running an AfterPublish command in Visual Studio 2010

Question

tried adding this code to my project file:

<Target Name="AfterPublish">
<Exec Command="start C:\test.txt" />
</Target>

This doesn't fie up at all. When I do "AfterBuild" though, it works fine. So, what I think it is, that my publish is not set to "Web Deploy". Does anyone know if there is a way to make the "AfterPublish" work without publishing using Web Deploy setting.

Please advise. Thank you

Answer 1

You cannot define AfterPublish and wish it will work, as it is not a defined target for you to override and will not be called by MSBuild/Visual Studio automatically.

What you should do is to attach it to WebDeployPublish target using AfterTarget,

<Target Name="AfterPublish" AfterTargets="MSDeployPublish">
<Exec Command="start C:\test.txt" />
</Target>

Then MSBuild/Visual Studio can pick it up.

This trick can be also used to implement other useful helpers during publish, as demonstrated in this article,

http://sedodream.com/2012/01/08/HowToTakeYourWebAppOfflineDuringPublishing.aspx

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Lex Li (http://lextm.com)