Introduction
Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 provides a new set of tools for developing apps for Office and apps for SharePoint, as well as SharePoint farm and sandboxed solutions. By using these tools, developers can easily leverage the familiar Visual Studio environment and functionality to develop, debug, package, and deploy custom SharePoint solutions. Team development is also well-supported by these tools. You can check your SharePoint projects into Team Foundation Server (TFS) source control and build and package your projects in TFS Team Build. This article describes how to build SharePoint projects that were developed in Visual Studio 2012 by using Team Build, when neither Visual Studio 2012 nor SharePoint 2013 is installed on your build system. If Visual Studio 2012 and/or SharePoint 2013 are installed on the system, however, you can skip the steps below that outline how to patch the system with necessary dependencies.
If you're using TFS Online, you don't need to configure your own build system because the hosted build agent already has everything properly configured.
1. Prepare the Build System
- Install TFS Team Build
If your build system already has TFS Team Build installed on it, you can skip this step. Otherwise, install and configure Team Build on your build system. - Install Windows SDK
The Windows SDK must be installed on your build system because it includes the GACUtil tool. GACUtil is used to install the SharePoint Tool assemblies on the build system. You can download the Windows SDK from this location: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/bb980924.aspx. After you download the Windows SDK, install it. (Note that the PowerShell script referenced at the end of this article eliminates the need for this step.) - Install Build Support for Apps for Office and Apps for SharePoint
To build apps for Office and apps for SharePoint projects, several components must be installed on your system.
- Install Windows Identity Foundation (WIF)
- Install WIF Extensions
x64
x86 - Install SharePoint Client Component SDK
- Install Workflow Client 1.0 and Workflow Manager 1.0 through WebPI.
- Install SharePoint Farm and Sandboxed Solution Build Support
Since SharePoint farm and sandboxed solution projects reference SharePoint Server assemblies, those SharePoint assemblies must be present on the build system.
One way to do this is to install the full version of SharePoint Server 2013 on your build system. An advantage of having SharePoint installed is that you can use it to deploy and test your SharePoint application immediately after generating the WSP file. Note, however, that SharePoint Server 2013 can degrade your system performance, and it has increased system requirements (such as requiring a 64-bit CPU).
As an alternative, you can download the required SharePoint assemblies onto your build system. For either method, you will need the proper license of SharePoint on the build system. Copy the following assemblies from the development system to the build system and put them in a Reference Assembly folder:
- Microsoft.SharePoint.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.Security.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.dll
- Microsoft.Office.Server.dll
- Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ServerRuntime.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.Linq.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy.dll
- Microsoft.Office.SharePoint.Tools.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.dll
- Microsoft.Web.CommandUI.dll
These files are located in the following folder on the development system:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\ISAPI
It is recommended that you copy the SharePoint Server assemblies to the folder:
.. \Program Files\Reference Assemblies\SharePoint\
And then add one of the following registry entries:
- For 64-bit systems:
HKEY_LOCAL_SYSTEM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Wow6432Node\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319\AssemblyFoldersEx\SharePoint15]@="<AssemblyFolderLocation>" - For 32-bit systems:
HKEY_LOCAL_SYSTEM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\ v4.0.30319\AssemblyFoldersEx\SharePoint15]@="<AssemblyFolderLocation>"
If your SharePoint Projects refer to other SharePoint Server assemblies, copy them to the build system as well.
- Install Office Developer Tools Assemblies to the GAC
The following assemblies must be copied to the GAC of the build system:
- Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Designers.Models.dll
- Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Designers.Models.Features.dll
- Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Designers.Models.Packages.dll
- Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.dll
These files are located in the following folder on the development system:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_MSIL\
If you also need localized versions of the files, you should also copy and install the corresponding resource DLLs to the GAC of the build system:
- Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Designers.Models.Features.resources.dll
- Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Designers.Models.Packages.resources.dll
- Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Designers.Models.resources.dll
- Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.resources.dll
- Install Required MSBuild Dependencies
Copy and install the following custom targets and tasks folders to the corresponding folders on the build machine:- .. \Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\SharePointTools
- .. \Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\WebApplications
- .. \Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\Web
- .. \Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\Workflow Manager\1.0
(For 64-bit systems, use "\Program Files (x86)" in the path above.)
