Get the correct $(VisualStudioVersion) for VS 2017 inside a MSBuild file

Question

I have a MSBuild file to publish a solution (created in VS 2013 and ported to VS 2017) to a remote server. The offending line is this one:

<PropertyGroup>
    <VisualStudioVersion Condition="'$(VisualStudioVersion)' == ''">10.0</VisualStudioVersion>
    <VSToolsPath Condition="'$(VSToolsPath)' == ''">$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)</VSToolsPath>
</PropertyGroup> 

When I run the command:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\msbuild" WebSite1_Web_configs.build /p:Configuration=Integracion;Platform="AnyCPU" /p:VisualStudioVersion=15.0

After some compilation, it ends up with this error:

Error MSB4062 The "TransformXml" task could not be loaded from the assembly C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v12.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.Tasks.dll

Of course it can't be loaded, because the version should be 15.0, not 12.0.

Things I have tried:

• Adding the /p:VisualStudioVersion=15.0 to the command where I call MSBuild. It doesn't work.

• Changing, inside the *.csproj file, the element:

<Project ToolsVersion="12.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

For:

<Project ToolsVersion="15.0" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

It doesn't work.

So, how can I get the correct VS version with $(VisualStudioVersion) inside the MSBuild file without having to hardcode it?

Asleyaslope

Thanks for your sharing solution. You can mark it as answer. This can be beneficial to other community members and makes it easier to search the solution. – Vining

Answer 1

Ok, the problem was that I had <Import> elements at the end of the *.build file. One of those imports had part of the path hardcoded:

<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v12.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />

I changed it to:

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />

I executed MSBuild with the /p:VisualStudioVersion=15.0 parameter and it worked.

Please, if you have the same problem, check if you have imports with hardcoded paths.

Asleyaslope

Answer 2

On Visual Studio 2017, instead of edits the .csproj file, you can simple go to Visual Studio Package Manager Console (Tools -> NuGet Package Manager -> Package Manager Console) and install Web.Targets:

Install-Package MSBuild.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.targets

Mulberry