This tab of the Make VB6 action specifies information about the project or group being built.

 

Filename: The Visual Basic project or project group file to build.  It supports VBP, VBG, EBP, and EBG files and processes all projects in group files.  Visual Basic sometimes has problems with large group (VBG) files, but there are no limitations on VBG size when building with this action, since the VB compiler is invoked for each individual VBP in the group.

 

When building Visual Basic project group (VBG) files, this action parses the group file for individual projects and processes each one.  It builds a list of the VBP files in the group, their target (DLL/EXE) filenames, and each project's references to other projects in the group (it recognizes references to VBPs and executables). It then iterates over the list of projects, processing projects in the correct order according to their references.  If a project is set to project compatibility or no compatibility and other projects in the group reference that project, Visual Build detects the type lib GUID/version (reference) change and updates all references to the project from other projects in the group.  This prevents broken references, compile errors, and upgrade reminders on OCX references that can interfere with automated builds.  For individual VBP files, the action analyzes the project, and if the target executable doesn't exist or is older than any source files in the project, it invokes the VB compiler to build the project.

 

Note: The Make VB6 Action requires that all VBP filenames within a single VBG be unique.  If multiple projects in the group have the same filename, rename the VBP files so that they are unique, and update the VBG with the changes as well.  The project names stored in the VBP files do not need to be changed (but be aware that it is dangerous to have multiple VB COM projects with the same project name since this can result in ProgID clashes when registered).

 

Don't build: Does not build any projects, but updates other setting such as versions and project properties.

 

Force a build of all projects: If unchecked, only projects whose executable is older than one of the project source files are built.  The action analyzes all the project dependencies, and only builds a project if the target executable is older than any of the files in the project or its references.  Unchecking this option will speed up your builds by preventing unnecessary recompilation and linking.  If checked, all projects are rebuilt, regardless of the target date.

 

Exclude references: Exclude references from consideration when performing incremental builds. Normally, the timestamp of all project references are also compared to a project's executable to determine if a project needs to be built. Using this flag will cause references to be excluded from consideration.

 

Exclude project file: Excludes the project file from consideration when performing incremental builds. If unchecked, the timestamp of the project file is compared to a project's executable to determine if a project needs to be built. Checking this flag will cause the project file to be excluded from consideration.

 

Show reason for incremental build: If checked and a project needs to be built, the reason for building it will be logged (either the target did not exist or the filename of the file that was newer than the target).

 

Create symbolic debug info: Toggle inclusion of symbolic debug info when building.

 

Clear the target executable: Clear target executable's read-only attribute before building.

 

Continue building non-dependent projects on build failure: Continue building any non-dependent projects if a project in a workspace or group fails to build.

 

Log a list of failed projects: If checked, if any projects fail to build, the project filenames will be logged at the end of the step's build output.

 

Restore read-only attribute of any files modified by action: If checked, any project files modified for the build (to set/increment versions, properties, etc.) which are marked read-only before modification will be set back to read-only after being modified.

 

Treat circular references within project group as an error: If checked and a circular reference is detected while building a project group, the step will fail without attempting to build the project with the circular reference.

 

Log references found within project group: If checked, when building a project group, each project's references to other projects in the group will be logged.