Compiling WPF Applications with MSBuild

C# Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Compiling WPF Applications with MSBuild

A tutorial example is provided on how to compile a WPF application with MSBuild tool and a project file. It helps to specify reference assembly files.

Compiling a WPF application with "csc" at the command line requires us to write a very long command as shown in the previous tutorial. We can make the compilation job easier if we use the MSBuild tool.

Here is the MSBuild project file to compile WpfButtonTest.cs given in the previous tutorial.

<!-- WpfButtonTest.proj
// Copyright (c) 2016 HerongYang.com. All Rights Reserved.
-->
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <PropertyGroup>
     <AssemblyName>WpfButtonTest</AssemblyName>
     <NET>C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319</NET>
     <REF1>C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies</REF1>
     <REF2>\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.6.1</REF2>
     <REF>$(REF1)$(REF2)</REF>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <Compile Include="WpfButtonTest.cs" />
    <Reference Include="$(REF)\PresentationFramework.dll" />
    <Reference Include="$(REF)\PresentationCore.dll" />
    <Reference Include="$(REF)\System.Xaml.dll" />
    <Reference Include="$(REF)\WindowsBase.dll" />
  </ItemGroup>
  <Target Name="Build">
    <Csc ToolPath="$(NET)" Sources="@(Compile)"
       References="@(Reference)"
       OutputAssembly="$(AssemblyName).exe"/>
  </Target>
</Project>

Run MSBuild with the above project file:

C:\herong>%NET%\msbuild WpfButtonTest.proj
Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 4.6.1055.0
[Microsoft .NET Framework, version 4.0.30319.42000]
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Build started 9:23:35 PM.
Project "C:\herong\WpfButtonTest.proj" on node 1 (default targets).
Build:
C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Csc.exe
  /reference:"C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft
  \Framework\.NETFramework\v4.6.1\PresentationFramework.dll"
  /reference:"C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft
  \Framework\.NETFramework\v4.6.1\PresentationCore.dll"
  /reference:"C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft
  \Framework\.NETFramework\v4.6.1\System.Xaml.dll"
  /reference:"C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft
  \Framework\.NETFramework\v4.6.1\WindowsBase.dll"
  /out:WpfButtonTest.exe WpfButtonTest.cs

Done Building Project "C:\herong\WpfButtonTest.proj" (default targets).

Build succeeded.
    0 Warning(s)
    0 Error(s)

Time Elapsed 00:00:00.67