MSBuild passing parameters to CallTarget

Question

I'm trying to make a reusable target in my MSBuild file so I can call it multiple times with different parameters.

I've got a skeleton like this:

<Target Name="Deploy">     <!-- Deploy to a different location depending on parameters --> </Target>  <Target Name="DoDeployments">     <CallTarget Targets="Deploy">         <!-- Somehow indicate I want to deploy to dev -->     </CallTarget>      <CallTarget Targets="Deploy">         <!-- Somehow indicate I want to deploy to testing -->     </CallTarget> </Target> 

But I can't work out how to allow parameters to be passed into the CallTarget, and then in turn the Target itself.

Answer 1

MSBuild targets aren't designed to receive parameters. Instead, they use the properties you define for them.

<PropertyGroup>     <Environment>myValue</Environment> </PropertyGroup>  <Target Name="Deploy">     <!-- Use the Environment property --> </Target> 

However, a common scenario is to invoke a Target several times with different parameters (i.e. Deploy several websites). In that case, I use the MSBuild MSBuild task and send the parameters as Properties:

<Target Name="DoDeployments">     <MSBuild Projects ="$(MSBuildProjectFullPath)"              Properties="VDir=MyWebsite;Path=C:\MyWebsite;Environment=$(Environment)"              Targets="Deploy" />      <MSBuild Projects ="$(MSBuildProjectFullPath)"              Properties="VDir=MyWebsite2;Path=C:\MyWebsite2;Environment=$(Environment)"              Targets="Deploy" /> </Target> 

$(MSBuildProjectFullPath) is the fullpath of the current MSBuild script in case you don't want to send "Deploy" to another file.

Hope this helps!