Ouch - is there any chance I could get a copy of that DefineConstants tag?

Would either of you guys be able to show me the DefineConstants tag after it's been corrupted by NCrunch? You can find this by doing the following:

- Let the build fail with the error
- Right click the failed project in the Tests Window, go to Advanced and choose 'Browse to workspace'
- Look for the .proj file in the workspace
- Copy/paste the warped DefineConstants declaration

Thanks for the prompt response. A workaround to the problem would be to make sure the opening and closing tags are both on the same line in the source .proj file. I'll make sure a fix is included in the next release for this.


Cheers,

Remco

Hi there, Thank you for the quick response. NCrunch is something I've been recommending for while now and its gone down very well with people I work with.

Unfortunately, the workaround did not work. With this version we still need to remove the tags from VBPROJ files completely for it to build, even if they are not empty. Putting them on one line still gives the error.

So for empty tags on a single line, the generated, corrupted file looks like:

<DefineConstants>NCRUNCH;
</DefineConstants>

For non-empty e.g. one with Win32 defined, I get:

<DefineConstants>NCRUNCH;Win32=True</DefineConstants>

Which also fails with the same error.

Hope this helps.

I get the following error

vbc (0): Project-level conditional compilation constant 'VBC_VER = 9.0,TARGET = "library",CONFIG="Debug",DEBUG=-1,TRACE=-1,_MyType="Windows",PLATFORM="AnyCPU",NCRUNCH; ^^ ^^ DEBUG' is not valid: Character is not valid.

Hi Remco. Yes, it certainly looks like VB.Net problem as none of our C# projects fail. In fact I've now removed the majority of <DefineConstants> from our vbproj files as they are empty and seem to have been put in by previous version of Visual Studio - or perhaps by the VS upgrade routine.

The remaining few projects have <DefineConstants>Win32=true</DefineConstants> and do not appear to act on this particular constant, so I feel it's probably safe to remove these as well.

For any other users that do depend on custom constants from their vbproj I'm not sure how you would workaround it. Maybe it makes more sense to check other compile-time constants e.g Configuration, Platform?

Thanks again for your quick response and guidance. I'm loving the new NCrunch features like step into code, debug and line execution timings by the way!

Hi Graham,

Thanks for posting and I'm glad you like the tool :)

I've done some more digging and I've managed to find a workaround for using DefineConstants on VB.NET projects. Depending upon the number of projects in your solution, there may be some effort involved.

Basically, NCrunch is manipulating the XML in your .vbproj files to add an extra compile constant to the expression where it is present. NCrunch only looks in the .vbproj file, not in any of the project file 'imports', so we should be able to work around the bug by placing your DefineConstants declaration in and imported .targets file.

In the root of your solution, create a file with the following content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project xmlns="(- BROKEN LINK -)">
<PropertyGroup>
<DefineConstants>MyConstant="MyValue"</DefineConstants>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>

... Adjusting the MyConstant="MyValue" as you need to. You will then need to modify each project file requiring the constant. Remove the <DefineConstants> declaration from the project file, and add an <Import> declaration pointing to the file you created above. For example:

<Import Project="..\NCrunchWorkaround.targets" />

This should allow you to use compiler constants for VB.NET without NCrunch blowing up. I'm keen to hear how well this works for you!


Cheers,

Remco