Why does this call to aspnet_compiler not produce new .NET assemblies?

Question

I'm trying to make Visual Studio precompile my ASP.NET application that will be deployed on Azure. I've added the following to my .csproj file:

<Target Name="AfterBuild">
    <Message Text="Starting AspNetCompiler for $(ProjectDir)" Importance="high" />
    <AspNetCompiler
        VirtualPath="/"
        PhysicalPath="$(ProjectDir)"
    />
</Target>

Now when I ask Visual Studio to prepare a service package the following appears in the build output:

Starting AspNetCompiler for [PathToMyProject]
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\aspnet_compiler.exe -v / -p [PathToMyProject]

If I plant an error in any of the view files that error is identified and breaks the build so clearly the precompilation is perfomed.

Yet I don't see any new .NET assemblies anywhere in the results.

How do I make ASP.NET compiler create the .NET assemblies for the views?

Screwy

Answer 1

If you don't specify an output directory you should find the output in this folder:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\Temporary ASP.NET Files\root\some-random-id (try sorting on the date modified to find the latest directory).

When calling the aspnet_compiler.exe you can also append an output folder to the command:

aspnet_compiler -v "/" -p "C:\Projects\WebApplication1\WebApplication1" C:\CompileOutput

Here you see the output in my C:\CompiledOutput folder

Grieg

Is it possible to obtain that random folder path after the precompilation and copy the stuff from there? I'm not very optimistic about hardcoding the path. – Screwy

I don't know how to access the random folder, but since you're using MSBuild you can simply modify the task like this: <AspNetCompiler VirtualPath="/" PhysicalPath="$(ProjectDir)" TargetPath="$(ProjectDir)..\PreCompiledOutput" />. This will output everything to a PreCompiledOutput folder in your Solution Directory and you can copy the files from that folder and clean it up afterwards. – Grieg