How exactly do solution configurations work in Visual Studio? - configuration

When in a .sln file, you have the default choices of 'Debug' and 'Release'. From what I understand these are 'build settings' of some sort differ depending on the kind of build you are doing?
I recently played around with creating my own settings, and found (much to my surprise) that creating the configuration name didn't seem to create the symbol as recognized by:
#if MY_SHINY_NEW_SYMBOL
Console.WriteLine("TESTING MY SYMBOL");
#endif
And on the Microsoft docs I can see that there is code to allow you to actually define the symbol (presumably separately from just creating one in the Configuration Manager):
#define DEBUG
// ...
How do these symbols work and where are they configured?
i'm asking because I accidentally created a symbol called 'local'. I deleted it and then created a symbol called 'Local'. And I'm getting compile errors because it seems that the 'local' symbol still exists and I can't overwrite it with a symbol using a different case.
I haven't configured the symbol at all, I'm using the variable $(ConfigurationName) in my pre-build event commands.
I'm actually fairly sure this is a Visual Studio bug, since I would think that deleting a configuration, recreated the same configuration with different case, would NOT result in the original configuration reappearing.

Build configurations become MSBuild variables that can be referenced in MSBuild properties in the csproj file (remember that .Net project files are actually MSBuild scripts).
In particular, the Visual Studio Project Properties window will let you set most properties on a per-configuration basis (by wrapping it in a conditional block).
In particular, the DEBUG symbol is set like this (you'll see this in every csproj file, but a bit less simple):
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' ">
...
<DefineConstants>DEBUG;TRACE</DefineConstants>
...
</PropertyGroup>
You could also replace this and set a symbol for the configuration directly:
<DefineConstants>$(Configuration)</DefineConstants>
However, VS is likely to change that if it saves your project file.

Related

Is it possible to customize Visual Studio 2017 SSRS rptproj MSBuild files?

My company has made extensive investments into a library of custom MSBuild targets files that we use to build our full product. Every project file we have in source control imports at least one custom targets file, which all ultimately end up importing a core targets file that contains the bulk of our general-use targets & properties.
Recently we added a new SSRS project to our solution, and this project (I believe) is the new rptproj format introduced in late 2017--in particular, it declares ToolsVersion="15.0" and imports Microsoft.ReportingServices.MSBuilder.targets from within the VS 2017 install directory.
The problem I'm experiencing is that none of the logical changes I make to the rptproj file appear to do anything; importing our shared targets file doesn't result the execution of any of our targets, such as targets declaring BeforeTargets="BeforeBuild" or even set against the ReportingServices-specific target with BeforeTargets="ReportBuilderTarget".
Furthermore, attempting to set the OutputPath results in exceedingly weird behavior. Declaring an OutputPath such as the following:
<OutputPath>$(SharedOutputPath)SSRS\$(MSBuildProjectName)</OutputPath>
...will result after build in the following folder within the project file's directory:
C:\workspace\solutionfolder\ReportProject1\$(SharedOutputPath)SSRS\$(MSBuildProjectFile)
This is weird because it's not even interpreting the well-known metadata token $(MSBuildProjectName) as a property, and emitting both it as well as $(SharedOutputPath) as string literals into the OutputPath property.
Furthermore, saving the rptproj file in VS results in a total wipe of all customizations to the file.
Reviewing the Microsoft.ReportingServices.MSBuilder.targets file, it seems as though it does some extensive gutting of the base Microsoft.Common.targets file, but in no way that I can imagine would prevent the basic usage of MSBuild properties or anything.
That's about the the extent of my MSBuild knowledge though so I'm not sure where to take it from here.
Overall it seems like MSBuild support for rptproj files is somewhat half-baked, but am I missing something?
Is it possible to customize Visual Studio 2017 SSRS rptproj MSBuild files?
As workaround, yon can build the project with MSBuild command line.
As test, I overwrite the default OutputPath for SSRS rptproj to:
<Project ToolsVersion="15.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' ">
<FullPath>Debug</FullPath>
<OutputPath>bin\Debug\$(MSBuildProjectName)</OutputPath>
...
</PropertyGroup>
And add a custom target in the .rptproj file:
<Target Name="Test" BeforeTargets="BeforeBuild">
<Message Text="$(OutputPath)"></Message>
</Target>
Then I build the project with MSBuild command line:
msbuild "<ProjectPath>.rptproj" /property:Configuration=Debug
As result:
And the build file build.obj was generated in the bin\Debug\Report Project1 folder.
Hope this helps.

