The following post describes a Team Build target that generates a text file (e.g. ReleaseNotes.txt) from Team Build’s build log and places it with the build output.

This is useful if you want to distribute your product to somebody who won’t have access to your TFS server to view the build log history.

This is an example of the output that is generated:

How it works

Team Build compiles the solution and after it performs the GetChangesetsAndUpdateWorkItems task, we download the build log (as XML) using the Build.aspx web page that TFS provides.

The build log is an XML file that contains all the associated work items and changesets that have been included in the build.

We perform an XSL transform on this file to generate the text file output that we require.

Setup: TFSBuild.proj

To actually get Team Build to generate the release notes, we need override the AfterGetChangesetsAndUpdateWorkItems target and call our new target.

In source control, checkout the TFSBuild.proj file for your build definition and insert the following snippet at the end, just before the </Project> tag.

<Target Name="AfterGetChangesetsAndUpdateWorkItems">

  <CallTarget Targets="GenerateReleaseNotes" />

</Target>

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets"/>

<!-- Download the build log from the Build.aspx web app and tranform to ReleaseNotes.txt-->

<Target Name="GenerateReleaseNotes">

  <PropertyGroup>

    <BuildDownloadBaseUri>$(TeamFoundationServerUrl)Build/Build.aspx?artifactMoniker=</BuildDownloadBaseUri>

    <BuildLogFile>buildlog.xml</BuildLogFile>

    <ReleaseNotesXslFile>$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\releasenotes.xsl</ReleaseNotesXslFile>

    <ReleaseNotesOutputFile>$(OutDir)ReleaseNotes.txt</ReleaseNotesOutputFile>

  </PropertyGroup>

  <!-- Extract the artifact ID from the BuildUri for passing to Build.aspx -->

  <RegexReplace Input="$(BuildUri)" Expression="vstfs:///Build/Build/" Replacement="" Count="1">

   <Output ItemName="BuildLogUriId" TaskParameter="Output" />

  </RegexReplace>

  <WebDownload

    FileUri="$(BuildDownloadBaseUri)@(BuildLogUriId)"

    FileName="$(BuildLogFile)"

    UseDefaultCredentials="True" />

  <Exec Command="msxsl.exe &quot;$(BuildLogFile)&quot; &quot;$(ReleaseNotesXslFile)&quot; -o &quot;$(ReleaseNotesOutputFile)&quot;" />

</Target>

Configuration

Build Server Setup

The following pre-requisite software is required for the build server:

• MSBuild Community Tasks MSI from http://msbuildtasks.tigris.org/
• msxsl.exe copied to a directory on the PATH from Command Line Transformation Utility (msxsl.exe)

More Information

• MSBuild Community Tasks
• MSDN: Customizable Team Foundation Build Targets