How to work with folders using Msbuild? - reporting-services

Question

I am using msbuild script to deploy ssrs reports. Previously all reports used to be in one folder and I have written a msbuild script to deploy these reports to report server. Now we are maintaining reports at folder level such as customer service, inventory and invoice folders.
How to deploy these individual folder to report server? In report server also we need folder level hierarchy.

Answer 1

Here is a recursive file copy example.
Save the below in a file called "FileCopyRecursive.msbuild" (or FileCopyRecursive.proj)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" DefaultTargets="AllTargetsWrapped">
<PropertyGroup>
<!-- Always declare some kind of "base directory" and then work off of that in the majority of cases -->
<WorkingCheckout>.</WorkingCheckout>
<WindowsSystem32Directory>c:\windows\System32</WindowsSystem32Directory>
<ArtifactDestinationFolder>$(WorkingCheckout)\ZZZArtifacts</ArtifactDestinationFolder>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="AllTargetsWrapped">
<CallTarget Targets="CleanArtifactFolder" />
<CallTarget Targets="CopyFilesToArtifactFolder" />
</Target>
<Target Name="CleanArtifactFolder">
<RemoveDir Directories="$(ArtifactDestinationFolder)" Condition="Exists($(ArtifactDestinationFolder))"/>
<MakeDir Directories="$(ArtifactDestinationFolder)" Condition="!Exists($(ArtifactDestinationFolder))"/>
<RemoveDir Directories="$(ZipArtifactDestinationFolder)" Condition="Exists($(ZipArtifactDestinationFolder))"/>
<MakeDir Directories="$(ZipArtifactDestinationFolder)" Condition="!Exists($(ZipArtifactDestinationFolder))"/>
<Message Text="Cleaning done" />
</Target>
<Target Name="CopyFilesToArtifactFolder">
<ItemGroup>
<MyExcludeFiles Include="$(WindowsSystem32Directory)\**\*.doesnotexist" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<MyIncludeFiles Include="$(WindowsSystem32Directory)\**\*.ini" Exclude="#(MyExcludeFiles)"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Copy
SourceFiles="#(MyIncludeFiles)"
DestinationFiles="#(MyIncludeFiles->'$(ArtifactDestinationFolder)\%(RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension)')"
/>
</Target>
</Project>
Then run this:
"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe" /target:AllTargetsWrapped FileCopyRecursive.msbuild /l:FileLogger,Microsoft.Build.Engine;logfile=AllTargetsWrapped.log
BONUS!
Here is a "fun with files" msbuild file.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project DefaultTargets="AllTargetsWrapper" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<Target Name="AllTargetsWrapper">
<CallTarget Targets="FunWithFilesTask" />
</Target>
<PropertyGroup>
<WorkingCheckout>c:\windows\System32</WorkingCheckout>
</PropertyGroup>
<!-- ===================================================== -->
<!--
See:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms164313.aspx
*Identity Value for the item specified in the Include attribute.
*Filename Filename for this item, not including the extension.
*Extension File extension for this item.
*FullPath Full path of this item including the filename.
*RelativeDir Path to this item relative to the current working directory.
*RootDir Root directory to which this item belongs.
RecursiveDir Used for items that were created using wildcards. This would be the directory that replaces the wildcard(s) statements that determine the directory.
*Directory The directory of this item.
AccessedTime Last time this item was accessed.
CreatedTime Time the item was created.
ModifiedTime Time this item was modified.
-->
<Target Name="FunWithFilesTask">
<ItemGroup>
<MyExcludeFiles Include="$(WorkingCheckout)\**\*.doesnotexist" />
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<MyIncludeFiles Include="$(WorkingCheckout)\**\*.ini" Exclude="#(MyExcludeFiles)" />
</ItemGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<MySuperLongString>#(MyIncludeFiles->'"%(fullpath)"')</MySuperLongString>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="MySuperLongString=$(MySuperLongString)"/>
<Message Text=" "/>
<Message Text=" "/>
<Message Text="The below items are good when you need to feed command line tools, like the console NUnit exe. Quotes around the filenames help with paths that have spaces in them. "/>
<Message Text="I found this method initially from : http://pscross.com/Blog/post/2009/02/22/MSBuild-reminders.aspx Thanks Pscross! "/>
<Message Text=" "/>
<Message Text=" "/>
<Message Text="Flat list, each file surrounded by quotes, with semi colon delimiter: "/>
<Message Text=" #(MyIncludeFiles->'"%(fullpath)"')"/>
<Message Text=" "/>
<Message Text=" "/>
<Message Text="Flat list, each file surrounded by quotes, no comma (space delimiter): "/>
<Message Text=" #(MyIncludeFiles->'"%(fullpath)"' , ' ')"/>
<Message Text=" "/>
<Message Text=" "/>
<Message Text="Flat list, each file surrounded by quotes, with comma delimiter: "/>
<Message Text=" #(MyIncludeFiles->'"%(fullpath)"' , ',')"/>
<Message Text=" "/>
<Message Text=" "/>
<Message Text="List of files using special characters (carriage return)"/>
<Message Text="#(MyIncludeFiles->'"%(fullpath)"' , '%0D%0A')"/>
<Message Text=" "/>
<Message Text=" "/>
</Target>
</Project>

Answer 2

Were you using the msbuild Copy task to do your single folder copy? If so, it shouldn't be a big deal to modify that same task just a bit to copy the entire folder structure. Something similar to this example:
<Copy SourceFiles="c:\src\**\*.txt" DestinationFolder="c:\dest\%(RecursiveDir)"></Copy>
%(RecursiveDir) is a type of well-known item metadata that will contain the value of the wildcard from the source files parameter. Here's a bit more description of MSBuild well-known item metadata:
MSBuild well known item metadata
Complete Example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemGroup>
<Sources Include="c:\src\**\*.txt" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="copy-folder">
<Copy SourceFiles="#(Sources)" DestinationFolder="c:\dest\%(RecursiveDir)"></Copy>
</Target>
</Project>