visual Basic .NET
- Visual C# .NET
- Visual J# .NET
- Visual C++ .NET

Note: Right now, only Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2002 and 2003 solutions and projects are supported. Support for .NET Compact Framework projects is also not available at this time.

The <solution> task also supports the model of referencing projects by their output filenames, rather than referencing them inside the solution. It will automatically detect the existance of a file reference and convert it to a project reference. For example, if project "A" references the file in the release output directory of project "B", the <solution> task will automatically convert this to a project dependency on project "B" and will reference the appropriate configuration output directory at the final build time (ie: reference the debug version of "B" if the solution is built as debug).

Note: The <solution> task expects all project files to be valid XML files.

### Resx Files

When building a project for a down-level target framework, special care should be given to resx files. Resx files (can) contain references to a specific version of CLR types, and as such are only upward compatible.

For example: if you want to be able to build a project both as a .NET 1.0 and .NET 1.1 assembly, the resx files should only contain references to .NET 1.0 CLR types. Failure to do this may result in a InvalidCastException failure at runtime on machines with only the .NET Framework 1.0 installed.

### Parameters

Attribute | Type | Description | Required
--- | --- | --- | ---
configuration | string | The name of the solution configuration to build. | True
enablewebdav | bool | Allow the task to use WebDAV for retrieving/compiling the projects within solution. Use of WebMap is preferred over WebDAV. The default is false. | False
includevsfolders | bool | Includes Visual Studio search folders in reference search path. The default is true. | False
outputdir | directory | The directory where compiled targets will be placed. This overrides path settings contained in the solution/project. | False
platform | string | The name of platform to build the solution for. | False
solutionfile | file | The name of the VS.NET solution file to build. | False
failonerror | bool | Determines if task failure stops the build, or is just reported. The default is true. | False
if | bool | If true then the task will be executed; otherwise, skipped. The default is true. | False
unless | bool | Opposite of `if`. If false then the task will be executed; otherwise, skipped. The default is false. | False
verbose | bool | Determines whether the task should report detailed build log messages. The default is false. | False

### Nested Elements:

#### <projects>

The projects to build.

#### </projects>

#### <referenceprojects>

The projects to scan, but not build.

#### </referenceprojects>

#### <webmap>

WebMap of URL's to project references.

##### <map>

Represents a single mapping from URL project path to physical project path.

### Parameters

Attribute | Type | Description | Required
--- | --- | --- | ---
path | file | Specifies the actual path to the project file, or the path fragment to replace. | True
url | string | Specifies the URL of the project file, or a URL fragment to match. | True
casesensitive | bool | Specifies whether the mapping is case-sensitive or not. | False
if | bool | Indicates if the URL of the project file should be mapped. | False
unless | bool | Indicates if the URL of the project file should not be mapped. | False

##### </map>

#### </webmap>

#### <excludeprojects>

Fileset of projects to exclude.

#### </excludeprojects>

#### <assemblyfolders>

Set of folders where references are searched when not found in path from project file (HintPath).

#### </assemblyfolders>

#### <property>

Set of properties set at solution level. Builders for projects in solution may or may not use them.

Sets a property in the current project.

Note: NAnt uses a number of predefined properties.

### Parameters

Attribute | Type | Description | Required
--- | --- | --- | ---
name | string | The name of the NAnt property to set. | True
value | string | The value to assign to the NAnt property. This attribute's properties will not be automatically expanded! | True
dynamic | bool | Specifies whether references to other properties should not be expanded when the value of the property is set, but expanded when the property is actually used. By default, properties will be expanded when set. | False
overwrite | bool | Specifies whether the value of a property should be overwritten if the property already exists (unless the property is read-only). The default is true. | False
readonly | bool | Specifies whether the property is read-only or not. The default is false. | False
failonerror | bool | Determines if task failure stops the build, or is just reported. The default is true. | False
if | bool | If true then the task will be executed; otherwise, skipped. The default is true. | False
unless | bool | Opposite of `if`. If false then the task will be executed; otherwise, skipped. The default is false. | False
verbose | bool | Determines whether the task should report detailed build log messages. The default is false. | False

### Examples

- Define a `debug` property with value true.

      <property name="debug" value="true" />

- Use the user-defined `debug` property.

      <property name="trace" value="${debug}" />

- Define a read-only property. This is just like passing in the param on the command line.

      <property name="do_not_touch_ME" value="hammer" readonly="true" />

- Define a property, but do not overwrite the value if the property already exists (eg. it was specified on the command line).

      <project name="property-example">
        <property name="debug" value="true" overwrite="false" />
        <echo message="debug: ${debug}" />
      </project>

  Executing this build file with the command line option `-D:debug=false`, would cause the value specified on the command line to remain unaltered.

      [echo] debug: false

#### </property>

### Examples

- Compiles all of the projects in `test.sln`, in release mode, in the proper order.

      <solution configuration="release" solutionfile="test.sln" />

- Compiles all of the projects in `projects.txt`, in the proper order.

      <solution configuration="release">
          <projects>
              <includesfile name="projects.txt" />
         </projects>
      </solution>

- Compiles projects A, B and C, using the output of project X as a reference.

      <solution configuration="release">
          <projects>
              <include name="A\A.csproj" />
              <include name="B\b.vbproj" />
              <include name="C\c.csproj" />
          </projects>
          <referenceprojects>
              <include name="X\x.csproj" />
          </referenceprojects>
      </solution>

- Compiles all of the projects in the solution except for project A.

      <solution solutionfile="test.sln" configuration="release">
          <excludeprojects>
              <include name="A\A.csproj" />
          </excludeprojects>
      </solution>

- Compiles all of the projects in the solution mapping the specific project at http://localhost/A/A.csproj to c:\inetpub\wwwroot\A\A.csproj and any URLs under http://localhost/B/[remainder] to c:\other\B\[remainder]. This allows the build to work without WebDAV.

      <solution solutionfile="test.sln" configuration="release">
          <webmap>
              <map url="http://localhost/A/A.csproj" path="c:\inetpub\wwwroot\A\A.csproj" />
              <map url="http://localhost/B" path="c:\other\B" />
          </webmap>
      </solution>

- Compiles all of the projects in the solution placing compiled outputs in `c:\temp`.

      <solution solutionfile="test.sln" configuration="release" outputdir="c:\temp" />

### Requirements

Assembly: NAnt.VSNetTasks (0.92.4543.0)