VSTS/TFS - xcopy to latest build; assembly references

The Team Build system of the Team Foundation Server builds a solution to a drop folder $(DropLocation) with a new sub-folder for each successful build $(BuildNumber). Using a dynamic folder as the source of a project's referenced assemblies in Visual Stuido is not supported, thus a post build action is needed to copy the built assemblies to a fixed location.

The task of copying the generated assemblies to a fixed 'latest build' folder is called 'Publish' in TFS. How to configure this custom action to xcopy *.* is, however, not bleeding obvious when setting up your build; in addition, the documentation seems to be incorrect. We have used this custom action configuration (see last reply) to publish to our \latestbuild\ folder. The "workaround" is to use <CreateItem> instead of an <ItemGroup>.

I really think that the Team Build wizard should include an option to specify a latest build location in the Location step.

These MSDN blog posts 'Part I' and 'Part II' explain how assembly references are resolved in Team Build. Note how the recommendations are different for intra-solution and cross-solution references:

• Intra solution: use project references, not file references to your assemblies
• Cross solution: use file references to your assemblies, and add an AfterBuild custom post build step in each of the assembly projects to copy the generated assemblies to the common 'binaries' location

Note that the 'post build step' custom action must be added to the assembly project, not the team build project. Ensure that you scroll down to see all the text of Manish Agarwal's part II posting on assembly references.

'Part III' is about references to a set of common assemblies, and this is where the 'xcopy' team build custom action comes in handy, e.g. to the shared location \Objectware.ShipBroker.Application\latestbuild\