azure devops - VSTS build is not generating .msi file using .vdproj

Question

I have VSTS Build which will generate the .msi file using .vdproj but I am not getting the .msi file out of the build.

I am getting the Warning MSB4078: The project file "abcdSetupabcdSetup.vdproj" is not supported by MSBuild and cannot be built.

I am using Visual studio build task and MS build task to generate the .msi.

I have tried some ways and I installed third part task called create .msi file from VS installer Project.

I have attached the Snapshot of all the tasks using to generate this .msifile.

Please have a look and help me on this and also do let us know is there any task available in VSTS to create .msi file.

Answer 1

I am getting the Warning MSB4078: The project file "abcdSetupabcdSetup.vdproj" is not supported by MSBuild and cannot be built

That because MSBuild/Visual Studio does not have support for setup projects. To integrate with Azure DevOps, you will have to use devenv.

Note: starting VS 2013, .vdproj support is provided by an add-in.

That the reason why you got the error Warning MSB4078: The project file "abcdSetupabcdSetup.vdproj" is not supported by MSBuild and cannot be built

Is there any way that we can generate .msi without setting up the Private agent in VSTS ? Please let me know is there any task available.

I am afraid there is no such way you can generate .msi without setting up the Private agent in Azure DevOps, otherwise, we will always get the error:

Some errors occurred during migration. For more information, see the migration report: C:VSTS-vs2017-agent\_work9sSetup1UpgradeLog.htm

I test it on the Private agent and local PC without installing the Visual Studio Installer Projects extension and got the same result. Then I installed that extension on the local PC and it works fine. So, we have to install the Visual Studio Installer Projects extension, if we want to build the setup projects.

Hope this helps.