Dare some development...: Team Foundation Server

Recently, I started using TfvcTemplate.12.xaml, after reading this msdn article: i.e. executing PowerShell script as Pre-Build event while implementing versioning.

Initially, without using any script, when I simply tried to build my solution, Wix was unable to see its sources files. I verified multiple times that files were there and it builds without any problem at command line using MsBuild and Wix Toolset commands. In addition, I changed the build definition to older DefaultTemplate.11.xaml and it worked fine.

After some experiments, I doubted about MsBuild’s parallel processing ability i.e. it might be building installer project (*.wixproj) before building my other projects. So, again I used TfvcTemplate.12.xaml and passed “/m:1” and here it is: The liner processing solved the problem and I got to know what was going wrong:

TfvcTemplate.12.xaml seems to be executing MsBuild with parallel processing enabled (/m), while in my VS Solution, Wix project was added independently i.e. in Build Order it was the last project to build, but I never set other projects as its dependency. So MSBuild found that it has no dependency and ignored its Build Order and simply building it either on random order or as first project.

I verified this phenomena by removing /m:1 argument to MSBuild and declaring all other projects as Dependencies of Wix Project: i.e. in VS, PROJECT –> Project Dependencies. This caused MsBuild to build all other projects before Wix Project and now Wix is able to find its Source files properly…

Here is the screen shot for illustration:

Due to the project’s requirement, I had to setup Wix to generate the installer xml markup at Build Time. For this, I started using HeatDirectory task in my *.wixproj. This worked very fine while building locally (not on Team Foundation Server (TFS) ). However, it failed while building on TFS with following error log:

C:\Program Files (x86)\WiX Toolset v3.8\bin\Heat.exe dir D:\Builds\32\48\bin\Debug\InstallSrc\WebApp\ -cg CompGrp_WebApp -dr WebApp -ke -scom -sreg -srd -var var.WebAppSrc -v -ag -sfrag -suid -out WebApp_.wxs
Could not load file or assembly 'file:///C:\Program Files (x86)\WiX Toolset v3.8\bin\Heat.exe' or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.            at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly._nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks)
            at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoadAssemblyName(AssemblyName assemblyRef, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly reqAssembly, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, IntPtr pPrivHostBinder, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks)
            at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoadAssemblyName(AssemblyName assemblyRef, Evidence assemblySecurity, RuntimeAssembly reqAssembly, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks)
            at System.Reflection.RuntimeAssembly.InternalLoadFrom(String assemblyFile, Evidence securityEvidence, Byte[] hashValue, AssemblyHashAlgorithm hashAlgorithm, Boolean forIntrospection, Boolean suppressSecurityChecks, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
            at System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadFrom(String assemblyFile)
            at Microsoft.Tools.WindowsInstallerXml.Build.Tasks.WixToolTask.ExecuteToolThread(Object parameters)
0>MSBUILD : error MSB4166: Child node "3" exited prematurely. Shutting down. Diagnostic information may be found in files in the temporary files directory named MSBuild_*.failure.txt.

I searched for MSBUILD : error MSB4166: Child node "3" exited prematurely which mostly pointing towards MSBuild’s parallel project building capability. However, turning this feature off on TFS never solved the problem, instead reporting differently.
On same build machine (where TFS is used to build), I tried the Heat.exe command line (See blue in above log), and it worked fine. Even building the same solution on same build machine using MSBuild command line never gave any problem. It was only failing when building through TFS.
Making story short, I posted the problem on different forums, and got response on Wix-User’s Group. Using these tips, I was able to correct the problem.

Issue is actually related to MSBuild Platform setting on TFS Build Definition. i.e:
TFS --> Edit Build Definition --> Process --> Advanced --> MSBuild Platform = Auto.
With Auto, MSBuild was actually trying to use Heat.exe as x64 bit process, while it is actually x86 bit process, and so it was failing with this message:

Could not load file or assembly 'file:///C:\Program Files (x86)\WiX Toolset v3.8\bin\Heat.exe' or one of its dependencies. An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.

Now, changed this to x86 i.e.

TFS --> Edit Build Definition --> Process --> Advanced --> MSBuild Platform = X86

Here is a screen shot for this correction: