Linked Files and WSPBuilder

I’m a WSPBuilder fan. I like the way it works, and i really like the Visual Studio extensions.

As everything else WSPBuilder is not perfect, it has at least one major drawback. It can’t handle visual studio linked files. This is a major problem for me, because i like to have my pages and user controls on a Web application and use a different project for the WSP.

To solve this problem I've created a simple command line application that reads the WSP project, and copies the linked files to the expected location. Now i use this tool as a PreBuild step for my WSP project, and that’s it… Linked files now work like a charm.

You can download the tool from here and check it’s source code (very simple) :

   1:  #region Revision history

   2:  // 6/12/2009 7:14:58 AM, Pedro M.V.Gomes -

   3:  //      Initial version.

   4:  #endregion

   5:   

   6:  #region Using directives

   7:  using System;

   8:  using System.IO;

   9:  using System.Xml;

  10:  #endregion

  11:   

  12:  namespace PedroMVGomes.CopyVsLinkedFiles {

  13:      /// <summary>

  14:      /// </summary>

  15:      public class Program {

  16:          public static int Main(string[] args) {

  17:              // check arguments

  18:              if (args.Length != 1) {

  19:                  Console.Out.WriteLine("syntax error");

  20:                  Console.Out.WriteLine("usage: CopyVsLinkedFiles.exe VSProject");

  21:                  return -1;

  22:              }

  23:   

  24:              // output welcome message

  25:              Console.Out.WriteLine("Visual Studio Linked Files Copy Tool");

  26:              Console.Out.WriteLine("Version: 0.1.0.0");

  27:              Console.Out.WriteLine("Created by Pedro M.V.Gomes, All rights reserved");

  28:              Console.Out.WriteLine("http://wiggythoughts.blogspot.com/");

  29:              Console.Out.WriteLine();

  30:   

  31:              // file must exist

  32:              string file = args[0];

  33:              if (!File.Exists(file)) {

  34:                  Console.Out.WriteLine("project file not found");

  35:                  return -2;

  36:              }

  37:   

  38:              // get folder name, will use later to combine with linked relative path

  39:              string projectFolder = Path.GetDirectoryName(file);

  40:   

  41:              // load project XML

  42:              XmlDocument projectFile = new XmlDocument();

  43:              projectFile.Load(file);

  44:   

  45:              // add msbuild namespace

  46:              XmlNamespaceManager nsManager = new XmlNamespaceManager(projectFile.NameTable);

  47:              nsManager.AddNamespace("mns", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003");

  48:   

  49:              // search linked nodes

  50:              XmlNodeList nodes = projectFile.DocumentElement.SelectNodes(@"//mns:Content/mns:Link", nsManager);

  51:              foreach (XmlNode node in nodes) {

  52:   

  53:                  // compute source and target path

  54:                  string linkFile = node.FirstChild.Value;

  55:                  string linkedFile = node.ParentNode.Attributes["Include"].Value;

  56:                  string source = Path.Combine(projectFolder, linkedFile);

  57:                  string target = Path.Combine(projectFolder, linkFile);

  58:   

  59:                  if (File.Exists(target)) {

  60:                      // compare file modified dates and decide if we need to copy the files

  61:                      FileInfo sourceFileInfo = new FileInfo(source);

  62:                      FileInfo targetFileInfo = new FileInfo(target);

  63:                      if (targetFileInfo.LastWriteTimeUtc == sourceFileInfo.LastWriteTimeUtc) {

  64:                          continue;

  65:                      }

  66:                  }

  67:   

  68:                  // copy files

  69:                  Console.Out.WriteLine("Copying file {0} to {1}", source, target);

  70:                  File.Copy(source, target, true);

  71:              }

  72:   

  73:              // done

  74:              return 0;

  75:          }

  76:      }

  77:  }