When you create a TFS 2008 build, there are three build locations you need to be aware of.
First is the location that the build agent ‘gets’ the source to for compilation. You can specify this when creating the Build Agent – just set the Working directory to the location you want the source to be downloaded to. Normally this will be set to the windows temp folder for the account the build service is running under.
The second location is where the build is compiled. This is defined within the Build Definition as the Workspace for the build. TFS copies the source files from the ‘working directory’ to the ‘workspace’ before compilation. It is compiled into a new sub-folder with the same name as the build definition.
Thirdly, you have the option of specifying a build drop location. Your compiled build will be copied here into a new sub-folder, datestamped and versioned by the build number. I haven’t worked out yet how to instruct the build script to deploy a compiled website to a static location. Would love to know if anyone can shed any light!
