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Setting Up StyleCop MSBuild Integration

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This article explains how to integrate the StyleCop tool into an MSBuild based build environment, for StyleCop 4.3 and above. If you are using SourceAnalysis 4.2, please see the following article: https://blogs.msdn.com/sourceanalysis/pages/stylecop-4-2-msbuild-integration.aspx.

MSBuild integration will cause the tool to run automatically whenever the code is built, and StyleCop violations will show up alongside compiler errors in the build output.

It is possible to set up the build integration so that StyleCop violations will appear as build warnings, or as build errors if so desired.

Installing MSBuild Files

To enable build integration, first be sure to select the MSBuild option when installing the tool, as shown in the image below:

Installing MSBuild Image

This will cause the StyleCop binaries and supporting MSBuild targets files to be installed under the {Program Files}\MSBuild\Microsoft\StyleCop folder.

Adding the Import Tag

Once the StyleCop MSBuild files are installed, the next step is to import the StyleCop targets file into your C# projects. This is done by adding an Import tag to each C# project file.

For example, to integrate StyleCop to the project SampleProject, open the project file SampleProject.csproj within your favorite text editor. Scroll down to the bottom of the file and add a new tag to import the Microsoft.StyleCop.targets file. This import tag should be added just below the import of Microsoft.CSharp.targets:

<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

   ...Contents Removed...

  <Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />

  <Import Project="$(ProgramFiles)\MSBuild\Microsoft\StyleCop\v4.3\Microsoft.StyleCop.targets" />

 

**

...Contents Removed...

</Project>

Save the modified .csproj file. The next time you build this project either within Visual Studio or on the command line, StyleCop will run automatically against all of the C# source files within the project.

Build Warnings Vs Errors

By default, StyleCop violations will show up as build warnings. To turn StyleCop violations into build errors, the flag StyleCopTreatErrorsAsWarnings must be set to false. This flag can be set as an environment variable on the machine, or within the build environment command window. Setting the flag this way will cause StyleCop violations to appear as build errors automatically for all projects where StyleCop build integration is enabled.

Alternately, this flag can be set within the project file for a particular project. Open the .csproj file for your project again, and find the first PropertyGroup section within the file. Add a new tag to set the StyleCopTreatErrorsAsWarnings flag to false. For example:

<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

  <PropertyGroup>

    <Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>

    <Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">AnyCPU</Platform>

    <ProductVersion>8.0.50727</ProductVersion>

    <SchemaVersion>2.0</SchemaVersion>

    <ProjectGuid>{4B4DB6AA-A021-4F95-92B7-B88B5B360228}</ProjectGuid>

    <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>

    <AppDesignerFolder>Properties</AppDesignerFolder>

    <RootNamespace>SampleProject</RootNamespace>

    <AssemblyName>SampleProject</AssemblyName>

    <StyleCopTreatErrorsAsWarnings>false</StyleCopTreatErrorsAsWarnings>

  </PropertyGroup>

 

Team Development

 

The configuration described above will suffice to enable StyleCop build integration on an individual development machine. However, development teams working within a well-defined development environment can set up the build integration in a more global way, so that each developer does not have to manually install StyleCop on his machine.

To do this, copy all of the files from {Program Files}\MSBuild\Microsoft\StyleCop into a custom folder within your build environment, and check all of these files into your source control system. Next, define an environment variable within your development environment which points to the location of the StyleCop targets file. For example:

set StyleCopTargets=%enlistmentroot%\ExternalTools\StyleCop\v4.3\Microsoft.StyleCop.targets

With this configuration in place, it is simply a matter of adding the following import tag to each .csproj file within your development environment:

  <Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />

  <Import Project="$(StyleCopTargets)" />

 

StyleCop will automatically run each time this project is built, no matter who is building the project. There is no need for each developer to install StyleCop manually, since the StyleCop binaries are checked directly into your source control system and are centrally integrated into your build environment.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    May 24, 2008
    The following article describes how to integrate Source Analysis into the build, so that the tool will

  • Anonymous
    May 24, 2008
    &quot;Source Analysis, also known as StyleCop, analyzes C# source code to enforce a set of best practice

  • Anonymous
    May 24, 2008
    Microsoft released the internal tool StyleCop to public under the fancy yet boring name of Microsoft

  • Anonymous
    May 24, 2008
    Web Fantastic, Free Calendar and Datepicker Scripts .NET Evaluation Engine - a parser and interpreter

  • Anonymous
    May 24, 2008
    Microsoft has published a great tool called Microsoft Source Analysis for C# , also known as StyleCop

  • Anonymous
    May 24, 2008
    Great! On my blog (wojciech.zimirski.net) you can find list of all rules currently embedded in the Microsoft Source Analysis for C#.

