Exclude .js` files but not .min.js files from the MSBuild publication.

Question

Using Visual Studio and MSBuild, I would like to be able to exclude all .js files and include all .min.js in my deployments.

I know this can be achieved using the file properties in visual studio, but this is not an option since there are too many files.

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I have the following PublishProfile in my Visual Studio project. Everything works fine except for <ItemGroup>

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <!-- This file is used by the publish/package process of your Web project. You can customize the behavior of this process by editing this MSBuild file. In order to learn more about this please visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=208121. --> <Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003"> <PropertyGroup> <WebPublishMethod>FileSystem</WebPublishMethod> <LastUsedBuildConfiguration>Delpoy-Static</LastUsedBuildConfiguration> <LastUsedPlatform>Any CPU</LastUsedPlatform> <SiteUrlToLaunchAfterPublish /> <LaunchSiteAfterPublish>True</LaunchSiteAfterPublish> <ExcludeApp_Data>True</ExcludeApp_Data> <publishUrl>\\***\wwwroot\***.com\static</publishUrl> <DeleteExistingFiles>False</DeleteExistingFiles> </PropertyGroup> <!--This does not work, but gives the idea of what I want to achieve--> <ItemGroup> <Deploy Exclude="**\*.js" Include="**\*.min.js" /> </ItemGroup> </Project> 

Can this be done using PublishProfile ? If so, how?

Answer 1

 <Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003"> <PropertyGroup> <WebPublishMethod>FileSystem</WebPublishMethod> <!-- ... --> </PropertyGroup> <Target Name="BeforeBuild"> <ItemGroup> <Minified Include="**\*.min.js" /> <Maxified Include="**\*.js" Exclude="@(Minified)" /> <Content Remove="@(Maxified)" /> </ItemGroup> </Target> </Project> 

Edit:

 <Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003"> <PropertyGroup> <WebPublishMethod>FileSystem</WebPublishMethod> <!-- ... --> </PropertyGroup> <ItemGroup> <Minified Include="**\*.min.js" /> <Maxified Include="**\*.js" Exclude="@(Minified)" /> </ItemGroup> <PropertyGroup> <ExcludeFoldersFromDeployment>bin</ExcludeFoldersFromDeployment> <ExcludeFilesFromDeployment>@(Maxified);Web.config</ExcludeFilesFromDeployment> </PropertyGroup> </Project> 

Answer 2

If you want to exclude files, you can put the files in the ExcludeFromPackageFiles element group. In your case, you want to take all .js files and exclude everything except *.min.js . To do this, in the .pubxml file, add the following to the .pubxml file.

  <ItemGroup> <ExcludeFromPackageFiles Include="js\**\*.js" Exclude="js\**\*min*.js"> <FromTarget>Project</FromTarget> </ExcludeFromPackageFiles> </ItemGroup> 

Note. This snippet assumes your .js files are in a folder named js .