BAUER MARTIN

In one of my projects I hat do add a large number of static files. All the files had to copy to the Output Directory. To do this within Visual Studio can be very laborious. Visual Studio do not offer a method to change the “Copty to Output Directory” propertie of an folder and all including items. Due to this, I wrote a simple console application which done the job for me.

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    string projectFile = string.Empty;
    // load project file from arguments
    if (args.Length > 0)
    {
        projectFile = args[0];
    }
    // try to find project file
    else
    {
        // get all files
        var fileList = Directory.GetFiles(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(), "*.csproj");
        // file found, take first
        if (fileList.Length > 0)
            projectFile = fileList[0];
    }
    // no project file found
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(projectFile))
    {
        Console.WriteLine("No Project file found");
        Console.WriteLine("Attributes: [project file]");
        return;
    }
    // backup project file and overwrite existing backup
    File.Copy(projectFile, String.Format("{0}.bak", projectFile), true);
     
    // load xml
    var xml = new XmlDocument();
    xml.Load(projectFile);
    // Add namespaces
    var nsManager = new XmlNamespaceManager(xml.NameTable);
    nsManager.AddNamespace("pf", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003");
     
    // add the output setting to copy always (for BuildAction "Content" and "None")
    var contentNodes = xml.SelectNodes("//pf:Project/pf:ItemGroup/pf:Content", nsManager);
    UpdateNodes(contentNodes, xml, nsManager);
    var noneNodes = xml.SelectNodes("//pf:Project/pf:ItemGroup/pf:None", nsManager);
    UpdateNodes(noneNodes, xml, nsManager);
    // save updated file
    xml.Save(projectFile);
     
    // remove the namespace attributes
    var content = xml.InnerXml.Replace("<CopyToOutputDirectory xmlns=\"\">", "<CopyToOutputDirectory>");
    xml.LoadXml(content);
    // save file without namespaced
    xml.Save(projectFile);
}
     
/// <summary>
/// Update Nodes
/// </summary>
/// <param name="nodes">List of all nodes to update</param>
/// <param name="xml">XML Document</param>
/// <param name="nsManager">Namespaces</param>
static void UpdateNodes(IEnumerable nodes, XmlDocument xml, XmlNamespaceManager nsManager)
{
    foreach (XmlNode node in nodes)
    {
        var copyToOutputDirectoryNode = node.SelectSingleNode("pf:CopyToOutputDirectory", nsManager);
        // no output directory mode set
        if (copyToOutputDirectoryNode == null)
        {
            var n = xml.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Element, "CopyToOutputDirectory", null);
            n.InnerText = "Always";
            node.AppendChild(n);
        }
        // update output directory mode
        else
        {
            if (String.Compare(copyToOutputDirectoryNode.InnerText, "Always", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) != 0)
                copyToOutputDirectoryNode.InnerText = "Always";
        }
    }
}