It would be very useful for me if I could declare a Task using the Class syntax and let the parameters be automatically discovered just as if my Task was declared in an assembly. I think that if I wrote my Task as an assembly, MSBuild would use reflection over the properties of my class to discover which properties are supported. This means that if I am overriding an existing Task to intercept/extend it, I would automatically inherit the properties it uses and can augment them with additional properties.
However, for CodeTaskFactory and RoslynCodeTaskFactory, currently the parameters must be explicitly provided via <ParameterGroup/>. This makes sense and is even required for Type="Fragment" and Type="Method". However, this is quite limiting for my use case of Type="Class".
My idea for the design of this would be to add a new parameter to the <Code/> element to enable this capability. Another option is to simply automatically do parameter discovery when <ParameterGroup/> is absent and Type="Class". Two hypothetical examples of these options:
Explicit AutomaticParameters="True":
<UsingTask
TaskName="Csc"
TaskFactory="CodeTaskFactory"
AssemblyFile="$(RoslynCodeTaskFactory)"
Condition=" '$(RoslynCodeTaskFactory)' != '' ">
<Task>
<Reference Include="$(RoslynTargetsPath)\Microsoft.Build.Tasks.CodeAnalysis.dll" />
<Code Type="Class" Language="cs" AutomaticParameters="True">
<![CDATA[
public class Csc : Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.BuildTasks.Csc
{
public override bool Execute()
{
// Do something interceptive here…
return base.Execute();
}
}
]]>
</Code>
</Task>
</UsingTask>Implicit omission of <ParameterGroup/>:
<UsingTask
TaskName="Csc"
TaskFactory="CodeTaskFactory"
AssemblyFile="$(RoslynCodeTaskFactory)"
Condition=" '$(RoslynCodeTaskFactory)' != '' ">
<Task>
<Reference Include="$(RoslynTargetsPath)\Microsoft.Build.Tasks.CodeAnalysis.dll" />
<Code Type="Class" Language="cs">
<![CDATA[
public class Csc : Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.BuildTasks.Csc
{
public override bool Execute()
{
// Do something interceptive here…
return base.Execute();
}
}
]]>
</Code>
</Task>
</UsingTask>I’m planning to try to implement this. Please let me know if you have any suggestions and if this functionality would be accepted into RoslynCodeTaskFactory.
It would be very useful for me if I could declare a
Taskusing theClasssyntax and let the parameters be automatically discovered just as if myTaskwas declared in an assembly. I think that if I wrote myTaskas an assembly, MSBuild would use reflection over the properties of my class to discover which properties are supported. This means that if I am overriding an existingTaskto intercept/extend it, I would automatically inherit the properties it uses and can augment them with additional properties.However, for
CodeTaskFactoryandRoslynCodeTaskFactory, currently the parameters must be explicitly provided via<ParameterGroup/>. This makes sense and is even required forType="Fragment"andType="Method". However, this is quite limiting for my use case ofType="Class".My idea for the design of this would be to add a new parameter to the
<Code/>element to enable this capability. Another option is to simply automatically do parameter discovery when<ParameterGroup/>is absent andType="Class". Two hypothetical examples of these options:Explicit
AutomaticParameters="True":Implicit omission of
<ParameterGroup/>:I’m planning to try to implement this. Please let me know if you have any suggestions and if this functionality would be accepted into RoslynCodeTaskFactory.