[wix-users] Issue with Heat & MSBuild

[Ven H]

I tried with "Current" also and it still didn't work. Also, I just had to
get it working in my local environment, since it seems to be working fine
in build environments (I don't have access to that). My focus / scope is
only the installer and not the other projects in the solution and hence I
am not at liberty to make many changes. Hence, to get it working in my
environment, I had to use these options.

On Mon, Dec 27, 2021 at 11:59 AM <bevan.weiss at gmail.com> wrote:

> I would have recommended replacing the usage of ToolsVersion=”12.0” with
> ToolsVersion=”Current”.  Having a fixed version dependency like that is
> horrible for people that come after you in the development.
>
> There are generally few good reasons for doing so, and it generally only
> causes future issues (as you’ve encountered).
>
>
>
> The same looks to apply for the Web Development Build Tools.
>
> I would have recommended swapping out the current fixed location in the
> <import …> reference for a visual studio dynamic option
>
> <Import
> Project="$(VSToolsPath)\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />
>
> Since otherwise when you hand this off to someone else (or even just
> upgrade your environment), their (your) development environment will also
> not work correctly.
>
>
>
> I’m intrigued that Visual Studio seems to ignore its own ToolsVersion
> setting.  I guess Microsoft got tired of complaints about builds not
> working, so just ignore the preference value (and likely use ‘Current’ if
> the preferenced option can’t be found).
>
>
>
> Ideal way would be to also flag the web application project as requiring
> the Web Development Build Tools workload.  I’m unsure how to do this, my
> experience has always been that Visual Studio find this out for itself
> somehow.  i.e. when I try to open a C++ project without having this
> workload installed Visual Studio automatically tells me this is the problem
> and offers to install it for me.  Unsure what would trigger the Web
> Development workload… I would have thought an ASP.NET reference or
> similar would have triggered it.
>
>
>
>
>
> Bevan
>
>
>
> *From:* Ven H <venh.123 at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Monday, 27 December 2021 4:35 PM
> *To:* Bevan Weiss <bevan.weiss at gmail.com>
> *Cc:* WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [wix-users] Issue with Heat & MSBuild
>
>
>
> Hi Bevan,
>
>
>
> I was able to get this resolved with the help of another colleague using
> the following steps.
>
>
>
> 1. Installed Build Tools for 2013 (One of the projects had ToolsVersion=12
> and hence heat was complaining and to solve this, I installed this).
>
> 2. Then it threw another error. "The imported project 'C:\Program Files
> (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v16.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets'
> was not found. Confirm that the path in the <Import> declaration is
> correct, and that the file exists on disk". To fix this, we followed the
> below steps.
>
>      a. Installed "Web Development Build Tools" workload as specified in
> the link (
> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44061932/ms-build-2017-microsoft-webapplication-targets-is-missing
> )
>
>      b. Copied the contents of C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual
> Studio\2019\BuildTools\MSBuild to C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild and
> rebooted the machine.
>
>
>
> Thanks a lot for your help. Hope it helps anyone else in future.
>
>
>
> On Fri, Dec 24, 2021 at 10:13 AM Ven H <venh.123 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Not sure how to get that. However, all projects (including WiX, without
> Heat) build fine using VS 2019 Professional. I installed VS 2017 and Build
> Tools for 2013 (which is for Tools Version 12).
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Dec 24, 2021 at 1:38 AM Bevan Weiss <bevan.weiss at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> What versions of MSBuild tools are your projects (in this solution)
> configured for?
>
> They all build fine when individually targeted?
>
> From the GitHub issue it seems almost certain that one of your project
> files is asking for a ToolsVersion of 12 (hence why this version of MSBuild
> is being requested).
> So your solution would be to correct your projects to reference a version
> of MSBuild that you do have available.
>
>
>
> 24 Dec 2021 06:36:52 Ven H <venh.123 at gmail.com>:
>
> Thank you Bevan. I did check this, but couldn't get any solution.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Dec 24, 2021 at 12:59 AM Bevan Weiss <bevan.weiss at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36920054/wix-toolset-build-fails-after-upgrading-from-net-4-0-to-4-6-1-cannot-load-msbu
>
> This seems to match your error message, and has a link back to a WiX
> GitHub issue.
>
>
>
> 24 Dec 2021 06:27:31 Ven H <venh.123 at gmail.com>:
>
> Hi Bevan,
>
>
>
> Thanks a lot for your response. I think it was built using VS 2017 or
> before, but not quite sure. Other WiX projects build absolutely fine (with
> VS 2019 and WiX 3.11.2) without heat. I searched quite a bit but didn't
> find anything helpful. That's why I posted here.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Dec 24, 2021 at 12:53 AM Bevan Weiss <bevan.weiss at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> That version number for Microsoft.Build doesn't seem to match with Visual
> Studio 2019.
>
> So what version of Visual Studio was used for the project originally?
> It seems you have a fixed reference to an old MSBuild somewhere.
>
> Do other WiX projects work fine? (With/without Heat)
>
> Have you tried to google for the problem?
>
>
> Regards,
> Bevan
>
> 24 Dec 2021 00:42:26 Ven H via wix-users <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>:
>
>
> > Can anyone please help with this? I searched a lot, but could not find
> any
> > solution.
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Dec 22, 2021 at 9:19 PM Ven H <venh.123 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I have a Visual Studio 2019 Professional and Votive for 2019 installed.
> I
> >> have WixToolSet v3.11.2 also installed. When I open an existing
> solution
> >> (provided by a customer), with WiX Project and try to build it, I am
> >> getting the following error. In the PreBuild event, they are calling
> the
> >> Heat command. Can anyone please help? I think the project was built
> long
> >> back with WiXToolSet v3.8.
> >>
> >> error HEAT5316: Failed to load MSBuild wrapper object: Could not load
> file
> >> or assembly 'Microsoft.Build, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
> >> PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The system
> >> cannot find the file specified.
> >>
> >
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