Get Visual Studio to run a T4 Template on every build

Question

How do I get a T4 template to generate its output on every build? As it is now, it only regenerates it when I make a change to the template.

I have found other questions similar to this:

T4 transformation and build order in Visual Studio (unanswered)

How to get t4 files to build in visual studio? (answers are not detailed enough [while still being plenty complicated] and don't even make total sense)

There has got to be a simpler way to do this!

While I would personally be quite interested to hear an answer to this, what is your particular scenario? Normally the output of the template should be a function of the input only, so generating on change is fine. — Pavel Minaev, Oct 29 '09 at 21:16
My template uses reflection to examine other assemblies, which may have changed since the last build. — JoelFan, Oct 29 '09 at 21:17
What about this idea: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1649649/run-msbuild-tasks-targets-after-the-solution-is-built — JoelFan, Oct 30 '09 at 12:53
See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/modeling/code-generation-in-a-build-process?view=vs-2019 — Karel Frajták, May 07 '21 at 05:32

Cheburek · Answer 1 · 2010-08-01T11:09:50.657

74

I agree with GarethJ - in VS2010 it is much easier to regenerate tt templates on each build. Oleg Sych's blog describes how to do it. In short:

Install Visual Studio SDK
Install Visual Studio 2010 Modeling and Visualization SDK
Open in text editor project file and add to the end of file but before </Project>

That's it. Open your project. On each build all *.tt templates will be reprocessed

<!-- This line could already present in file. If it is so just skip it  -->
<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
<!-- process *.tt templates on each build  -->
<PropertyGroup>
    <TransformOnBuild>true</TransformOnBuild>
</PropertyGroup>
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\TextTemplating\v10.0\Microsoft.TextTemplating.targets" />

edited Aug 01 '10 at 11:09

answered Aug 01 '10 at 09:58

Cheburek

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Here's a link to Oleg Sych's blog post: http://www.olegsych.com/2010/04/understanding-t4-msbuild-integration/ – PhilChuang Jul 21 '11 at 04:04
4

This is a very nice solution. However is there a way to get this to work without requiring the install of the SDKs? I've been trying to get it to work by copying out the .targets files and related assemblies, but without success. – grimus Aug 08 '11 at 21:20
I also do use Chirpy (see below in @Mark post) and on official site nothing is written about SDK dependency. So you should try it. Hope this help – Cheburek Aug 10 '11 at 01:05
3

Chirpy appears to work without having to download any SDKs... however, you still have to download and configure Chirpy. I'm still trying to discover a solution that works on a default install of VS2010, and will be available via the source repository so that developers only need to check out the repo for it to work. All these other solutions require way too much per-developer attention. – Mir Nov 29 '11 at 17:31
I got "Running transformation: System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: Could not obtain DTE from host" and I cannot find solution..could you help me? – Andrea Apr 05 '12 at 11:11
What about with VS11, and how can you support both VS2010 and VS11 using this technique? – Ben Collins May 10 '12 at 18:09
2

If you build your projects using x64 version of MSBuild - you will get this error: 'MSB4019: The imported project "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\TextTemplating\v10.0\Microsoft.TextTemplating.targets" was not found.' error. Workaround - replace $(MSBuildExtensionsPath) variable by $(MSBuildExtensionsPath32) in a project file. – Rusted Jun 28 '12 at 10:28
@Andrea, we are both having this issue. It's because you're referencing Visual Studio environment variables in your transform file, but the transform is now not running in Visual Studio. I'm looking for a workaround myself... – northben May 07 '13 at 16:39
@grimus you can just copy the needed files as explained at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee847423.aspx#buildserver. – Giulio Vian Jul 24 '13 at 13:19
4

Moreover, you don't need to patch the .csproj files. From the command line invoke something like `msbuild mySolution.sln /p:CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets="C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\TextTemplating\Microsoft.TextTemplating.targets" /p:TransformOnBuild=true /p:TransformOutOfDateOnly=false` – Giulio Vian Jul 24 '13 at 13:29
3

Installing a whole SDK just to generate text templates that you can do by default in Visual Studio is utterly ridiculous. – Jez May 18 '17 at 10:05
2

