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.NET Framework 3.5
MSBuild Reference
 ItemGroup Element (MSBuild)
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Microsoft Visual Studio 2008/.NET Framework 3.5

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.NET Framework General Reference
ItemGroup Element (MSBuild)

Updated: November 2007

Contains a set of user-defined Item elements. Every item used in a MSBuild project must be specified as a child of an ItemGroup element. 

<ItemGroup Condition="'String A' == 'String B'">
    <Item1>... </Item1>
    <Item2>... </Item2>
</ItemGroup>

The following sections describe attributes, child elements, and parent elements.

Attributes

Attribute

Description

Condition

Optional attribute. Condition to be evaluated. For more information, see MSBuild Conditions.

Child Elements

Element

Description

Item

Defines the inputs for the build process. There may be zero or more Item elements in an ItemGroup.

Parent Elements

Element

Description

Project

Required root element of an MSBuild project file.

The following code example shows the user-defined item collections Res and CodeFiles declared inside of an ItemGroup element. Each of the items in the Res item collection contains a user-defined child ItemMetadata element. 

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
    <ItemGroup>
        <Res Include = "Strings.fr.resources" >
            <Culture>fr</Culture>
        </Res>
        <Res Include = "Dialogs.fr.resources" >
            <Culture>fr</Culture>
        </Res>

        <CodeFiles Include="**\*.cs" Exclude="**\generated\*.cs" />
        <CodeFiles Include="..\..\Resources\Constants.cs" />
    </ItemGroup>
...
</Project>
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Project is not the only Parent element allowed      DaveD008   |   Edit   |  

I've discovered, somewhat by accident, that it's also possible to have an ItemGroup element work nested in a Target element. Here's an example of what I mean:

<Target Name="SetMetaData">
 <ItemGroup>
  <MyItems Condition=" '%(MyItems.MyOtherMetaData)'=='true' " >
   <MyMetaData>$(MyMetaDataValue)</MyMetaData>
  </MyItems>
 </ItemGroup>
</Target>


This makes it quite easy to add/ modify item metadata.

This fact may be well-known by experienced MSBuild users, but as a beginning-level MSBuild student, I rely heavily on these MSDN docs, and I've not seen this behavior documented anywhere in here.

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