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I'm working on an existing WiX project. The project imports a wix target file. 

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\MyCompany\MyTargetFile.targets" />

Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find this file anywhere. How was it created in the first place?

Rich
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1 Answers1

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As you may know, WiX project files are Visual Studio project files, are MSBuild project files. Target files are MSBuild project files but only contain MSBuild targets that might be used in building projects.

$(MSBuildExtensionsPath) is a common place to put targets files. From the name of your target file and the fact that is it is located under $(MSBuildExtensionsPath), I'd say, you are looking for one that was written by MyCompany and planned to be used by several projects. You might find it on another machine at MyCompany—perhaps on a build server.

Some useful links:

Tom Blodget
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  • You'd also like to think it would be in version contol as well – James Reed May 24 '13 at 00:03
  • @JamesReed Yes. Putting it in a common location takes it away from all the projects it is used by. Even it is under version control somewhere, the projects aren't completely version-controlled if they don't reference a version-specific copy. – Tom Blodget May 24 '13 at 01:59
  • @TomBlodget Thanks. Your answer pretty much described my scenario. I ended up finding the custom target file on our SCM server -- buried deep in some folder. Do you know how MyCompany actually created the target file? My understanding of a 'a way' is to start with an existing target file, say the base wix file as a template and go from there...question is how would you know what to put in there? Is there some kind of reference? – Rich May 28 '13 at 15:38