- Install Workflow Dependencies to the GAC
- Microsoft.Activities.Design.dll
The file is located in the following folder on the development system:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_MSIL\
2. Build an App for Office or App for SharePoint Project, or a SharePoint Farm or Sandboxed Project
For information about how to build a SharePoint project, see the Team Build documentation
about setting up a build definition at Create a Build Definition and queue in the build.
3. Create a package for the Office Developer Tools Project
By default, building an app for Office or app for SharePoint app, or a SharePoint farm or sandboxed solution project in Visual Studio 2012 doesn't generate a package for the project. To generate a package for the project as part of the team build, you must include the correct parameters.
For app for Office and app for SharePoint projects, you must set the following parameters:
- To create package in build:
/p:IsPackaging=true - To set the publish directory in the same drop output location:
/p:PublishDir=<droplocation> - When your solution contains multiple app projects, set the following parameter to produce app specific publish directories:
/p:AppSpecificPublishOutputs=true
For SharePoint farm or sandboxed solution projects to work, you only need to set IsPackaging=true.
A link to a customized build workflow sample for app scenarios is provided in the External Resources section at the end of this article.
4. Appendix
Use the following procedures to set up Team Build for SharePoint projects on TFS 2012:
Steps
App for Office App and App for SharePoint
Classic Solution 2013
1
Install Team Build software
Same procedure as the app project.
2
Install the Windows SDK to get its GACUtil tool, if you don't already have one on the build system.
Same procedure as the app project.
3
Install the following components:
- Windows Identity Foundation (WIF)
- WIF Extensions
- SharePoint Client Component SDK
- Workflow Client 1.0 and Workflow Manager 1.0 through WebPI
Skip this step.
4
Skip this step.
Install the following SharePoint assemblies:
- Microsoft.SharePoint.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.Security.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.dll
- Microsoft.Office.Server.dll
- Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ServerRuntime.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.Linq.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.Taxonomy.dll
- Microsoft.Office.SharePoint.Tools.dll
- Microsoft.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.dll
- Microsoft.Web.CommandUI.dll
If your project references other SharePoint
assemblies, copy them to the build system too.
5
Install the following Office Developer Tools assemblies to GAC:
- Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Designers.Models.dll
- Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Designers.Models.Features.dll
- Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Designers.Models.Packages.dll
- Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.dll
Same procedure as the app project.
6
Copy and install the following custom targets and tasks folders to the corresponding folders on the build machine:
- .. \Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\SharePointTools
- .. \Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\WebApplications
- .. \Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\Web
- .. \Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\Workflow Manager\1.0
(For 64-bit systems, use "\Program Files (x86)" instead of "Program Files" in the paths above.)
Same procedure as the app project.
7
Add the following assembly to the GAC:
- Microsoft.Activities.Design.dll
Same procedure as the app project.
8
Set the following parameters:
- To create a package in build:
/p:IsPackaging=true - To set the publish directory in the same drop output location:
/p:PublishDir=<droplocation> - When your solution contains multiple app projects, set the following parameter to produce app specific publish directories.
/p:AppSpecificPublishOutputs=true
Set /p:IsPackaging=True
Script Support for Patching the Build System
Sample scripts are available to help automate the patching of the build system for SharePoint projects (see: http://officesharepointci.codeplex.com/). If SharePoint 2013, Visual Studio 2012 and Office Developer Tools are already installed on your developer system, you can run the script to collect all the necessary files in a folder. Then, copy this folder to the build system and run the script again to install the files to the proper locations.
The CodePlex project also contains a build workflow tailored for Office Developer Tools projects. The workflow will build the project, create the packages, and then call a user-specified deployment script to perform the deployment.
External Resources:
Office / SharePoint 2013 Continuous Integration with TFS 2012