Include a folder for deploy in Visual Studio

Suppose you have a build folder for all of your js files. That folder is not part of the solution because its generated via some task runner (grunt/gulp) but you want to publish it.

Go to you YourProject.csproj and edit the file.

Inside the first PropertyGroup node add this tag at the end:

(dont add this)<PropertyGroup>
--content ommited--

<CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn>
JSCustomCollectFiles; $(CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn); </CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackageDependsOn>

(dont add this)</PropertyGroup>

Next search for <Target Name="MvcBuildViews" and add this Target node after the MvcBuildViews node.

(dont add this)<Target Name="MvcBuildViews" AfterTargets="AfterBuild" Condition="'$(MvcBuildViews)'=='true'">
<AspNetCompiler VirtualPath="temp" PhysicalPath="$(WebProjectOutputDir)" />

</Target>

<Target Name="JSCustomCollectFiles">
 <ItemGroup>
 <_CustomFilesJS Include=".\scripts\build\**\*" />
 <FilesForPackagingFromProject Include="% (_CustomFilesJS.Identity)">
 <DestinationRelativePath>scripts\build\% (RecursiveDir)%(Filename)%(Extension) </DestinationRelativePath>
 </FilesForPackagingFromProject>
 </ItemGroup>
 </Target>

You could do the same for a CSS build folder by creating a CSSCustomCollectFiles following the steps above.

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