Microsoft.WebApplication.targets was not found, on

Question

Trying to build my project on the build server gives me the following error:

Microsoft (R) Build Engine Version 4.0.30319.1
error MSB4019: The imported project "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\TeamData\Microsoft.Data.Schema.SqlTasks.targets" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.
error MSB4019: The imported project "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.
error MSB4019: The imported project "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is correct, and that the file exists on disk.

I solved this problem a few months ago, with installing Visual Studio 2010 on the Build Server. But now I'm setup a new server from scratch, and I want to know if there any better solution to solve this issue.

Answer 1

It seems the new version of msbuild does not ship with Microsoft.WebApplication.targets. To fix you need to update your csproj file as so:

1) Edit the web app csproj (right click). Find the section in the csproj towards the bottom concerning build tools. It should look like so.

<PropertyGroup>  
  <VisualStudioVersion Condition="'$(VisualStudioVersion)' == ''">10.0</VisualStudioVersion>
</PropertyGroup>  
<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />  
<Import Project="$(VSToolsPath)\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" Condition="'$(VSToolsPath)' != ''" />  
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" Condition="false" />  

2) You need to add one VSToolsPath line below the VisualStudioVersion tag so it looks like so

<PropertyGroup>  
  <VisualStudioVersion Condition="'$(VisualStudioVersion)' == ''">10.0</VisualStudioVersion>
  <!--Add the below line to fix the project loading in VS 2017 -->
  <VSToolsPath Condition="'$(VSToolsPath)' == ''">$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)</VSToolsPath>
  <!--End -->
</PropertyGroup>  
<Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />  
<Import Project="$(VSToolsPath)\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" Condition="'$(VSToolsPath)' != ''" />  
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" Condition="false" />  

Reference link: https://alastaircrabtree.com/cannot-open-vs-2015-web-project-in-vs-2017/

Answer 2

Add dependency through NuGet & set a Build Parameter

Goal: no changes / installs necessary to the build agents

I have taken a hybrid approach to the NuGet approach by Lloyd here, which was based off of the committing binary dependencies solution by Andrik.

The reason why is I want to be able to add new build agents without having to pre-configure them with items such as this.

1. On a machine with Visual Studio, Open the solution; ignore that the web project fails.
2. In the NuGet package manager, add MSBuild.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.targets, as Lloyd mentioned.
3. This will resolve the binaries to [solution]\packages\MSBuild.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.targets.nn.n.n.n\tools\VSToolsPath\
   1. You can copy these to a references folder & commit,
   2. Or just use them where they are at. I chose this, but I'm going to have to deal with the version number in the path later.

In Version 7, I did the following. This may not have been necessary, and based on the comments is definitely not needed now. Please see the comments below.

1. Next, in your TeamCity build configuration, add a build Paramenter for env.VSToolsPath and set it to the VSToolsPath folder; I used ..\packages\MSBuild.Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.targets.11.0.2.1\tools\VSToolsPath

Answer 3

In case if you're trying to deploy a project using VSTS, then issue might be connected with checking "Hosted Windows Container" option instead of "Hosted VS2017"(or 18, etc.):

Answer 4

Building and publishing WAPs is not supported if VS is not installed. With that said, if you really do not want to install VS then you will need to copy all the files under %ProgramFiles32%\MSBuild\Microsoft\.

You will need to install the Web Deploy Tool as well. I think that is it.

Answer 5

I fixed this by adding
/p:VCTargetsPath="C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft.Cpp\v4.0\V120"

into
Build > Build a Visual Studio project or solution using MSBuild > Command Line Arguments

Answer 6

I have found this on MS connect:

Yes, you need to install Visual Studio 2010 on your build machine to build database projects. Doing so does not require an additional license of Visual Studio.

So, this is the only option that I have for now.