How to programmatically compile .net core 3.1 application?

Question

Is there a way to compile a WebAPI app from console app in .NET Core 3.1?

I have tried many different approaches, such as:

1.

var collection = ProjectCollection.GlobalProjectCollection;
var project = collection.LoadProject($@"{path}\Project.csproj");
project.SetProperty("Configuration", configuration);
project.Build();

(Path to .sln)

ERROR: MSB4041: The default XML namespace of the project must be the MSBuild XML namespace.

2.

new Microsoft.Build.Execution.ProjectInstance("PathToProject.sln").Build();

(Path to .sln)

ERROR: Microsoft.Build.Exceptions.InvalidProjectFileException: 'The project file could not be loaded. Data at the root level is invalid.

(Path to .csproj)

ERROR: Microsoft.Build.Exceptions.InvalidProjectFileException: 'The SDK 'Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web' specified could not be found.
3.

ProjectCollection pc = new ProjectCollection();

Dictionary<string, string> GlobalProperty = new Dictionary<string, string>();
GlobalProperty.Add("Configuration", "Debug");
GlobalProperty.Add("Platform", "Any CPU");
GlobalProperty.Add("OutputPath", Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() + "\\MyOutput");

BuildParameters bp = new BuildParameters(pc);

BuildManager.DefaultBuildManager.BeginBuild(bp);
BuildRequestData BuildRequest = new BuildRequestData(projectFilePath, GlobalProperty, null, new string[] { "Build" }, null);

BuildSubmission BuildSubmission = BuildManager.DefaultBuildManager.PendBuildRequest(BuildRequest);
BuildSubmission.Execute();
BuildManager.DefaultBuildManager.EndBuild();
if (BuildSubmission.BuildResult.OverallResult == BuildResultCode.Failure)
{
    throw new Exception();
}

(Both path to .sln and .csproj)

ERROR: Build result is a failure without reported exception

However, none of the approaches worked. Therefore, I am wondering is it even possible to compile the .NET Core 3.1 WebAPI code?

Answer 1

The only way I could get this to work was to use the following code snippet (.NET 6):

var commandText = $"myProject.csproj";
p.StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(@"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\BuildTools\MSBuild\Current\Bin\msbuild.exe", commandText);
p.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = projectFileLocation;
p.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
p.Start();

while (!p.StandardOutput.EndOfStream)
{
    var line = p.StandardOutput.ReadLine();
    sb.Append(line);
}

p.WaitForExit();

I hope this saves somebody a lot more time.