@PhilChuang: Wayback machine link to Oleg Sych's blog post: https://web.archive.org/web/20110816220543/http://olegsych.com/2010/04/understanding-t4-msbuild-integration/ – Moby Disk May 10 '22 at 17:39
@MobyDisk Your link saved my day. This article should be in the official docs, why the heck is Microsoft making such a mindfcking mystery out of T4? – Paul Michalik Aug 13 '22 at 10:00

Seth Reno · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-11T17:22:19.213

72

I used JoelFan's answer to come up w/ this. I like it better because you don't have to remember to modify the pre-build event every time you add a new .tt file to the project.

add TextTransform.exe to your %PATH%
created a batch file named transform_all.bat (see below)
create a pre-build event "transform_all ..\.."

transform_all.bat

@echo off
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION

:: set the working dir (default to current dir)
set wdir=%cd%
if not (%1)==() set wdir=%1

:: set the file extension (default to vb)
set extension=vb
if not (%2)==() set extension=%2

echo executing transform_all from %wdir%
:: create a list of all the T4 templates in the working dir
dir %wdir%\*.tt /b /s > t4list.txt

echo the following T4 templates will be transformed:
type t4list.txt

:: transform all the templates
for /f %%d in (t4list.txt) do (
set file_name=%%d
set file_name=!file_name:~0,-3!.%extension%
echo:  \--^> !file_name!    
TextTransform.exe -out !file_name! %%d
)

echo transformation complete

edited Sep 11 '13 at 17:22

answered Jun 14 '10 at 21:31

Seth Reno

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Nice solution. I preferred putting the full path to TextTransform.exe (`"%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\1.2\texttransform.exe"`) in the batch file, rather than adding it to %PATH% – Adam Nofsinger May 09 '11 at 16:36
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A better variable would be %COMMONPROGRAMFILES(x86)% instead of %COMMONPROGRAMFILES% as it would also work on a 64bit system. – Durden81 Mar 23 '12 at 11:42
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So the full path will be `%COMMONPROGRAMFILES(x86)%\microsoft shared\TextTemplating\11.0\TextTransform.exe`. Wrap it in double quotes. – northben May 07 '13 at 16:02
You can filter your text transforms like this: `dir %wdir%\*.tt /b /s | findstr /vi obj > t4list.txt`. This excludes *.tt files found in my "obj" directory. – northben May 07 '13 at 16:34
Just to clarify, %COMMONPROGRAMFILES(x86)% *only* exists on 64 bit machines (last I checked, anyways). Which is a pain. If you want a script to target a 32 bit binary, and 'just work' on either 64 bit or 32 bit machines you'll have to fiddle around a bit – piers7 Jun 06 '13 at 05:12
1

@piers7: I updated the code to automatically detect the 'bitness' of the OS that is running the script. I have also included northben's comment to skip the obj directory and implemented Adam Nofsinger's preference on not modifying the %PATH% environment variable. – Alex Essilfie Sep 11 '13 at 06:18
@Alex - I appreciate the effort but I rolled your edits back because you pretty much completely re-wrote the script. I think it would make more sense if you posted your script as a separate answer. – Seth Reno Sep 11 '13 at 17:24
The script breaks if the full path contains spaces. This is fixed in @Alex version by using `"delims="` and wrapping the final arguments to texttransform with quotes – Tewr Jan 29 '15 at 15:49
1

IMHO having to provide the path to `TextTransform.exe` sucks. You can already right-click "Run Custom Tool" in Visual Studio, so it already has the tool's path. Why do I have to go through the work of providing it again when I'm building from a Visual Studio context? – Jez May 18 '17 at 10:03
On my machine the `TextTransform` tool is very slow, like 6 seconds of wait added to every build. This is unacceptable for me. – el_technic0 Feb 24 '19 at 08:59
Is it possible to do the same when **tt** contains `(this.Host as IServiceProvider).GetService(typeof(EnvDTE.DTE)) as EnvDTE.DTE;`? Unfortunatelly, I get _null reference exception_, when I run **tt** from not inside visual studio. – Andrey K. Jun 25 '19 at 18:10

score 35 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 27 '20 at 16:27

35

There is a great NuGet package that does just this:

PM> Install-Package Clarius.TransformOnBuild

Details about the package can be found here and the GitHub repo is here.

edited Nov 27 '20 at 16:27

Dan Atkinson

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answered Jun 17 '14 at 23:19

GavKilbride

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Another nice thing about it is that it works with command-line MSBuild builds as well - not just Visual Studio (since it uses `TextTransform.exe`). Looking at the GitHub repo it actually looks like he has code that supports `content` build actions and much more - but sadly no new release have been made since February 2015 (before said fixes were implemented). – Ohad Schneider Aug 28 '16 at 21:55
2

There is an 'unofficial' fork: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Clarius.TransformOnBuild-unofficial that supports `content` build actions – Emond Nov 28 '16 at 08:04
1

It's nice extension but it's running TextTransform.exe in commandLine mode, so **hostspecific="true"** funcions will **not work** – Gh61 Feb 08 '17 at 09:36
It generates .txt file while I wanted to generate .cs file. What should I do? – Jenish Rabadiya Jun 08 '17 at 15:13
2

@JenishRabadiya Add this line to the top of the template: `<#@ template language="C#" #>` – Peter van Kekem Jul 28 '17 at 13:55
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It appears the package has been updated to support **hostspecific="true"** and other issues (8 days ago) – Mingwei Samuel Jan 19 '18 at 03:59
1

Content build action is working now with the latest version. – androbin Aug 29 '18 at 15:08
Probably this package had some problems at first but now this is the best solution. Looks like stackoverflow needs to handle somehow answers, that are outdated and those answers, that become the best over time after updates. ) – Constantine Ketskalo Jul 25 '20 at 02:24
1

Currently, to get this working with VS 2022, I needed to add the following to my project file (inside a pair of `PropertyGroup` tags): `$(VsInstallRoot)\Common7\IDE\TextTransform.exe` – Keith Stein Nov 24 '21 at 04:11

score 20 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 03 '09 at 20:05

I used MarkGr's answer and developed this solution. First, create a batch file called RunTemplate.bat in a separate tools folder above the main solution folder. The batch file just has the line:

"%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\1.2\texttransform.exe" -out %1.cs -P %2 -P "%ProgramFiles%\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.5" %1.tt

This batch file takes 2 parameters... %1 is the path to the .tt file without the .tt extension. %2 is the path to any DLLs referred to by Assembly directives in the template.

Next, go into the Project Properties of the project containing the T4 template. Go into Build Events and add the following Pre-build event command line:

$(SolutionDir)..\..\tools\RunTemplate.bat $(ProjectDir)MyTemplate $(OutDir)

replacing MyTemplate with filename of your .tt file (i.e. MyTemplate.tt) without the .tt extension. This will have the result of expanding the template to produce MyTemplate.cs before building the project. Then the actual build will compile MyTemplate.cs

although I still have the problem: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1669893/texttransform-exe-seems-to-only-accept-an-older-version-of-c — JoelFan, Nov 03 '09 at 20:22
Don't forget the quotes around $(SolutionDir)..\..\tools\RunTemplate.bat — Ewald Hofman, Sep 29 '10 at 22:06

score 14 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 07 '10 at 01:54

14

Recently found this great VS plugin, Chirpy.

Not only does it generate your T4 on a build, but it allows T4-based approach to minification of javascript, CSS, and even lets you use LESS syntax for your CSS!

answered Aug 07 '10 at 01:54

Mark Melville

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score 13 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 16 '14 at 13:52

13

Probably the simplest way is to install a Visual Studio extension called AutoT4.

It runs all T4 templates on build automagically.

answered Sep 16 '14 at 13:52

Saul

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Agreed! Configurable, and works with VS 2015. It even supports use of the EnvDTE assembly (for getting build configuration), which not all methods do. The only downside is that all team members have to install the extension. – Gyromite Oct 27 '16 at 16:16

score 12 · Answer 7 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

12

The pre-build can be reduced to a single line:

forfiles /p "$(ProjectDir)." /m "*.tt" /s /c "cmd /c echo Transforming @path && \"%CommonProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\1.2\TextTransform.exe\" @file"

This transforms all .tt files in the project and lists them to the build output.

