MSBuild Explorer provides the following main areas of functionality.

Exploring MSBuild Files

It allows you to explore the makeup of your MSBuild files, showing all properties, item groups, imports and targets which are colour coded to indicate whether they are Initial, Default or both. Targets are shown in a Treeview with DependsOnTargets as subnodes.

· This feature is helpful in obtaining a quick overview of what is in a MSBuild file and how it will execute. It’s also helpful to have all the properties and item groups and how they were constructed when trying to debug or extend the file.

Favourites

The favourites feature allows you to save the way you execute MSBuild files.

· This feature is helpful in development teams where you can configure favourites that build your products (s) or automate certain scenarios. It means all your developers will be developing using the same automated processes.

Quick Run

The quick run feature allows you to quickly edit and run MSBuild scripts.

· This feature is helpful when debugging or testing a snippet of code you may have found on the internet.

New MSBuild File

The new MSBuild file feature creates a new file based on the template your have configured.

· This feature is helpful when you want to quickly start a new MSBuild file and helps avoid the ‘copy an existing file and delete what you don’t want’ scenario.

Quick Overview

When you start MSBuild Explorer you will see an interface similar to the following

1. This is the Explore area.

2. This is the Favourites area. There are three tabs which you can name as you please.

3. This is the Execution area. The targets that you select will run in the order you select.

Tips

· Use the File- Options menu to see the range of available options to configure.

· Drag targets from the Explore area [1] to the Execution area [3] to add them to the Targets to Run.

· Double click a Favourite targetset to quickly run it.

Sample

Let’s open a sample file, in this case the Maths.proj file that ships with the MSBuild Extension Pack.

This immediately shows us that Default is a default target (it’s blue) and that Factorial depends on FactorialCore. The tabs have also been updated to show the various counts that have been found.

Now I can drag Targets to Targets to Run and use the green arrow buttons to configure the order I want to run them in.

I can use the Parameters tab to enter any parameters that I wanted to provide. Then I could use the Pre-Execution tab to run any process before running the build file, like a Get-Latest on source control.

I could then Run the file, or save it as a favourite by clicking File - Save.

If you save it, two things will happen. First, the favourite will be saved to file and displayed in your favourites area. You can then click on the favourite and quickly run it with the entire configuration that you previously applied.

Second, if you saved it to your first favourites tab, then the favourite will be integrated into the system tray icon for quick access

That’s a very basic file, how about taking a look at what actually happens in a .csproj file

Options

Please review the File – Options to see the various options that affect the templates and behaviour of the program.