Publish empty folders

 

If you need to include an empty folder when deploying using MSDeploy (either manually from Visual Studio or calling msdeploy from scripts) you can do that by:

1. create a Web Publishing Pipeline file (.wpp.targets)

   Create a new XML file in the project folder (the same folder that holds the .csproj or .vbproj file) and name it <projectname>.wpp.targets.

2. Add the following

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <AfterAddIisSettingAndFileContentsToSourceManifest>MakeEmptyFolders</AfterAddIisSettingAndFileContentsToSourceManifest>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <Target Name="MakeEmptyFolders">
    <Message Text="Adding empty folder to hold downloads" />
    <MakeDir Directories="$(_MSDeployDirPath_FullPath)\Survey\responses"/>
  </Target>
</Project>

In my case I needed an empty folder called ‘responses’ inside an existing ‘Survey’ folder.

The folder will be created no matter which configuration or publishing profile is run.

More info:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff398069(v=vs.110).aspx

http://blog.alanta.nl/2011/02/web-deploy-customizing-deployment.html