How can I set the output path of a vc++ project different than its dependencies (nuget)?

Premise
I have a Visual Studio 2015 solution containing different VC++ projects.
Some of them (EXE and some DLLs) have the $OutDir set to default "$(SolutionDir)$(Configuration)\" (i.e. "C:\MySolution\Debug\").
For some other projects (DLLs), I need to change the output path to a sub-directory of the "default" $OutDir (i.e. "C:\MySolution\Debug\Pieces\".
Example directory tree:
C:\MySolution\Debug\
MyProgram.exe
Dependency.dll
.\Pieces\
MyPiece1.dll
MyPiece2.dll
Constraints
the "Pieces" DLLs depends on a third-party Dependency.dll (through NuGet package), which I cannot modify.
Usual solution
The usual way for this is to change the $OutDir project setting for "pieces" projects, but this will also force their dependencies to be output in the same sub-dir.
This is not wanted and also created problems in debugging and packaging of the entire solution.
What I tried so far
I tried to:
1. keep the $OutDir the same for all projects
2. change the "pieces" $TargetName to "Pieces\$(ProjectName)"
This seems to work (both MyPiece*.dlland Dependency.dll are correctly placed and debugging is fine), but unfortunately Visual Studio generates the following warning:
warning MSB8012: TargetName(Pieces\MyPiece1.dll) does not match the Linker's OutputFile property value (MyPiece1). This may cause your project to build incorrectly. To correct this, please make sure that $(OutDir), $(TargetName) and $(TargetExt) property values match the value specified in %(Link.OutputFile).
This warning is somewhat confusing, because the %Link.OutputFile in the project settings looks correct:
$(OutDir)$(TargetName)$(TargetExt) => C:\MySolution\Debug\Pieces\MyPiece1.dll
Question
What is the correct approach to solve my problem?
How do I force Visual Studio to output some of the generated files in a different path, but still having their Nuget dependencies in the "default" $OutDir?
I've searched the web and StackOverflow already, but I can't find a suitable answer.
Note: my problem is not related to upgrading a pre-VS2010 solution (as in Microsoft official notes on warning MSB8012 after solution upgrade and asked on StackOverflow).

Setting different Hex-Filenames in MPLAB X for different project configurations

I want to set different hex file names for different configurations of a project. In detail I want to have a release configuration where compiler optimization is turned on and a debug configuration where optimization is turned off.
So far I have discovered the possibility to add a second configuration to the project, where I can set a different optimization level. The binary for the other configuration is automatically compiled to another directory but the name of the result hex file stays the same. I tried to change the macro "ImageName" under the "Building" options for the configuration but they are read only and the makefiles containing these macros seem to be automatically regenerated so manual changing is futile.
Is there any way to separate these two builds (one with optimization and one without) by name of the result file? I don't want to release a build without optimization by accident since this is really critical in my current project as I already have experienced.
Use the Execute this line after build option. It is right above the Macros section (Right Click > Properties > Conf:[name] > Building). Commands you type there will be inserted into the auto-generated makefile (nbproject/Makefile-$CONF.mk) and executed at the end of the build process.
Example:
To copy the output hex file to "out_dir" and tag it with the configuration, use this line:
${MKDIR} out_dir && ${CP} ${ImagePath} out_dir && ${MV} out_dir/${ImageName} out_dir/${ConfName}_${IMAGE_TYPE}.${OUTPUT_SUFFIX}
This line will create "out_dir/", copy the hexfile to the "out_dir" folder and then rename the hexfile to configuration-name_build-type.hex.

