How to conditionally deploy an app.config based on build configuration?

Question

I have three custom build configurations { Dev, Qs, Prd }. So, I have three app configs { Dev.config, Qs.config, Prd.config }. I know how to edit the .csproj file to output the correct one based on the current build configuration.

<Target Name="AfterBuild">
   <Delete Files="$(TargetDir)$(TargetFileName).config" />
   <Copy SourceFiles="$(ProjectDir)$(Configuration).config" DestinationFiles="$(TargetDir)$(TargetFileName).config" />
</Target>

My problem is, I need to have six build configurations { Dev, Qs, Prd } x { Debug, Release }. I need to support the debug and release settings (optimizations, pdb, etc) for each environment. However, the app config values don't change between debug/release.

How do I keep the build script as generic as possible and use only the three app configs? I don't want to hard code too many conditional strings.

Answer 1

We fixed this using the Choose element in the csproj file. We have several different configurations set up so all we do is drop this block into your proj file and you can use VS's Configuration to help you out. I do want to second Rob's advice to move passed app.config. I have been moving in that direction for some time.

  <Choose>
<When Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' ">
  <ItemGroup>
    <None Include="App.config" />
    <None Include="Release\App.config" />
  </ItemGroup>
</When>
<Otherwise>
  <ItemGroup>
    <None Include="Release\App.config">
      <Link>App.config</Link>
    </None>
  </ItemGroup>
</Otherwise>

Answer 2

Something along the lines of

<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='Dev_Debug' OR '$(Configuration)'=='Dev_Release'" >
    <CfgFileName>Dev</CfgFileName>
</PropertyGroup>
<!-- similar for Qs & Prd -->
<Target ...>...$(CfgFileName).config...