If you don't want the build output then you have to work around some "interesting behaviour":

forfiles /p "$(ProjectDir)." /m "*.tt" /s /c "cmd /c @\"%CommonProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\1.2\TextTransform.exe\" @file"

Of course, you can pull this out into a batch file to which you pass the project directory path if you wish.

NB The path may require some tweaking. The path above is where VS 2008 installed it on my machine; but you might find that the version number between TextTemplating and TextTransform.exe is different.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

Community

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answered Apr 05 '13 at 10:51

Peter Taylor

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@SprintStar, if you have VS 2012 there's probably a better way of doing it. Other answers talk about better ways already existing for VS 2010. – Peter Taylor Feb 20 '14 at 17:16
This is the best method, because I don't have to install anything. – Ryan Gates Jul 21 '15 at 18:27
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Saw there was no 1.2 but there was a 12.0 so changed it to that but got this error: `System.Exception: T4MVC can only execute through the Visual Studio host` – komodosp Mar 15 '16 at 09:52
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Just had to update the folder path to use 14.0 instead of 1.2 and good to go. – pistol-pete Sep 01 '16 at 20:26
This was the best solution in my opinion (just changing 14.0 as mentioned above) – Nelson Rodriguez Dec 14 '18 at 19:02
You can use "$(DevEnvDir)TextTransform.exe" instead of hardcoding the TextTransform path – daniol Apr 29 '22 at 09:31

score 9 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 02 '09 at 00:43

9

Check out C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating there is a command line transformation exe in there. Alternatively write a MSBuild task with a custom host and do the transform yourself.

answered Nov 02 '09 at 00:43

MarkGr

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Oh, although you can do stuff like "devenv /Command TextTransformation.TransformAllTemplates /Command File.Exit MySolution.sln" on 2010 it tends to break on build servers occasionally. Your best bet is to write a MSBuild task with a custom host. – MarkGr Nov 02 '09 at 00:51
For desktop builds, just make a macro that does a TransformAllTemplates, and then a build. – MarkGr Nov 02 '09 at 00:54

Konard · Answer 9 · 2019-08-31T20:27:19.310

Thanks to GitHub.com/Mono/T4, at the moment you can do it for both .NET Core and Visual Studio builds by adding this to your .csproj file:

  <ItemGroup>
    <DotNetCliToolReference Include="dotnet-t4-project-tool" Version="2.0.5" />
    <TextTemplate Include="**\*.tt" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <Target Name="TextTemplateTransform" BeforeTargets="BeforeBuild">
    <ItemGroup>
      <Compile Remove="**\*.cs" />
    </ItemGroup>
    <Exec WorkingDirectory="$(ProjectDir)" Command="dotnet t4 %(TextTemplate.Identity)" />
    <ItemGroup>
      <Compile Include="**\*.cs" />
    </ItemGroup>
  </Target>

If you transform your templates to different programming languages you should add something like <Compile Remove="**\*.vb" /> and <Compile Include="**\*.vb" /> in order to get these files compiled even if you don't have generated files yet.

Remove and Include trick only needed for first time generation, or you can make the XML-shorter like this:

  <ItemGroup>
    <DotNetCliToolReference Include="dotnet-t4-project-tool" Version="2.0.5" />
    <TextTemplate Include="**\*.tt" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <Target Name="TextTemplateTransform" BeforeTargets="BeforeBuild">
    <Exec WorkingDirectory="$(ProjectDir)" Command="dotnet t4 %(TextTemplate.Identity)" />
  </Target>

and just run build twice (for the first time). If you already have generated files committed to the repository there will be no problems on rebuilds with both examples.

In the Visual Studio you might want to see something like this:

instead of this:

So add something like this to your project file:

  <ItemGroup>
    <Compile Update="UInt16Class.cs">
      <DependentUpon>UInt16Class.tt</DependentUpon>
    </Compile>
    <Compile Update="UInt32Class.cs">
      <DependentUpon>UInt32Class.tt</DependentUpon>
    </Compile>
    <Compile Update="UInt64Class.cs">
      <DependentUpon>UInt64Class.tt</DependentUpon>
    </Compile>
    <Compile Update="UInt8Class.cs">
      <DependentUpon>UInt8Class.tt</DependentUpon>
    </Compile>
  </ItemGroup>

Complete example here: GitHub.com/Konard/T4GenericsExample (includes generation of multiple files from single template).

