Skip to content

Properties

Jump to bottom
Dave Sexton edited this page May 24, 2016 · 3 revisions

MSBuild Properties

White Tie offers several MSBuild properties with sensible default values. Any of White Tie's properties can be overridden in your project file or as global parameters passed to the MSBuild program directly.

$(SolutionDir)

A string property referring to the full path of the directory containing the solution (.sln) file. This property is normally undefined when building outside of Visual Studio; however, White Tie ensures that it is assigned.

Note: It is assumed that WhiteTie.props is located under your solution's packages folder at its default location, as installed by NuGet. Changing the location of WhiteTie.props or the location of the packages folder, may cause White Tie to fail.

$(SourceDir)

A string property referring to the full path of the solution's Source directory.

$(BuildDir)

A string property referring to the full path of the solution's Build directory.

$(DeploymentDir)

A string property referring to the full path of the solution's Deployment directory.

$(TestingDir)

A string property referring to the full path of the solution's Testing directory.

$(NuGetDir)

A string property referring to the full path of the solution's .nuget directory.

The .nuget directory is created automatically by Visual Studio when the NuGet Package Restore feature is enabled for the solution. (Note that it's only required when using White Tie in Visual Studio 2013.)

$(PreRelease)

A string property indicating whether a pre-release version is being built and its name.

  • Any value is permitted; e.g., Alpha, Beta, RC, Private, etc.
  • This property is automatically assigned if a semantic version string is specified in the AssemblyInformationalVersionAttribute of the output assembly; e.g., 1.4.0-Alpha
  • Any non-empty value effects the version of the NuGet package and whether compiled documentation is marked as preliminary.
$(StaticAnalysisEnabled)

A boolean property that enables static analysis; e.g., FxCop, StyleCop and Code Contracts.

  • Only static analysis tools that are already installed are executed.
  • Specifying this property overrides a corresponding setting for each tool in the project file; therefore, setting this property to True enables all static analysis. Setting it to False disables all static analysis. Omitting it causes each tool to inherit its specific setting from the project file.
  • This property is automatically set to True when the Configuration property equals Release. Other configurations will inherit settings from the project file.
$(DeploymentEnabled)

A boolean property that allows the Deploy, DeployPackage and CleanDeploy targets to execute.

  • This property is automatically set to True when the Configuration property equals Release.
$(BuildDocumentationEnabled)

A boolean property that indicates whether the BuildDocumentation target can be executed.

  • This property is automatically set to True when Sandcastle is installed and the Configuration property equals Release.
$(BuildPackage)

A boolean property that causes a NuGet package to be built as part of the project's output.

  • Building a NuGet package requires NuGet Package Restore to be enabled on the solution in Visual Studio 2013 only. In Visual Studio 2015, White Tie automatically downloads NuGet.exe before building the package.
  • A .nuspec file is generated automatically from the properties listed below. NuGet replacement tokens are used as some of the default values. White Tie derives these tokens from attributes in the output assembly.
  • This property is automatically set to True when the Configuration property equals Release.
$(PackageReferencedProjects)

A boolean property that indicates whether to generate dependencies from project references.

  • The default value is True.
  • A reference to a project that uses White Tie and generates a package is added as a dependency.
  • A reference to a project that does not use White Tie or does not generate a package is automatically merged into the NuGet package that is created for the current project.
$(PackageSymbols)

A boolean property that indicates whether the NuGet package will include .pdb files, when available, for assemblies in the 'lib' folders.

  • The default value is False for Release builds and True for Debug builds.
$(PackageXmlDocumentation)

A boolean property that indicates whether the NuGet package will include .xml documentation files, when available, for assemblies in the 'lib' folders.

  • The default value is True.
$(PackageCompiledDocumentation)

A boolean property that indicates whether the NuGet package will include .chm documentation files, when available, for assemblies in the 'lib' folders.

  • The default value is True.
$(PackageContent)

A boolean property that indicates whether the NuGet package will include Content items, when available.

  • The default value is False.

NuSpec Properties

The following properties are used to generate a .nuspec file when $(BuildPackage) equals True.

Property Default Value
$(NuSpecId) $id$
$(NuSpecVersion) $version$
$(NuSpecTitle) $title$
$(NuSpecAuthors) $author$
$(NuSpecOwners) $author$
$(NuSpecDescription) $description$
$(NuSpecReleaseNotes)
$(NuSpecSummary) $product$
$(NuSpecLanguage) en-us
$(NuSpecProjectUrl)
$(NuSpecIconUrl)
$(NuSpecLicenseUrl)
$(NuSpecCopyright) $copyright$
$(NuSpecRequireLicenseAcceptance) false
$(NuSpecTags)
$(NuSpecDevelopmentDependency) false

Documentation Properties

The following properties are used to generate documentation when $(BuildDocumentationEnabled) equals True.

Property Description Default Value
$(DocumentationProjectName) Name of project. Value of AssemblyTitleAttribute
$(DocumentationProductName) Name of product. Value of AssemblyProductAttribute
$(DocumentationCompanyName) Name of company. Value of AssemblyCompanyAttribute
$(DocumentationCopyright) Copyright string. Value of AssemblyCopyrightAttribute
$(DocumentationVersion) Product version. Value of AssemblyVersionAttribute
$(DocumentationProjectSummary) Project summary string.
$(DocumentationRootTopicEnabled) Generates a topic container. True
$(DocumentationRootTopicTitle) Title of the root container. Namespaces
$(DocumentationFeedbackEmail) Email address for feedback.
$(DocumentationFeedbackLinkText) Email link text for feedback. Send Feedback to $(DocumentationCompanyName)
$(DocumentationHeader) Header string for all topics.
$(DocumentationFooter) Footer string for all topics. Updated on $([System.DateTime]::Today.ToString('D'))
$(DocumentationStyle) Name of presentation style. VS2013
$(DocumentationLanguage) Language identifier. en-US
Clone this wiki locally