ReSharper: Namespace does not correspond to file location

I renamed a folder and updated my namespace declarations, but ReSharper 6 claims that the namespace should be a reflection of how it was before the rename. Where is it storing the file location data?
Check to make sure your assembly name matches your new namespace. If you've changed your folder structure to match your new namespace, you may still see the ReSharper alert until you update the project properties.
As delliottg's comment says, in Visual Studio, go to
Project > [project name] Properties > Application
and change "Assembly name" as well as "Default namespace".
I also had this problem with a folder/namespace and none of the above steps fixed it.
In my case I had to do this in Visual Studio:
Right-click the "problem" folder in the solution explorer to open the properties
Ensure the "Namespace Provider" is set to true
This fixed the ReSharper issue for me and I was able to adjust namespaces as normal.
Root namespace is needed to be changed as following.
I use Resharper 2019.3.2 in VS 2019 vs 16.5.2 and I had similar issues.
When developing, I first work out my namespace hierarchy in a single project, then split the project in seperate class libraries. In the first stage, it is convenient to always let the subdirectory correspond to the namespace.
For example, my prototype MeshTools.dll project currently contains:
Meshtools ........................ 3 cs-files in \MeshTools
MeshTools.HeightField .......... 2 cs-files in \MeshTools\HeightField
MeshTools.VectorTools .......... 3 cs-files in \MeshTools\VectorTools
The above answers all assume one single namespace per project. Renaming directories manually may confuse Resharper and that can be repaired by setting the default assembly in the .csproj file to the proper namespace. Thanks for the tip.
However in my case, I have several namespaces in a single project, with each namespace in a Solution directory corresponding to a real directory. Setting the default assembly "Meshtools" does not affect ReSharper behaviour for HeightField and VectorTools, when things have gone wrong with the renaming.
I googled this issue and came by https://www.jetbrains.com/help/resharper/Refactorings__Adjust_Namespaces.html#
It turns out there is a right-click option on a Solution Directory -> Properties. You will find an option to decide, if the Solution Directory is a NameSpace provider or not. When something has gone wrong, Visual studio will reset the field to False. Set it back to True and Resharper will correctly refactor namespace or file location when needed..
If you're using JetBrains Rider, go to the Solution Explorer and right click on the csproj file, then properties in the context menu. In my case the Assembly Name was already updated but "Root Namespace" wasn't, updating Root Namespace allowed JetBrains to automatically update all namespaces.

Using MySQL in VC++

I am trying to connect to MySQL using C++. The IDE that I am using is Visual C++ 2010. I followed the steps on the MySQL dev page (http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/mysql-connector-cpp.html). I followed the steps exactly as given although i used a different OS(Windows). I get many linker errors in the process, which I am finding difficult to debug. Could somebody direct me towards a better or a simpler approach to acces MySQL using C++.
P.S. I have downloaded mysqlconnector for C++.
You could try mysql++, but you'll encounter the same linker errors I bet.
Have you set the include path (C:...\MySQL Server 5.1\include) and the library path (C:...\MySQL Server 5.1\lib\debug) ? In VC2010 to set global settings you have to :
VS2010 introduces the user settings
file
(Microsoft.cpp..users.props)
to control global settings including
Global search path. These files are
located at
$(USERPROFILE)\appdata\local\microsoft\msbuild\v4.0
directory.
The issue you are seeing is a bug in
the UI. To make it possible to change
the ordering of these read-only
directories, here is the workaround
that you can apply:
open up the property manager,
right click on the .user.props file to bring up the property page
open up VC++ Directories -> Include Directories, add new paths after
$(IncludePath)
Click on the "Edit" dropdown on VC++ Directories -> Include
Directories property, the user
directories as well as the inherited
values will show up in the upper pane
you can move the directory orders as you wish and save.
http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/550946/vs-2010-how-to-change-vc-directories-inherited-values-read-only