How to enable transformations on build with Visual Studio

Enable-Transformations.md

#Transform web.config on build

1. Unload the project
2. Edit .csproj
3. Append figure 1 to the end of the file just before </Project>; v12.0 my change depending on your version of Visual Studio
4. Save .csproj and reload
5. Open configuration manager
6. Add a new Configuration Name: Base. Copy settings from: Release
7. Copy the contents of your web.config
8. Right click Web.Config > Add Config Transformation
9. Overwrite the web.base.config with the contents of your clipboard
10. From now on Web.Config will be overwritten using transformations.

For settings that apply to all cofigurations use Base
For settings that apply only to Release use Release
For settings that apply only to Debug use Debug

A helpful note to add to your projects [base|debug|release].config

<!-- WEB CONFIG IN THIS PROJECT SHOULD ONLY BE MODIFIED BY -->
<!-- web.base.config -->
<!-- web.debug.config -->
<!-- web.release.config -->
<!-- CHANGES MADE DIRECTLY TO THE web.config WILL BE OVERWRITTEN -->

####Figure 1 Copy and paste:

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v12.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
    <TransformXml Source="Web.Base.config" Transform="Web.$(Configuration).config" Destination="Web.config" />
</Target>     

How does one ensure the transformations do not run again at publish time? The publish step should simply take the Web.config produced by the build step as is, but it tries to re-apply the transformations defined in Web.Release.config.

The following approach takes care of this:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8841075/web-config-transform-not-working/69232853#69232853