We need to automate our testing workflows. Right now our setup requires us to run through a manual update on PLCnext Engineer where we load the pcwex project, and then we Project => Rebuild it.
For context, this is a pcwex project with a C# library.
Is there any way to invoke this workflow from the CLI?
Ideally, we would love to do this in a linux environment. We are also open to drive this from powershell or some other automation on Windows.
Leaving a trail of my attempts:
It turns out pcwex files are zip files. Uncompressing shows a *.proj file which is effectively an MsBuild project.
Running msbuild against my proj yields the following error:
C:\ws est\PROJECT\PROJECT.proj(15,10): error MSB4033: "Extension" is a reserved item metadata, and cannot be redefi
ned as a custom metadata on the item.
I suspect this is because I am using either a different version of MSBuild (Using VS2019 toolchain in Windows for now) than what this project expects, or I need to setup the environment to replicate what PLCnext Engineer does natively.
There is a (paid) add-in for PLCnext Engineer, called the „Application Control Interface“, which you can order from your local Phoenix Contact sales office:
image.pngThis allows you to automate actions in PLCnext Engineer, but only on a machine where PLCnext Engineer is installed.
There is currently no public documentation for this add-in, but your local Phoenix Contact sales office should be able to give you some information.