brokenco.de/_posts/2008-05-04-nant-and-asp-net-on-mono.html

--- 
layout: post
title: NAnt and ASP.NET on Mono
tags: 
- mono
- miscellaneous
- software development
nodeid: 181
created: 1209903968
---
Most of my personal projects are built on top of ASP.NET, <a href="http://www.mono-project.com" target="_blank">Mono</a> and <a href="http://www.lighttpd.net/" target="_blank">Lighttpd</a>. One of the benefits of keeping them all running on the same stack (as opposed to mixing Python, Mono and PHP together) is that I don't need to maintain different infrastructure bits to keep them all up and running. Two key pieces that keep it easy to dive back into the the side-project whenever I have some (spurious) free time are my <a href="http://nant.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">NAnt</a> scripts and my push scripts.
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<strong><big>NAnt</big></strong>
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I use my NAnt script for a bit more than just building my web projects, more often than not I use it to build, deploy and test everything related to the site. My projects are typically laid out like: <ul><li><strong>bin/</strong> Built DLLs, not in Subversion</li><li><strong>configs/</strong> Web.config files per-development machine</li><li><strong>libraries/</strong> External libraries, such as Memcached.Client.dll, etc.</li><li><strong>schemas/</strong> Files containing the SQL for rebuilding my database</li><li><strong>site/</strong> Fully built web project, including Web.config and .aspx files</li><li><strong>sources/</strong> Actual code, .aspx.cs and web folder (<em>htdocs/</em> containing styles, javascript, etc)</li></ul>
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Executing "<strong>nant run</strong>" will build the entire project and construct the full version of the web application in the <strong>site/</strong> and finally fire up <a href="http://www.mono-project.com/ASP.NET#ASP.NET_hosting_with_XSP" target="_blank">xsp2</a> on localhost for testing. The following NAnt file is what I've been carrying from project to project. 
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<code language="xml"><?xml version="1.0"?>
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<project name="MyProject" default="library" basedir=".">
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  <property name="debug" value="true" overwrite="false" />
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  <property name="project.name" value="MyProject"/>
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  <property name="project.version" value="1.0.0"/>
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  <property name="library" value="MyProject.dll"/>
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  <tstamp property="build.date" pattern="yyyyMMdd" verbose="true" />
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  <!-- These are being definde for posterity's sake, as they may change in the future -->
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  <property name="bin_dir" value="bin"/>
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  <property name="src_dir" value="sources"/>
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  <property name="lib_dir" value="libraries"/>
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  <property name="site_dir" value="site"/>
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  <property name="deps_dir" value="deps/"/>
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  <property name="contrib_dir" value="contrib/"/>
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  <!-- xsp specific properties -->
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  <property name="xsp_port" value="8088"/>
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  <property name="xsp_root" value="${site_dir}"/>
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  <property name="xsp_apps" value="/:../${bin_dir}"/>
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  <!--//  End properties -->
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  <target name="library" description="Basic MyProject build task" >
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    <echo message="Building ${project.name}-${project.version}"/>    
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    <csc target="library" output="${bin_dir}/${library}">
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      <sources>
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        <include name="${src_dir}/**.cs"/>
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      </sources>
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      <references>
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        <include name="Npgsql.dll"/>
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      </references>   
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    </csc>  
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  </target>
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  <target name="clean" description="Clean up MyProject">
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    <echo message="Cleaning ${project.name}"/>
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    <delete>
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      <fileset>
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        <include name="${bin_dir}/**.dll"/>
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        <include name="${site_dir}/**.dll"/>
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        <include name="${site_dir}/**.aspx"/>
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      </fileset>
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    </delete>
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  </target>
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  <target name="site" description="Populate the site/ directory">
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    <copy todir="${site_dir}">
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      <fileset basedir="${src_dir}/htdocs">
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        <include name="**"/>
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      </fileset>
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    </copy>
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    <copy todir="${site_dir}/contrib">
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      <fileset basedir="${contrib_dir}">
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        <include name="**"/>
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      </fileset>
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    </copy>
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    <copy todir="${bin_dir}">
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      <fileset basedir="${lib_dir}">
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        <include name="*"/>
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      </fileset>
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    </copy> 
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      <!-- Copying bin/ into the site/ directory sucks, but xsp2 is buggy
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        with the applications parameter
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      -->
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    <copy todir="${site_dir}">
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      <fileset>
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        <include name="bin/*.dll"/>
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      </fileset>
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    </copy> 
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  </target>       
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  <target name="run" description="Runs the xsp2 web server on the port cited above" depends="library, site">
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    <echo message="Starting the xsp2 web server running on port ${xsp_port}"/>
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    <exec program="xsp2" failonerror="true" commandline="--port ${xsp_port} --root ${xsp_root}"/>
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  </target>
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</project>
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</code>
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<strong><big>The Push Script</big></strong>
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Since I usually build and deploy on the same machine, I use a simple script called "<strong>push.sh</strong>" to handle rsyncing data from the development part of my machine into the live directories.
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<code language="bash">
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#!/bin/bash
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###############################
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##      Push script variables
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export NANT='/usr/bin/nant'
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export STAGE=`hostname`
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export SOURCE='site/'
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export LIVE_TARGET='/serv/www/domains/myproject.com/htdocs/'
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export BETA_TARGET='/serv/www/domains/beta.myproject.com/htdocs/'
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export TARGET=$BETA_TARGET
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###############################
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###############################
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##      Internal functions
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function output {
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        echo "===> $1"
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}
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function build { 
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        ${NANT} && ${NANT} site
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}
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###############################
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###############################
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##      Build the site first
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output "Building the site..."
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build
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if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
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        output "Looks like there was an error building! abort!"
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        exit 1
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fi
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###############################
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##      Start actual pushing
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if [ "${1}" = 'live' ]; then 
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        output " ** PUSHING THE LIVE SITE ***"
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        export TARGET=$LIVE_TARGET
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else
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        output "Pushing the beta site"
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fi
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output "Using Web.config-${STAGE}"
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output "Pushing to: ${TARGET}"
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cp config/Web.config-${STAGE} site/Web.config
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rsync --exclude *.swp --exclude .svn/ -av ${SOURCE} ${TARGET}
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</code>
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Depending on the complexity of the web application I might change the scripts up on a case-by-case basis, but for the most part I have about 5-6 projects out "in the ether" that are built and deployed with a derivative of the NAnt script and push.sh listed above. In general though, they provide a good starting point for the tedious bits of non-Visual Studio-based web development (especially if you're in an entirely Linux-based environment).
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Hope you find them helpful :)