  • Anonymous
    May 25, 2008
    Un nouvel outil est disponible pour les développeurs C#. Comme son nom l'indique il s'agit d'un analyseur

  • Anonymous
    May 25, 2008
    I've written a task to perform analysis on custom file collections which makes it easy to integrate with TFS builds. http://freetodev.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!EC3C8F2028D842D5!400.entry

  • Anonymous
    May 25, 2008
    I like this tool! Are there plans for NAnt tasks? As i use NAnt for hand-written build-files, this would be really nice. If there is no support planned, I would think of building a custom task for NAnt myself - however work should not be done multiple times...

  • Anonymous
    May 26, 2008
    I've written a task to scan csutom collections. Handy for TFS builds...  http://freetodev.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!EC3C8F2028D842D5!400.entry

  • Anonymous
    May 26, 2008
    Is it possible to output the result to an XML file similar to FxCop? If not, are you planning to add such feature?  [Note from jasonall - An XML file is automatically produced when running through MSBuild integration]

  • Anonymous
    May 26, 2008
    Ah, great! It would also be nice if the XML file could have a <rules> tag that contains all rules that are mentioned in the XML report (Similar to FxCop). Im particular looking for a URL and a longer descrption. Or is there any other way to find out a URL from the RuleId?

  • Anonymous
    May 26, 2008
    こんにちは。手みじかですが、Microsoft Spurce Analysis for C# v4.2 が MSDN Code Gallery に公開されました。 バージョン番号を見ていただければ、わかるとおり、4.2

  • Anonymous
    May 26, 2008
    Microsoft announce the public release of a new developer tool -&#160; Source Analysis for C# . Inside

  • Anonymous
    May 26, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 29, 2008
    How do you get  ExcludeFromSourceAnalysis to work?  I've tried <Compile Include="PropertiesAssemblyInfo.cs" ExcludeFromSourceAnalysis="true"/> but that doesn't work (the project won't load). Cheers.

  • Anonymous
    June 05, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 05, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2008
    Try : <Compile Include="PropertiesAssemblyInfo.cs"> <ExcludeFromSourceAnalysis>true<ExcludeFromSourceAnalysis/> <Compile/> It seems to work for me Thanks Graeme

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2008
    When reading the EULA it's clear that you aren't allowed to, quote: "publish the software for others to copy". As I see it putting the binaries into a repository directly violates this. Can you elaborate on why this is not violating the EULA and does this exception apply to any product containing this limitation in the EULA?

  • Anonymous
    June 19, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 24, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 30, 2008
    Great tool!  Any support for NAnt anytime soon?

  • Anonymous
    July 14, 2008
    Hi. How we can run this tool with Nant?

  • Anonymous
    August 12, 2008
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 21, 2008
    Is it possible to integrate it with a Visual C# Express edition 2005?

  • Anonymous
    August 21, 2008
    @Bart: We have not tested running StyleCop in Visual C# Express edition 2005 through MSBuild integration. I think it will probably work, however, if you edit the .csproj file and add the StyleCop import tag as explained in this article.

  • Anonymous
    August 30, 2008
    I have tested it and it works just fine. Amir

  • Anonymous
    September 14, 2008
    Hi @ all! my question about MSBuild integration is following. Is there a difference between using VS2005 and VS2008? When i look at the *.csproj-file and would like to edit it, i find following tag: <Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)Microsoft.CSharp.targets" /> Might replacing this tag with ... <Import Project="$(MSBuildBinPath)Microsoft.CSharp.targets" /> and adding ...  <Import Project="$(ProgramFiles)MSBuildMicrosoftStyleCopv4.3Microsoft.StyleCop.targets" /> lead to any troubles in future? Best regards, Martin

  • Anonymous
    November 10, 2008
    A number of people have asked for tips on rolling out StyleCop on a large, pre-existing codebase. This