How to use the -clobber option while using the Ajax Minifier in MSBuild process in Visual Studio 2010

Question

Basically, my end goal is to remove already present .min.js and CSS files when building my Visual Studio solution while I have Ajax Minifier (version 4.20) as one of MSBuild task which minifies .js and .css files.

According to Ajax Minifier documentation, I could use the -clobber option to achieve the above mentioned goal. However, I'm not able to figure out where in Visual Studio MSBuild project task I can use this option. I'm successfully able to use the -clobber option from Ajax Minifier command-line tool though.

Here is the configuration code which I have in my project (.csproj) file...

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\MicrosoftAjax\ajaxmin.tasks" />
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
    <ItemGroup>
        <JS Include="**\*.js" Exclude="**\*.min.js;Scripts\*.js" />
    </ItemGroup>
    <ItemGroup>
        <CSS Include="**\*.css" Exclude="**\*.min.css" />
    </ItemGroup>
    <AjaxMin JsSourceFiles="@(JS)" JsSourceExtensionPattern="\.js$" JsTargetExtension=".min.js" CssSourceFiles="@(CSS)" CssSourceExtensionPattern="\.css$" CssTargetExtension=".min.css" clobber="true" />
</Target>

However, when I compiled my solution, I got following error - not sure why?

The "clobber" parameter is not supported by the "AjaxMin" task. Verify the parameter exists on the task, and it is a settable public instance property.

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 17 '12 at 16:55

0

You don't need the -clobber switch for the build task, which uses AjaxMin.DLL. That switch is only needed for AjaxMin.EXE.

answered Apr 17 '12 at 16:55

Ron Logan

56
2

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 08 '15 at 07:13

You just need to pass in the -clobber switch correctly.

Change

<AjaxMin JsSourceFiles="@(JS)" JsSourceExtensionPattern="\.js$" JsTargetExtension=".min.js"
CssSourceFiles="@(CSS)" CssSourceExtensionPattern="\.css$" CssTargetExtension=".min.css"
clobber="true" />

to

<AjaxMin JsSourceFiles="@(JS)" JsSourceExtensionPattern="\.js$" JsTargetExtension=".min.js"
CssSourceFiles="@(CSS)" CssSourceExtensionPattern="\.css$" CssTargetExtension=".min.css"
Switches="-clobber" />

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 11 '11 at 22:41

From what I can tell from the docs, it looks like the clobber switch isn't available. The fact that its not available seems to indicate that deleting out of date files would be handled by the task. Having the task take care of file management makes a quite a bit of sense to me. That being said, are you sure you need the clobber switch?

If you do, you can either call the console version of AjaxMin by using the exec task:

<Exec Command="C:\PathToAjaxMin\AjaxMin.exe _options_here_" />

Exec Task

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 22 '11 at 05:16

C:\"Program Files (x86)"\MicroSoft\"MicroSoft Ajax Minifier"\AjaxMin.exe -css $(ProjectDir)css\style1.css $(ProjectDir)css\style2.css $(ProjectDir)css\style3.css -o $(ProjectDir)css\master.min.css -clobber:true

Note: make sure the command is in one line in the POSTBuild Event

This is what I am using. If you are combining script, change the -css to -js.

Based on the document: http://ajaxmin.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Command-Line%20Switches

By default, -clobber is set as false. so needs to specify true at the end if you want to replace existing output file.

I tried to find a way of combining through configuration, but failed. So I just use the command as a post-build-event to combine — Zhao, Nov 22 '11 at 05:19

How to use the -clobber option while using the Ajax Minifier in MSBuild process in Visual Studio 2010

4 Answers4