Feature/msbuild

[bartlomiejmucha]

I created extension for MSBuild that allows to build and publish Habitat the same way as gulp script does.

I described everything here on my blog. There are 6 articles so far in the MSBuild series: https://bartlomiejmucha.com/en/blog/msbuild/msbuild-basics-for-sitecore-devs/

Especially important articles are these three:

• How to copy content
• How to apply transoform files
• How to sync Unicorn

I think that extending MSBuild to build and publish Helix projects is the right way (and works faster than gulp scripts).

I don't claim it's a complete feature. There will be probably some issues to fix, and I also need to do some tweaks for VSTS, however, It would be great if this could be maintained and improved in the main repository.

Please let me know what you think.

[nickwesselman]

Thanks @bartlomiejmucha, have you seen this?
https://github.com/richardszalay/helix-publishing-pipeline

Honestly I'm a bit unsure what to do with your PR at this time. We will be updating Habitat for the next release of Sitecore, but following that we plan to retire the repository in favor of smaller, focused Helix examples. Build/deployment approaches would be part of that, and having an MSBuild-based example would definitely be desirable there.

[bartlomiejmucha]

Hi @nickwesselman, thanks for the reply.

I know Richard's repo. I even pushed two PR there. It has nice features, however, it doesn't apply xdt transform files and does not provide an ability to sync unicorn by msbuild.

I aimed to push that to Habitat, so people can start using it. A lot of people use Habitat as a starter kit, unfortunately, or copy some parts of it. They investigate it, like me, to see how things are done. So if they see a new WebRoot project, they will be interested and they will get to know about MSBuild. It can save their time every day because gulp script can build and publish for even 15-20 minutes.

My second aim was to push it here so can be used and improved by great developers around the world.

If you have other plans for Habitat, then that's fine. If you ever would like to use that in your new examples repo, then that would be awesome.

[nickwesselman]

Do not use Habitat as a starter kit. :) But you're right that if nothing else, its gulp scripts are an often-used reference for how to set up build scripts for Helix project structure with Unicorn.

Definitely want an MSBuild-like approach in a the new Helix Examples repo. In the mean time, I'll keep this PR open, try it out, and see how others feel about going to this (in what will still be the primary Helix example for a little while longer).

[bartlomiejmucha]

Cool:) let me know if you have any questions or any issues. I will try to help. Cheers