How do I compile and run an ASP.NET MVC app using nothing other than the MSBuild command line? My Visual Studio is super slow and I just want to be able to run an app quickly for bugfixes and showcasing etc. Is this possible? What's the command line for it?
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1 Answer
MSBuild is for building your application. If you want to run your app outside of Visual Studio, you need a web server for it. I'd recommend you to publish your app on local IIS. Just point your IIS website to your Web project folder. After that you will be able to access your application from the browser without running it from Visual Studio.
You can build your project from command line. Use msbuild.exe utility for it:
msbuild.exe projectname
You can find it in one of your .NET Framework folders (I recommend you to use the latest one):
C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v2.0.50727\MSBuild.exe
C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild.exe
C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe
C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework64\v2.0.50727\MSBuild.exe
C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework64\v3.5\MSBuild.exe
C:\Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework64\v4.0.30319\MSBuild.exe
When IIS is set up, you can build your app and see changes in your browser. Visual Studio is not necessary at this point.
Instead of IIS you can use IIS Express. Here is an article of how to run application on IIS Express from command line.
3 Comments
TechnicalTophat
thanks, however I already use MSBuild for my build script, but I wanted to know it it's possible to run my app without Visual Studio or messing about with IIS
Andrei
@RhysO you can use IIS Express instead. But it won't be super straightforward anyways. That is why we have Visual Studio to simplify the process. Though when you have all scripts (build script and "run your app" script) ready, it will not be a problem.
Teoman shipahi
I was looking something like this as well. You can do it with CLI in dotnet core, but looks like you have to use Visual Studio for .NET projects to do this. Well, anyway using an IDE should not be a must to stand up a project. CLI should be always first class citizen.