Build error for a .Net Framework 4.8 application on Azure DevOps Pipeline

Question

I have a .Net Framework 4.8 application with multiple projects in the solution.  The main project(.csproj) - "Project A" has Platform target as 'x86' for both Debug and Release configurations, whereas other projects have 'Any CPU' as platform targets for both Debug and Release configurations.The solution builds (compiles) fine in Visual Studio, but when I am trying to create and run YAML build pipeline using the VSBuild@1 task, it's failing with errors. The errors are thrown by a test project which has 'project A' as a reference, the errors are thrown as if the "Project A" is not added as a reference. But the project A is added as reference to the test project.

By the way am new to YAML pipelines, but I believe the YAML pipeline is fine for .net app.

The errors thrown are all of type: Error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'MessageHandler' does not exist in the namespace 'xx.xx.xx.ProjectA' (are you missing an assembly reference?)   "Build-Windows" is a windows self-hosted agent that's a Windows Server 2019 OS. I have tried a lot to resolve, but no luck. What am I missing? Any help would be very much appreciated!!   My YAML pipeline looks like this:

trigger:
- none
 
variables:
  solution: '**/*.sln'
  buildPlatform: 'Any CPU'
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'
 
pool: Build-Windows
 
steps:
- task: NuGetToolInstaller@1
  displayName: ⬇ NuGet - Install
  inputs:
    versionSpec: 
    checkLatest: true
 
- task: NuGetCommand@2
  displayName:  NuGet - Restore
  inputs:
    command: 'restore'
    restoreSolution: '$(solution)'
    feedsToUse: 'config'
    nugetConfigPath: NuGet.Config
 
 
- task: VSBuild@1
  displayName:  Build 
  inputs:
    solution: '$(solution)'
    msbuildArgs: '/p:OutDir=$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'
    platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
    configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'
    clean: true
 
 
- task: VSTest@2
  inputs:
    platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
    configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'
 
- task: PublishBuildArtifacts@1
  displayName: ⬆ Publish Artifacts
  inputs:
    ArtifactName: Package
    TargetPath: $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)

I tried changing the target platforms and changed YAML build pipeline multiple times but no luck.

Answer 1

There could be any of a few problems going on. It's possible that the "clean" build machine environment leads to problems that you aren't seeing on your local box.

Check your build configuration:

And see if the x86 is being built when the project is under Any CPU config.

If it's not, then what's likely happening is that you built x86 at some point and building the Any CPU platform is using the previously built version. What you'll need to do in the pipeline is make sure you build the x86 version first, then build the Any CPU version.