How to build xdp project with command line?

[lerche]

Hello at all,

First of all: Happy easter!

Currently I am working with XMetaL Developer on a XMetaL Author Enterprise project that contains a lots of different JavaScript files. Some of them are XMetaL macros (means that goes to a mcr file) and the others are used for the Resource Manager (Shell.Explorer.2). The visual studio build compiles all necessary files into the output directory, but does not minify or optimize the JS code. Thats why I created a gulpfile to do all necessary stuff automatically. There is only one step I do not know how to do. I want to trigger the build of visual studio with the msbuild command line at first. But I get this warning message by trying it:

*.xdp.metaproj: warning MSB 4078: The project file “*.xdp” is not supported by MSBuild and cannot be build.

The command was:

msbuild solutionName.sln

Obviously xdp files are not supported by msbuild. I think the correct build tool is hidden somewhere in my installation path of XMetaL developer. Can you give me a hint how to trigger the build with the command line correctly? This would be very helpful to automate my build and release process with just one gulp command.

I would be very grateful for every advice.

My system is the following:
XMetaL(R) Author Enterprise 12.0.0.077
XMetaL(R) Developer Version 12.0.0.077
Visual Studio 2015 (Community Edition) Update 3
OS: Windows 10 Pro, English

Thank you!

René

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[Derek Read]

XMetaL Developer cannot be run standalone as it is a plugin for Visual Studio. The Microsoft documentation for “devenv” should let you control Visual Studio from the command line. I suspect you likely need either the /build or /rebuild switch, or perhaps one of the others documented here:

[url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xee0c8y7.aspx]https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xee0c8y7.aspx[/url]

The following works for me:
"C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft Visual Studio2017CommunityCommon7IDEdevenv.exe" "C:Visual Studio ProjectsProject1Project1.sln" /build

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[lerche]

This is a good advice.

But there is certainly one disadvantage. The command line switch doesn't get any feedback from visual studio.

Probably I can examine the build completion by writing the build output into a log file. By observing the changes I will get my feedback. I will check it out.

Thank you, Derek!

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