Why do I get the error "The target GatherAllFilesToPublish does not exist"?

Question

I have recently installed the new Azure development tools for Visual Studio 2010 service pack 1. Every time that I try to publish an existing website (using file system deployment) I get the following error:

The target "GatherAllFilesToPublish" does not exist in the project.

Can anyone tell me what I am missing?

Thanks

Answer 1

I think that I know what the issue is. When you install the Azure SDK bits it installs some VS Web Publish updates. One of these updates the file at

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets 

Based on how our setup is defined if that file has an updated timestamp (for whatever reason) then when you install the new component the file does not get updated.

To resolve this you should be able to follow the steps below:

• Rename the Microsoft.WebApplication.targets to Microsoft.WebApplication.targets.bak
• Install/Repair using the exe at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=253458

Answer 2

I had this problem, and it was fixed by adding:

<Target Name="GatherAllFilesToPublish"> </Target> 

to the Project File.