Using IIS Publishing Packages With Visual Studio Online Builds

When you create a publishing profile for a web service in Visual Studio it generates an XML file while looks like this:-

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<!--

This file is used by the publish/package process of your Web project. You can customize the behavior of this process

by editing this MSBuild file. In order to learn more about this please visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=208121. 

-->

<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

  <PropertyGroup>

    <WebPublishMethod>Package</WebPublishMethod>

    <LastUsedBuildConfiguration>Debug</LastUsedBuildConfiguration>

    <LastUsedPlatform>Any CPU</LastUsedPlatform>

    <SiteUrlToLaunchAfterPublish />

    <LaunchSiteAfterPublish>True</LaunchSiteAfterPublish>

    <PrecompileBeforePublish>True</PrecompileBeforePublish>

    <EnableUpdateable>True</EnableUpdateable>

    <DebugSymbols>False</DebugSymbols>

    <WDPMergeOption>DonotMerge</WDPMergeOption>

    <ExcludeApp_Data>False</ExcludeApp_Data>

    <DesktopBuildPackageLocation>bin\MyWebService.zip</DesktopBuildPackageLocation>

    <PackageAsSingleFile>true</PackageAsSingleFile>

    <DeployIisAppPath>Default Web Site/MyWebService</DeployIisAppPath>

    <PublishDatabaseSettings>

      <Objects xmlns="">

        <ObjectGroup Name="MyDatabase" Order="1" Enabled="False">

          <Destination Path="" />

          <Object Type="DbDacFx">

            <PreSource Path="Trusted_Connection=True;Persist Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=MyDatabase;Data Source=.;" includeData="False" />

            <Source Path="$(IntermediateOutputPath)AutoScripts\MyDatabase_IncrementalSchemaOnly.dacpac" dacpacAction="Deploy" />

          </Object>

          <UpdateFrom Type="Web.Config">

            <Source MatchValue="Trusted_Connection=True;Persist Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=MyDatabase;Data Source=.;" MatchAttributes="$(UpdateFromConnectionStringAttributes)" />

          </UpdateFrom>

        </ObjectGroup>

      </Objects>

    </PublishDatabaseSettings>

  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>

    <MSDeployParameterValue Include="$(DeployParameterPrefix)MyDatabase-Web.config Connection String" />

  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

This works well if you are deploying from within Visual Studio or importing an application in IIS.

However if you are setting up a Visual Studio Online (VSO) build and release you will need to make some extra modifications to ensure that the correct connections are used for your different environments.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<!--

This file is used by the publish/package process of your Web project. You can customize the behavior of this process

by editing this MSBuild file. In order to learn more about this please visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=208121. 

-->

<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

  <PropertyGroup>

    <WebPublishMethod>Package</WebPublishMethod>

    <LastUsedBuildConfiguration>Debug</LastUsedBuildConfiguration>

    <LastUsedPlatform>Any CPU</LastUsedPlatform>

    <SiteUrlToLaunchAfterPublish />

    <LaunchSiteAfterPublish>True</LaunchSiteAfterPublish>

    <PrecompileBeforePublish>True</PrecompileBeforePublish>

    <EnableUpdateable>True</EnableUpdateable>

    <DebugSymbols>False</DebugSymbols>

    <WDPMergeOption>DonotMerge</WDPMergeOption>

    <ExcludeApp_Data>False</ExcludeApp_Data>

    <DesktopBuildPackageLocation>bin\MyWebService.zip</DesktopBuildPackageLocation>

    <PackageAsSingleFile>true</PackageAsSingleFile>

    <DeployIisAppPath>Default Web Site/MyWebService</DeployIisAppPath>

    <PublishDatabaseSettings>

      <Objects xmlns="">

        <ObjectGroup Name="MyDatabase" Order="1" Enabled="False">

          <Destination Path="" />

          <Object Type="DbDacFx">

            <PreSource Path="Trusted_Connection=True;Persist Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=MyDatabase;Data Source=.;" includeData="False" />

            <Source Path="$(IntermediateOutputPath)AutoScripts\MyDatabase_IncrementalSchemaOnly.dacpac" dacpacAction="Deploy" />

          </Object>

          <UpdateFrom Type="Web.Config">

            <Source MatchValue="Trusted_Connection=True;Persist Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=MyDatabase;Data Source=.;" MatchAttributes="$(UpdateFromConnectionStringAttributes)" />

          </UpdateFrom>

        </ObjectGroup>

      </Objects>

    </PublishDatabaseSettings>

  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>

    <MSDeployParameterValue Include="$(DeployParameterPrefix)MyDatabase-Web.config Connection String">

      <ParameterValue>Data Source=.;Initial Catalog=MyDatabase;Integrated Security=True</ParameterValue>

    </MSDeployParameterValue>

  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

In this version of the file we have explicitly set the MSDeployParameterValue for our connection which, as the name suggests, is going to be used by the MSDeploy utility to configure the web service when we release.