I really like your approach but I can't run your project on .Net Core 3.0+. Apparently DotNetCliToolReference was retired and I'm not sure how to run your solution with whatever the new way is. See https://github.com/dotnet/announcements/issues/107 — sw1337, Aug 27 '20 at 00:55
@MelLeet I`ll try to look into it in near future, if you like you can create an issue in my repository about that. — Konard, Aug 27 '20 at 14:27

score 7 · Answer 10 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Expanding on Seth Reno and JoelFan's answers, I came up with this. With this solution don't need to remember to modify the pre-build event every time you add a new .tt file to the project.

Implementation Procedure

Create a batch file named transform_all.bat (see below)
Create a pre-build event transform_all.bat "$(ProjectDir)" $(ProjectExt) for each project with a .tt you want to build

transform_all.bat

@echo off
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION

:: set the correct path to the the app
if not defined ProgramFiles(x86). (
  echo 32-bit OS detected
  set ttPath=%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\1.2\
) else (
  echo 64-bit OS detected
  set ttPath=%CommonProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\1.2\
)

:: set the working dir (default to current dir)
if not (%1)==() pushd %~dp1

:: set the file extension (default to vb)
set ext=%2
if /i %ext:~1%==vbproj (
  set ext=vb
) else if /i %ext:~1%==csproj (
  set ext=cs
) else if /i [%ext%]==[] (
  set ext=vb
)

:: create a list of all the T4 templates in the working dir
echo Running TextTransform from %cd%
dir *.tt /b /s | findstr /vi obj > t4list.txt

:: transform all the templates
set blank=.
for /f "delims=" %%d in (t4list.txt) do (
  set file_name=%%d
  set file_name=!file_name:~0,-3!.%ext%
  echo:  \--^> !!file_name:%cd%=%blank%!
  "%ttPath%TextTransform.exe" -out "!file_name!" "%%d"
)

:: delete T4 list and return to previous directory
del t4list.txt
popd

echo T4 transformation complete

NOTES

The text transformation assumes the code in the T4 template is the same language as your project type. If this case does not apply to you, then you will have to replace the $(ProjectExt) argument with the extension of the files you want the code generate.
.TT files must be in the project directory else they won't build. You can build TT files outside the project directory by specifying a different path as the first argument (i.e. replace "$(ProjectDir)" with the path containing the TT files.)
Remember also to set the correct path to the transform_all.bat batch file.
For example, I placed it in my solution directory so the pre-build event was as follows "$(SolutionDir)transform_all.bat" "$(ProjectDir)" $(ProjectExt)

I'm trying to use this approach, but I keep getting an error, with '\Common was unexpected at this time.' in my output. It happens right at this line: for /f "delims=" %%d in (t4list.txt) do... Any idea what I'm missing? — Michael Lewis, Jan 29 '16 at 21:59
@MichaelLewis: I have gone through the batch file several times without spotting what could be causing the error. Kindly try [the method proposed by Seth Reno](http://stackoverflow.com/a/3041089) to see if it generates the same error. In the mean time, can you please post your `t4list.txt` file to [PasteBin](http://www.pastebin.com) so I try to see if your error is coming from there? — Alex Essilfie, Jan 30 '16 at 04:27
I tried Seth's approach with the same issue ('\Common was unexpected at this time'). I can't post the t4list.txt file due to corporate restrictions, but it consists of one line, and \Common doesn't appear in the path. — Michael Lewis, Feb 01 '16 at 13:34
@MichaelLewis: Unfortunately, if your error occurs at `for /f "delims=" %%d in (t4list.txt) do (` and corporate restrictions prevent you from posting your `t4list.txt` file, then I am afraid there is not much I can do to help you. I had really wanted to help solve this but it looks like it's going to be impossible since I have no data to proceed. Good luck in fixing the issue and kindly remember to post your solution when you are successful. — Alex Essilfie, Feb 01 '16 at 17:00
Is it possible to do the same when **tt** contains `(this.Host as IServiceProvider).GetService(typeof(EnvDTE.DTE)) as EnvDTE.DTE;`? Unfortunatelly, I get _null reference exception_, when I run **tt** from not inside visual studio. — Andrey K., Jun 25 '19 at 18:15

score 6 · Answer 11 · answered Jun 04 '10 at 23:39

If you're using Visual Studio 2010, you can use the Visual Studio Modeling and Visualization SDK: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/vsvmsdk

This contains msbuild tasks for executing T4 templates at build time.

