WebApplication publish to relative filesystem path

For those using Visual Studio 2012 and the new publish configuration file (Properties/PublishProfiles/Local.pubxml) you can use this syntax in the file itself:

<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">  <PropertyGroup>    <WebPublishMethod>FileSystem</WebPublishMethod>    <SiteUrlToLaunchAfterPublish />    <publishUrl>$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)..\..\obj\publish</publishUrl>    <DeleteExistingFiles>True</DeleteExistingFiles>  </PropertyGroup></Project>

Be aware that the $(MSBuildThisFileDirectory) property will resolve to the Local.pubxml directory. From there you should traverse up to get where you need to be.

Edit

For Visual Studio 2012, this solution will not work. You should look at the answer by michielvoo just after this one.

Original answer

After trying and trying I found the solution: you can use a relative path by setting

file:///./obj/publish

in the Publish WebApp dialog, but you must use a path that is already existent and writable by the user you are using. This way you can publish your web app in a local folder, or a path related folder.

Let me know if this helps. It did for me.

Just a regular path with forward slashes works in Visual Studio 2012:

../../../../../app

This starts at the published project's root directory.