Accessing .csproj file for web project

[Joel]

I'm posting in security since I'm not sure where else to look.

I'm writing a command line build tool for csc.exe based on the .sln file.
Everything is hunky-dory for Windows Apps but for Web Apps, the solution
file just lists the URL of the .csproj file. I can't get the .csproj file
with a web call to the URL because .csproj files are handled by
HttpForbiddenHandler. Visual Studio get the .csproj file (obviously). Does
anyone know how VS does this? Or some other way to get it?

TIA
</joel>

 

[Joe Kaplan \(MVP - ADSI\)]

The way Nant handles this with its solution task is allows you to configure
a mapping for the project URL to a local file system path. That seems to
work very well. The other option they support uses webdav, but that
requires configuring webdav. I've never actually tried to get that to work
as the local mapping just seemed easier.

Out of curiosity, why reinvent the wheel when Nant already supports this
very well and does a whole lot of other stuff that you might want your build
to do as well?

Joe K.

 

[Joel]

Easy... Nant sucks.

I used Nant at my last job for about 18 months and hated it more every day.
In my opinion it makes no sense to learn a cryptic, unreadable, XML schema
when, in a couple of days, I put together a full-blown, event-driven build
tool using a language I know and love: C#. The only thing that was hard was
figuring out how to accurately map the virtual URL to a local physical
directory. Unfortunately, I beleive the MSBuild utilitity coming in VS2005
is similiar to Nant so I'll probably be forced to use it. <sigh>


As to the mapping problem, I got this from another post:

adsutil.vbs GET w3svc/1/root/iishelp/path

will return:

path : (STRING) "c:\windows\help\iishelp"

So I just modified adsutil.vbs a little and was able to use it to get me
what I needed.

Thanks for the response.

</joel>

 

[Joe Kaplan \(MVP - ADSI\)]

You aren't the only one who complains about Nant and all the XML stuff,
believe me. Lot's of people would rather use C# or Python to scripting out
the build.

You should start your own OSS project with this and get some followers to
help build it out.

Joe K.