Have a look at Oleg's blog for more explanation: http://www.olegsych.com/2010/04/understanding-t4-msbuild-integration

score 5 · Answer 12 · answered Jun 21 '19 at 15:33

In Visual Studio 2017 (probably next versions too), you should add this in Pre-build event:

"$(DevEnvDir)TextTransform.exe" -out "$(ProjectDir)YourTemplate.cs" "$(ProjectDir)YourTemplate.tt"

p.s. Change path to your template if it's located not in root project directory.

score 4 · Answer 13 · answered Nov 25 '10 at 15:26

Hey, my script can also parse output extension

for /r %1 %%f in (*.tt) do (
 for /f "tokens=3,4 delims==, " %%a in (%%f) do (
  if %%~a==extension "%CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\1.2\texttransform.exe" -out %%~pnf.%%~b -P %%~pf -P "%ProgramFiles%\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.5" %%f
 )
)
echo Exit Code = %ERRORLEVEL%

Just create transform_all.bat $(SolutionDir) pre-build event, and all *.tt files in your solution will be transformed automaticaly.

score 3 · Answer 14 · answered May 03 '13 at 00:11

Dynamo.AutoTT will do what you need. You can configure it to watch files via a regex or generate on build. It also allows you to specify which T4 templates you want it to trigger.

You can download it from here : https://github.com/MartinF/Dynamo.AutoTT

Just build it, copy the dll and AddIn files into

C:\Users\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Addins\

and away you go.

If you want to get it going in VS2012 you will need to modify the a Dynamo.AutoTT.AddIn file and set the Version to 11.0 inside the AddIn file;

score 2 · Answer 15 · edited Mar 28 '14 at 16:25

2

You just need to add this command to the pre-build event of the project:

if $(ConfigurationName) == Debug $(MSBuildToolsPath)\Msbuild.exe  /p:CustomBeforeMicrosoftCSharpTargets="$(ProgramFiles)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\TextTemplating\Microsoft.TextTemplating.targets"  $(ProjectPath) /t:TransformAll

The check on configuration = debug, makes sure that you don't regenerate the code in the release mode, when you do the build on the TFS build server for instance.

edited Mar 28 '14 at 16:25

Robert

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answered Mar 28 '14 at 16:04

anoop

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Nice but transforming all could be dangerous if T4MVC is not only tt in the project and we don't want to run all... – Arkadiusz Kałkus Dec 19 '14 at 09:12
3

I don't have TextTemplating in the v11.0 folder. Where do you get that from? – Zack Dec 21 '15 at 15:14

score 2 · Answer 16 · answered May 10 '19 at 11:29

2

T4Executer does this for VS2019. You can specify templates to ignore on build, and there is a execute after build option.

answered May 10 '19 at 11:29

Tim Maes

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Thanks for posting this update. I kept hoping that eventually msbuild would support t4 templates out-of-the-box. – Moby Disk May 10 '22 at 17:42

score 1 · Answer 17 · answered Sep 20 '13 at 14:23

Here is my solution - similar to the accepted answer. We had a problem with our source control. The target .cs files are read-only and the T4 was failing. Here is the code, that runs T4 in temp folder, compares target files, and copies it only in case of same change. It does not fix the problem with read.only files, but at least it does not occur very often:

Transform.bat

ECHO Transforming T4 templates
SET CurrentDirBackup=%CD%
CD %1
ECHO %1
FOR /r %%f IN (*.tt) DO call :Transform %%f
CD %CurrentDirBackup%
ECHO T4 templates transformed
goto End

