How to add new PropertyGroup to csproj from powershell

Question

I have the following ps1 file. There are three problems in this file.

Q1. How to use single quote and double-quote in XML? I googled and found that I need to put one extra single quote. I tried but didn't work.

Q2. I got "wrong type" error when I append new PropertyGroup as a child to Project node. How can I fix it.

Q3. Can I append multiple PropertyGroups to Project Node?

$dir = "C:\Work\scripttest\output\"
$ns = @{ defaultNamespace = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" }

$configs = [xml]"<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Dev-1|AnyCPU'">
    <OutputPath>bin\</OutputPath>
    <DefineConstants>TRACE</DefineConstants>
    <Optimize>true</Optimize>
    <DebugType>pdbonly</DebugType>
    <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
    <ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport>
  </PropertyGroup>  
  ";

Get-ChildItem $dir *.csproj -recurse | 
   % { 
   $content = [xml](gc $_.FullName); 
   $project = $content.Project;
   $project
   $project.AppendChild($configs);
   # $content.Save($_.FullName);
   }

Thanks in advance!

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 04 '12 at 06:57

Q1: Escape character in powershell is ` and not quote. Keep in mind you should also escape $ symbol

Q2: You had problems because $project.AppendChild(); is XmlNode and your $configs is XmlDocument

Q3: You can, but not sure if MsBuild will be happy with it

And here's the script itself:

$dir = "C:\Work\scripttest\output\"
$ns = @{ defaultNamespace = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" }

$configs = [xml] "<PropertyGroup Condition=`"'`$(Configuration)|`$(Platform)' == 'Dev-1|AnyCPU'`">
     <OutputPath>bin\</OutputPath>
     <DefineConstants>TRACE</DefineConstants>
     <Optimize>true</Optimize>
     <DebugType>pdbonly</DebugType>
     <PlatformTarget>AnyCPU</PlatformTarget>
     <ErrorReport>prompt</ErrorReport>
</PropertyGroup>"

Get-ChildItem $dir *.csproj -recurse | 
% { 
  $content = [xml](gc $_.FullName); 
  $importNode = $content.ImportNode($configs.DocumentElement, $true) 
  $project = $content.Project;
  $project
  $project.AppendChild($importNode);
  # $content.Save($_.FullName);
}

As you can see I had to ImportNode fisrt as it was coming from another document

any source code sample if csproj project is in TFS server. It would be required do Check out before modify it, and then modify file, and later do check in. — Kiquenet, Oct 18 '12 at 10:14
@Kiquenet There are plenty samples on the net. Here's how you get latest version: TF.exe get "$/Performance Testing/Project" /force /recursive — Andrey Marchuk, Oct 18 '12 at 11:00
This adds: `` to my file which is invalid; how do I get the 'xmlns' part to go away? — bc3tech, May 18 '15 at 15:13

How to add new PropertyGroup to csproj from powershell

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