MSBuild Script and VS2010 publish apply Web.config Transform
I was looking for similar information and didn't quite find it, so I did some digging around in the .targets files that come with Visual Studio 2010 and MSBuild 4.0. I figured that was the best place to look for the MSBuild task that would perform the transformation.
As far as I have been able to tell, the following MSBuild task is used:
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Deploy" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003"> <UsingTask TaskName="TransformXml" AssemblyFile="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.Publishing.Tasks.dll"/> <PropertyGroup> <ProjectPath>C:\Path to Project\Here</ProjectPath> <DeployPath>C:\Path to Deploy\There</DeployPath> <TransformInputFile>$(ProjectPath)\Web.config</TransformInputFile> <TransformFile>$(ProjectPath)\Web.$(Configuration).config</TransformFile> <TransformOutputFile>$(DeployPath)\Web.config</TransformOutputFile> <StackTraceEnabled>False</StackTraceEnabled> </PropertyGroup> <Target Name="Transform"> <TransformXml Source="$(TransformInputFile)" Transform="$(TransformFile)" Destination="$(TransformOutputFile)" Condition="some condition here" StackTrace="$(StackTraceEnabled)" /> </Target></Project>I have tested the above and can confirm that it works. You might need to tweak the structure a bit to fit with your build script better.
You should be able to accomplish this by using the Package target and specifying the temp directory.
msbuild solution.sln /p:Configuration=Release;DeployOnBuild=true;DeployTarget=Package;_PackageTempDir=..\publish
Alternatively, you try using the XDT Transformation Tool:
I'm using this instead of messing with obscure msbuild targets. Works with app.config not just web.config.