MS-Build 2017 "Microsoft.WebApplication.targets " is missing

user_6270170 0
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I'm trying to upgrade our buildserver (jenkins) from Visual Studio 2015 to 2017. We're building via MS-Build. I've downloaded and installed MS-Buld tools as described in this answer. If I compile my projects I get an error that Microsoft.WebApplication.targets was not found.

Detailed error:

 error MSB4226: The imported project "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v15.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets"

I performed a find in the MS-Build directory:

PS C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild> dir -Recurse -Filter "Microsoft.WebApplication.targets"


    Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\WebApplications


Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name                                                                                                                                                                                                            
----                -------------         ------ ----                                                                                                                                                                                                            
-a----       11.01.2012     00:23          19654 Microsoft.WebApplication.targets                                                                                                                                                                                


    Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v12.0\WebApplications


Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name                                                                                                                                                                                                            
----                -------------         ------ ----                                                                                                                                                                                                            
-a----       22.07.2013     01:25          19995 Microsoft.WebApplication.targets                                                                                                                                                                                


    Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v14.0\WebApplications


Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name                                                                                                                                                                                                            
----                -------------         ------ ----                                                                                                                                                                                                            
-a----       06.07.2015     21:55          20118 Microsoft.WebApplication.targets                                                                                                                                                                                


    Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\WebApplications


Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name                                                                                                                                                                                                            
----                -------------         ------ ----                                                                                                                                                                                                            
-a----       22.07.2013     01:25          19995 Microsoft.WebApplication.targets

As can be seen the file exists for old compiler versions, but for v15.0 it is missing.

I also have installed Visual Studio 2017 on the build-server. The project succeeds to build if I compile with Visual Studio 2017.

Any hints how to solve this problem? One possible solution is to generate a symbolic link from C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v15.0\WebApplications point to the old v14.0 files (located under C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v14.0\WebApplications).

Thx

visual-studio msbuild
9 Answers

For VS 2019, I fixed this by copying:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v16.0

to

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio

user_4496880

Copy WebApplications folder from

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v14.0

to

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v15.0

Or in your build script add the following line before compiling

Copy-Item "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v14.0\WebApplications" "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v15.0\WebApplications" -Recurse -Force

Be sure to run it with elevated permissions

user_1897380

There can be multiple issues that cause this error, but it is generally due to missing files (example of my error below).

Invalid project `C:\xxxxx\Web.Mvc.csproj`. The imported project "C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\5.0.403\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v16.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" was not found. Confirm that the expression in the Import declaration "C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\5.0.403\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v16.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" is correct, and that the file exists on disk.

For myself, I am building a .NET 4.8 solution via powershell using the dotnet command, running against VS2019. The failing projects where created in VS2010/15/17.

As such to address the missing files, I simply created a symlink between the files it was looking for and the location it expected.

mklink /J "C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\5.0.403\Microsoft\VisualStudio" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Professional\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio"

This resolved the issue and now I can build solutions programmatically (this should also work for other instances, providing you use the correct file paths to make the symlink).

user_28780920

I just use Visual Studio Installer to update Visual Studio Community 2017, then the problem is solved.

user_92651310
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