ItemDefinitionGroup Element (MSBuild)
Note
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The ItemDefinitionGroup element lets you define a set of Item Definitions, which are metadata values that are applied to all items in the project, by default. ItemDefinitionGroup supersedes the need to use the CreateItem Task and the CreateProperty Task. For more information, see Item Definitions.
<Project>
<ItemDefinitionGroup>
Syntax
<ItemGroup Condition="'String A' == 'String B'">
<Item1>... </Item1>
<Item2>... </Item2>
</ItemGroup>
Attributes and Elements
The following sections describe attributes, child elements, and parent elements.
Attributes
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
Condition |
Optional attribute. Condition to be evaluated. For more information, see Conditions. |
Child Elements
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Item | Defines the inputs for the build process. There may be zero or more Item elements in an ItemDefinitionGroup. |
Parent Elements
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Project | Required root element of an MSBuild project file. |
Example
The following code example defines two metadata items, m and n, in an ItemDefinitionGroup. In this example, the default metadata "m" is applied to Item "i" because metadata "m" is not explicitly defined by Item "i". However, default metadata "n" is not applied to Item "i" because metadata "n" is already defined by Item "i".
<Project xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<ItemDefinitionGroup>
<i>
<m>m1</m>
<n>n1</n>
</i>
</ItemDefinitionGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<i Include="a">
<o>o1</o>
<n>n2</n>
</i>
</ItemGroup>
...
</Project>