Automatically publish web application on build from Visual Studio 2015

Question

Is there any way to automatically have a web application published using a pre-created publish profile on successful build? I don't want to have to click the publish icon, need this to happen on successful build of the web project, on Visual Studio 2015 - without using macros.

Any samples would be appreciated!

Answer 1

Rami's solution works, but it requires another "Build" pass. While this won't actually recompile, it will still cause unnecessary delay if your solution is large.

You can't trigger the web publish via DeployOnBuild as that's automatically disabled when building from Visual Studio.

You can, however, trigger the process as part of the same MSBuild invocation via some MSBuild trickery:

<!-- In Directory.Build.props or the csproj (before the web targets import) -->
<PropertyGroup>
  <PublishProfile>Local</PublishProfile>
</PropertyGroup>

And also:

<!-- After the above, or in ProjectName.wpp.targets -->
<PropertyGroup>
  <AutoPublish Condition="'$(AutoPublish)' == '' and '$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' and '$(BuildingInsideVisualStudio)' == 'true' and '$(PublishProfile)' != ''">true</AutoPublish>

  <AutoPublishDependsOn Condition="'$(AutoPublish)' == 'true'">
    $(AutoPublishDependsOn);
    WebPublish
  </AutoPublishDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>

<Target Name="AutoPublish" AfterTargets="Build" DependsOnTargets="$(AutoPublishDependsOn)">
</Target>

If you're finding that your publish project isn't being built when you make content changes, add the following:

<!-- csproj ONLY, won't work elsewhere -->
<PropertyGroup>
  <DisableFastUpToDateCheck>true</DisableFastUpToDateCheck>
</PropertyGroup>

Answer 2

Add the following to your project file:

<Target Name="AfterBuild">
  <MSBuild Condition="'$(DeployOnBuild)'!='true'" Projects="$(MSBuildProjectFullPath)" Properties="DeployOnBuild=true;PublishProfile=Local;BuildingInsideVisualStudio=False"/>
</Target>

The value of PublishProfile (Local in the example above) is the name of the publish profile you want to run.

Sources:
https://www.dotnetcatch.com/2017/03/24/publish-webdeploy-automatically-with-vs-build/
https://stackoverflow.com/a/41830433/90287