How can I prompt for a value to use in the build?

[kinook]

One simple way to prompt for a value is to reference an undefined macro in the step, and when the step is built, Visual Build Pro will display a dialog prompting the user for the value of that macro, and that value will be assigned to the macro and used for the rest of the project (by default, a temporary macro is created, but the user can also select the type of macro to create). The only drawback to this method is that the user needs to know what an appropriate value for the macro should be.

If you want to display a custom message when prompting, you can create a Run Script action which uses the VBScript InputBox or MsgBox function to prompt for a value, and store the value in a temporary macro.

If you want to provide even greater control over the prompted values or you have several values you wish to prompt for, you can create your own custom user action (in the language of your choice), which prompts for all values and stores the inputs in temporary macros.

All of the above methods are demonstrated in the Prompt.bld sample.

Finally, for total control, you can create a custom front-end in the programming language of your choice and launch VBP after accepting the necessary inputs. Custom VB6 and C# front-ends are provided in the ObjectModel samples (<install path>\Samples\ObjectModel) and the front-end used for VBP builds is also provided (<install path>\Samples\VisBuildPro\BuildLauncher).