I am creating a solution framework for building a WebSite application based-on our in-house created application architecture. My Guidance Package solution contains several templated projects and a WebSite. I'd like to include a Web Deployement Project in the solution, so that our developers may easily package the WebSitethat they have developed with my Guidance Package. However, it would seem that Web Deployment Projects do not support the .vstemplate model. This makes it quite difficult to template.

I've taken a deeper look into the GAT Guidance Package itself to see if I could find the answer to my problem. Since the GAT is itself a Guidance Package, and it creates a Deployment Project for you when you invoke it, I thought the answers might be in there somewhere.

I have found that there are some Actions defined in the GAT Guidance Package that are used to create a setup project, but I'm having some trouble decifering what is actually going on. Here's a snippet of the Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.MetaGuidancePackage.xml (which you can find in your GAT installation folder):

Hi Dave,

Did you tried post your question in the Vs Extensibility forum? If not, try to post your question there.

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=57&SiteID=1

Hi,
Try to install Software Factories Toolkit. There you can find solution template with installer project (you can choose between VS installer and Wix installer). If you have default installation folder this template should be:
C:\Program Files\Clarius Consulting\Software Factories Toolkit\1.0\MetaFactory\Templates\Solutions

The main solution template is: SoftwareFactorySolutionCSharp.vstemplate
This template references following projects:



Here you have a project installer vs template:

Try this way.
HTH,
Regards,
Lukasz

Lukasz,

Thanks for the reply. I don't actually have an issue with adding and installer class project. The project I'm trying to add to my unfolded solution is a "Web Setup Project". That is, a project with the ".vdproj" extension, that would package a WebSite into an MSI installer.

My major issue is that since Deployment projects are not templated the same way as VS language projects, I'm not sure what path to supply to the Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.Actions.CreateProjectAction template parameter.

The P&P guys have figured it out for a Setup Project (the GAT Guidance Package includes an action Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.MetaGuidance.Actions.CreateSetupProjectAction which returns a template path as an output parameter. I'm just not sure what path to provide myself for a Web Setup Project template.

Is there anyone out there who can tell me what's going on in the CreateWebSetupAction so that I can replicate the functionality for a Web Setup Project?

TIA,

Dave

Okay, I've figured out what I need to do to create the Web Setup Project.

1. In my CreateWebSetupCustomAction I set an string output property called "Template" with the following (abbreviated) code:

this.template = string.Format("{0}WebSetup.vdproj", sln.get_TemplatePath("{54435603-DBB4-11D2-8724-00A0C9A8B90C}")); //GUID is the VS project type for Setup Proejcts.

2. I then pass this value as an ActionOutput to the CreateProjectAction action provided in the GAT (along with the other requried parameters).

This seems to work just fine. It appears that the CreateProjectAction can be used to create projects of just about any type, not just .vstemplate files.

I now have one problem with my Web Setup Project left. I need to include some GAC assemblies to the project after it is created. Does anyone know how to:

A) Add a "Special Folder" to the File System of a Setup Project? The AddFolderAction in the Microsoft.Practices.Library.Actions.Vsd naemspace does not appear to support "Special Folders", only "Custom Folders". I get an exception when I try to add a folder "Global Assembly Cache Folder", presumably because this name is reserved for as a Special Folder.

B) Add a file from the Global Assembly Chache to the GAC Folder in a Setup Project? Similar to A) the AddFileAction appears to only support addinf files from the file system, and not from the GAC. I tried passing the strong name of an assembly in the GAC, but when I ran the recipe, my VS environment totally barfed...crashing completely.

Any help is much appreciated.

Dave

Hi Dave,

Did you tried post your question in the Vs Extensibility forum? If not, try to post your question there.

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=57&SiteID=1