PowerShell scripts to apply configuration transformations for App.Config or Web.Config files

By default, Visual Studio provides configuration transformation for Web.config file. As well as, App.Config files can be transformed using a "SlowCheetah" or similar add-ons available in Visual Studio Gallary.

But there may be the cases where the configuration transformation is not supported by project template in Visual Studio, or in case, during TFS build, if you would want to create configuration transformation files for all of the release configurations, and not particular to a single release configuration. 

Through this, the same deployment package created during TFS build can be deployed on different environments.

Following is the PowerShell function I have created to achieve this -

#Apply config transformation
function applyConfigTransformation($src,$xdt,$dst)
{
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v12.0\Web\Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.dll"

try 
{
Write-Host 'applyConfigTransformation - Called'
Write-Host $src
$doc = New-Object Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.XmlTransformableDocument
$doc.PreserveWhiteSpace = $true
Write-Host 'applyConfigTransformation - Load Called'
$doc.Load($src)
Write-Host 'applyConfigTransformation - Load completed'

$trn = New-Object Microsoft.Web.XmlTransform.XmlTransformation($xdt)

if ($trn.Apply($doc))
{
Write-Host 'applyConfigTransformation - $trn.Apply called'
$doc.Save($dst)
Write-Output "Output file: $dst"
Write-Host 'applyConfigTransformation - $trn.Apply completed'
}
else
{
throw "Transformation terminated with status False"
}
}
catch
{
Write-Output $Error[0].Exception
} 
}

Following is how this function can be called -

$src = "C:Projects\MyWebApp\web.config"
$xdt = "C:Projects\MyWebApp\Configs\web.PreProduction.config"
$dst = "C:Projects\MyWebApp\web.PreProduction.config"
applyConfigTransformation $src $xdt $dst

CodeProject

How to disable generating .PDB files while compiling .NET assembly/ website in Release mode

While compiling your .NET assembly or publishing ASP.NET or MVC project in Release mode, you may observe .pdb file also gets generated along with necessary .dll or supporting files.
PDB file contains debugging information and symbol which does not make any sense during deployment or release of a product.
In order to get rid of generating PDB files during publish/ build -
1. Open the project properties of a project in Visual Studio
2. Click on "Build" tab
3. Make sure the configuration selected is "Release"
4. Click on "Advanced" button
5. Select "none" in "Debug Info" selection box.
6. Click OK, and save the project
Try building the project, and you will not see PDB files.

Screenshots:

CodeProject

Visual Studio .NET - Some handy shortcuts

We all know some standard keyboard shortcuts that are available in Visual Studio IDE.
Here, are some more shortcuts to use in Visual Studio IDE, which can come handy at times.

Ctrl + K + C = Comment In Code
Ctrl + K + U = Comment Out Code
Ctrl + Shift + A = Add New Item
Ctrl + Shift + B = Build Solution
Ctrl + Shift + C = Class View
Ctrl + Shift + R = Resource View
Ctrl + Shift + O = Open Project

F12 = Go to definition

Here are some more interesting:

1. Find all references
Shift + F12 = Find all references

Say, you have created a method which is called at many places within your project.
Use this shortcut key to know see all the places where this method has been referenced.

2. Paste from Copy History

Ctrl + Shift + V = Paste History
Every time you press "Ctrl + C" to copy contents in your IDE, the previously copied item(s) get stored in a buffer. You can access those contents by repeatedly pressing Ctrl + Shift + V.