How to enable transformations on build with Visual Studio

Enable-Transformations.md

#Transform web.config on build

1. Unload the project
2. Edit .csproj
3. Append figure 1 to the end of the file just before </Project>; v12.0 my change depending on your version of Visual Studio
4. Save .csproj and reload
5. Open configuration manager
6. Add a new Configuration Name: Base. Copy settings from: Release
7. Copy the contents of your web.config
8. Right click Web.Config > Add Config Transformation
9. Overwrite the web.base.config with the contents of your clipboard
10. From now on Web.Config will be overwritten using transformations.

For settings that apply to all cofigurations use Base
For settings that apply only to Release use Release
For settings that apply only to Debug use Debug

A helpful note to add to your projects [base|debug|release].config

<!-- WEB CONFIG IN THIS PROJECT SHOULD ONLY BE MODIFIED BY -->
<!-- web.base.config -->
<!-- web.debug.config -->
<!-- web.release.config -->
<!-- CHANGES MADE DIRECTLY TO THE web.config WILL BE OVERWRITTEN -->

####Figure 1 Copy and paste:

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v12.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
    <TransformXml Source="Web.Base.config" Transform="Web.$(Configuration).config" Destination="Web.config" />
</Target>     

First off, thanks for sharing this. It's awesome.
Does this "play nice" with "publish time" config transforms? Having applied @stimpy77's https://github.com/stimpy77/FastKoala to a project, it looks to me that the transforms are not running when right-clicking the project and publishing it to Azure. Is there something I'm missing?

In VS Community Update 3, I get an "invalid child element" for TransformXml when using this verbatim... I also tried:

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />

to see if that made a difference, but it didn't. I can't seem to find any answers online! Anyone getting the same issue?

FYI, https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=GolanAvraham.ConfigurationTransform
Based on <UsingTask> element, could be used with .xproj file.

Awesome thanks for sharing. My VS 2015 version of this (I changed Source to just "Web.config" as I didn't have a "base" version:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v14.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" /> <Target Name="BeforeBuild"> <TransformXml Source="Web.config" Transform="Web.$(Configuration).config" Destination="Web.config" /> </Target>

Thank you. Small correction:
"might change"
https://gist.github.com/valbers/2635267ef83cf976c7fc4b4beb516087

This is great, thanks!

I came here last year, once again I forgot the trick, so once again, thank you for this simple and efficient solution :)

this doesn't work with VS 2017, at least for me is there a different import I need to add?

this doesn't work with VS 2017, at least for me is there a different import I need to add?

You can parametrize the VS version in the <Import>'s project. Note the v$(VisualStudioVersion)

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v$(VisualStudioVersion)\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
  <TransformXml Source="Web.Base.config" Transform="Web.$(Configuration).config" Destination="Web.config" />
</Target>   

You can also add <Copy SourceFiles="Web.Base.config" DestinationFiles="Web.config" /> and remove Web.config from project and gitignore it.

Do we need to use this approach for ASP.NET MVC projects in Visual Studio 2019? Or can we simply create multiple transformation using Configuration Manager in VS?

The other question is; as far as I know, By default, the web.config transforms are only used for publishing, not local debugging. So, what should we do in we want to use these created configs when running application in Visual Studio in Debug and Release configuration?

Do we need to use this approach for ASP.NET MVC projects in Visual Studio 2019? Or can we simply create multiple transformation using Configuration Manager in VS?

The other question is; as far as I know, By default, the web.config transforms are only used for publishing, not local debugging. So, what should we do in we want to use these created configs when running application in Visual Studio in Debug and Release configuration?

Hey, yes, you need this approach for VS2019. Just follow instructions in first post.

How does one ensure the transformations do not run again at publish time? The publish step should simply take the Web.config produced by the build step as is, but it tries to re-apply the transformations defined in Web.Release.config.

How does one ensure the transformations do not run again at publish time? The publish step should simply take the Web.config produced by the build step as is, but it tries to re-apply the transformations defined in Web.Release.config.

The following approach takes care of this:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8841075/web-config-transform-not-working/69232853#69232853