:Transform
set ttFile=%1
set csFile=%1

ECHO Transforming %ttFile%:
SET csFile=%ttFile:~0,-2%cs
For %%A in ("%ttFile%") do Set tempTT=%TEMP%\%%~nxA
For %%A in ("%csFile%") do Set tempCS=%TEMP%\%%~nxA

copy "%ttFile%" "%tempTT%
"%COMMONPROGRAMFILES(x86)%\microsoft shared\TextTemplating\11.0\TextTransform.exe"  "%tempTT%"

fc %tempCS% %csFile% > nul
if errorlevel 1 (
 :: You can try to insert you check-out command here.
 "%COMMONPROGRAMFILES(x86)%\microsoft shared\TextTemplating\11.0\TextTransform.exe"  "%ttFile%"
) ELSE (
 ECHO  no change in %csFile%
)

del %tempTT%
del %tempCS%
goto :eof

:End

You can try to add your check-out command on a line (:: You can try ....)

In your project set this as a prebuild action:

Path-To-Transform.bat "$(ProjectDir)"

score 1 · Answer 18 · answered Apr 29 '14 at 12:42

1

In visual studio 2013, right click the T4 template and set the transform on build property to true.

answered Apr 29 '14 at 12:42

user1607685

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I am unable to find this option on the right click menu, however according to the MSDN it is possible to do it by editing the project file in VS 2012 and 2013, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee847423.aspx or http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/ee847423.aspx for details – yoel halb Jun 24 '14 at 16:05
This appears to be an option that comes with tangible T4 tools only, not default in Visual Studio. – Matt DiTrolio May 23 '15 at 18:11
Yeah this is only in the *pro* version of T4 Toolbox. – Pompair Oct 28 '15 at 12:59

score 1 · Answer 19 · edited Jul 23 '17 at 18:03

Here is how I tacked it. Link. Basically building on top of a great blog( blogs.clariusconsulting.net/kzu/how-to-transform-t4-templates-on-build-without-installing-a-visual-studio-sdk/ can't post more that 2 links :( ) I came up with This .targets file for use with visual studio proj files.

It's useful when you are using other dll-s inside of your .tt and you want the result to change as the dll-s are changing.

How it works:

Create the tt, add the assembly name="$(SolutionDir)path\to\other\project\output\foo.dll and set up the transformation and result to be as expected
Remove the assembly references from .tt

Inside the proj file use this code to set up transform on build:

<PropertyGroup>
  <!-- Initial default value -->
  <_TransformExe>$(CommonProgramFiles)\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\10.0\TextTransform.exe</_TransformExe>
  <!-- If explicit VS version, override default -->
  <_TransformExe Condition="'$(VisualStudioVersion)' != ''">$(CommonProgramFiles)\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\$(VisualStudioVersion)\TextTransform.exe</_TransformExe>
  <!-- Cascading probing if file not found -->
  <_TransformExe Condition="!Exists('$(_TransformExe)')">$(CommonProgramFiles)\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\10.0\TextTransform.exe</_TransformExe>
  <_TransformExe Condition="!Exists('$(_TransformExe)')">$(CommonProgramFiles)\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\11.0\TextTransform.exe</_TransformExe>
  <_TransformExe Condition="!Exists('$(_TransformExe)')">$(CommonProgramFiles)\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\12.0\TextTransform.exe</_TransformExe>
  <!-- Future proof 'til VS2013+2 -->
  <_TransformExe Condition="!Exists('$(_TransformExe)')">$(CommonProgramFiles)\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\13.0\TextTransform.exe</_TransformExe>
  <_TransformExe Condition="!Exists('$(_TransformExe)')">$(CommonProgramFiles)\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\14.0\TextTransform.exe</_TransformExe>
  <_TransformExe Condition="!Exists('$(_TransformExe)')">$(CommonProgramFiles)\Microsoft Shared\TextTemplating\15.0\TextTransform.exe</_TransformExe>

  <IncludeForTransform>@(DllsToInclude, '&amp;quot; -r &amp;quot;')</IncludeForTransform>
</PropertyGroup>

First part Locates TextTransform.exe

$(IncludeForTransform) will be equal to c:\path\to\dll\foo.dll' -r c:\path\to\dll\bar.dll because that's the way to add references for the TextTransform on the command line

