Visual Studio 2010: how can I create a project, not its dependencies?

Question

I want to be able to create a web project, not its dependencies, because I know that I have not changed any dependencies since the last build. I want to reduce build time if possible. Is there any way to do this?

Answer 1

You may have a solution

• check the settings in Tools → Options → Projects and Solutions →
  Build and run: only create run projects and Run dependencies.
• OR If you want to go for sophistication, then:
  • build -> Configuration Manager
  • in the section "Active solution configuration:" select "" drop-down list
  • specify the name of your configuration and save the "Create new project configurations" checkbox.
  • and then select the desired configuration and check the build flags or not.

Answer 2

To achieve this in something that I'm working on, I created my own solution, added the projects I needed (including projects that I never wanted to compile), and then in Configuration Manager I turned off the checkboxes for building projects, I did not want to build, as described above.

I also made a copy of the existing solution (which had 16 components), saved it under a new name (foo.sln → foo.mine.sln), and then turned off the assembly of all the other subprojects except the ones I am working on in this way I know for sure that I got the correct build settings.

This is not the easiest solution, but it works well for me and takes less than 2 minutes to set up and is easy to understand. Usually I add a new solution to the version ignore list so that it is never checked.

Answer 3

Instead of linking to projects, you can simply add links to the DLL directly (in the "Add Link" dialog box there are tabs for these types, select "View" and not "Project" and remove other projects from your solution). I usually create a complete solution for lib and web projects for large development. Then just a solution for a patch website project where I don't need the updated libs / dll libraries.

Despite the fact that it would be nice to have their autocompilation if they changed during the intensive development. If they have not changed, they simply update them and overwrite them in the bin folder.

Answer 4

Well, one way is to remove the project links. Stick to DLLs instead. You can use post build script for dependent projects that copy the updated dll to the web project whenever they change.