[wix-users] How to build WiX Custom Action projects without having VS Extension installed?

[Philipp Weber]

Hi,

I've got a C# solution containing a WiX installer project, which 
references a C# Custom Action project for WiX v3. Within the csproj of 
that CA project, there is a WixCATargetsPath entry referencing the file 
Wix.CA.targets:

<WixCATargetsPath Condition=" '$(WixCATargetsPath)' == '' 
">$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\WiX\v3.x\Wix.CA.targets</WixCATargetsPath>

The Wix.CA.targets is obviously part of the installation of the Wix 
Toolset VS 2017 Extension, and not of the Wix Toolset itself. But on our 
build server, neither Visual Studio nor Wix Toolset Extension is 
installed, which is why the build there fails:

error MSB4019: Das importierte Projekt "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft 
Visual Studio\2017\BuildTools\MSBuild\Microsoft\WiX\v3.x\Wix.CA.targets" 
wurde nicht gefunden. Vergewissern Sie sich, dass der Pfad in der 
<Import>-Deklaration korrekt und die Datei auf dem Datenträger vorhanden 
ist.

On the build server, WiX Toolset is installed, but not the corresponding 
VS extension.
So is it possible to build Custom Action projects on the build server 
without having the Wix Toolset Extension installed? Is there any 
alternative?

Thanks for your help in advance
Philipp