We're trying to use T4 with Visual Studio 2010 (SP1) to build scripts for another language that are based upon some of our existing C# classes. I'm hoping for the following:
- The template needs to load our existing assembly and use objects from a namespace in that assembly.
- The transformation needs to run on every build on every development machine and build server without any additional installations.
- (1) and (2) need to work together.
(1) was fairly straightforward:
<#@ assembly name="$(TargetDir)RequiredProject.dll" #>
<#@ import namespace="RequiredProject.RequiredNamespace" #>
Using the $(TargetDir)
macro allowed me to reference the dll with a fully qualified UNC path (per the instructions found here).
(2) is a bit roundabout, but I think I've got it solved: I installed the required text transformation SDKs on a different machine and copied the required .targets and .dlls into a folder in my solution and then updated my .csproj file to reference the local .targets file.
(3) is where I run into problems. It seems like the <TransformOnBuild>true</TransformOnBuild>
property doesn't play nicely when a referenced assembly needs to be built prior to the transformation. Everytime I enable transform on build with referenced assemblies, I get the following error:
Compiling transformation: Metadata file '$(TargetDir)RequiredProject.dll' could not be found.
However, I'm using the same assembly instruction that I was using in (1) to reference the assembly. In fact, going to the .tt template directly and saving it still produces the expected output -- it just doesn't work during the "build" step. Am I doing something wrong, or is there a way to ensure that the template transformations occur after the assemblies they depend on are built? (Or, more simply, that template transformations occur last?)
See Question&Answers more detail:
os 与恶龙缠斗过久,自身亦成为恶龙;凝视深渊过久,深渊将回以凝视…