 <Target Name="TransformOnBuild" BeforeTargets="BeforeBuild">
   <!--<Message Text="$(IncludeForTransform)" />-->
   <Error Text="Failed to find TextTransform.exe tool at '$(_TransformExe)." Condition="!Exists('$(_TransformExe)')" />
   <ItemGroup>
     <_TextTransform Include="$(ProjectDir)**\*.tt" />
   </ItemGroup>
   <!-- Perform task batching for each file -->
   <Exec Command="&quot;$(_TransformExe)&quot; &quot;@(_TextTransform)&quot; -r &quot;$(IncludeForTransform)&quot;" Condition="'%(Identity)' != ''" />
 </Target>

<_TextTransform Include="$(ProjectDir)**\*.tt" />this creates a list of all tt files inside the project and subdirectories
<Exec Command="... produces a line for each of the found .tt files that looks like "C:\path\to\Transform.exe" "c:\path\to\my\proj\TransformFile.tt" -r"c:\path\to\foo.dll" -r "c:\path\to\bar.dll"

The only thing left to do is add the paths to the dlls inside of:

    <ItemGroup>
      <DllsToInclude Include="$(ProjectDir)path\to\foo.dll">
        <InProject>False</InProject>
      </DllsToInclude>
      <DllsToInclude Include="$(ProjectDir)path\to\bar.dll">
        <InProject>False</InProject>
      </DllsToInclude>
    </ItemGroup>

Here <InProject>False</InProject> hides these items from the Solution View

So now you should be able to generate your code on build and on change of dll-s.

You can remove the custom tool (from properties inside of Visual Studio) so the VS does not try to transform and fail miserably every time. Because we removed the assembly references in step 2

Please add the solution itself to your answer to provide more context. Links are no solutions to the question and may be dead when other users come back to this question later. — Frank van Wijk, Mar 24 '16 at 17:21

dqthe · Answer 20 · 2019-05-16T07:33:59.750

1

You just install NuGet Package: Clarius.TransformOnBuild

Then, every time you click Rebuild project (or Solution), your .tt files will run

edited May 16 '19 at 07:33

answered May 16 '19 at 07:24

dqthe

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npjohns · Answer 21 · 2022-03-18T16:57:05.750

1

Here's a pre-build event using only Microsoft Tooling and standard paths. It's tested in vs2019/netcore3.1.

Replace "AppDbContext.tt" with your project-relative file path:

"$(MSBuildBinPath)\msbuild" "$(SolutionPath)" /t:$(ProjectName):Transform /p:TransformFile="AppDbContext.tt" /p:CustomAfterMicrosoftCommonTargets="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)\TextTemplating\Microsoft.TextTemplating.targets"

Microsoft also has a guide to make macros like "$(SolutionDirectory)" available in the template by using T4ParameterValues in your project file.

edited Mar 18 '22 at 16:57

answered Feb 16 '20 at 22:44

npjohns

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If you have spaces in your solution path, you will need to put quotes around $(SolutionPath) in the above. Otherwise, I like this solution since it's just a build event and has no other dependencies. The drawback being that you have to specify every file you want transformed ahead of time. Thank you! – Conure Mar 15 '22 at 06:39
This also does not work with hostSpecific="true", right? – tickietackie Feb 28 '23 at 19:52

score 0 · Answer 22 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

0

Some guy built a nuget package for this.

Side note: I get compile errors from both TextTemplate.exe and that package (because that package calls TextTemplate.exe) but not from Visual Studio. So apparently the behavior is not the same; heads up.

EDIT: This ended up being my problem.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

Community

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answered Sep 24 '15 at 23:06

Grault

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score 0 · Answer 23 · answered Feb 22 '23 at 21:43

0

The simplest solution I found is to use

https://www.nuget.org/packages/T4.Build

Add the NuGet package to your project and you are done.

Beware of this problem https://github.com/jgiannuzzi/T4.Build/issues/7

answered Feb 22 '23 at 21:43

Xavier John

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Get Visual Studio to run a T4 Template on every build

23 Answers23

Implementation Procedure

Linked