outFolder does not allow publishing/debugging when configured

[aipungggi]

Please include the following with each issue:

1. Describe the bug
The following setting stops working from time to time and the app file is put in root again:

 "al.compilationOptions": {
        "outFolder": "\\\\aif\\Release\\Inbetriebnahme\\App"
    }

2. To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

Cant reproduce it happens suddenly.

5. Versions:

• AL Language: 12 and 13 (prerelease)
• Visual Studio Code: 1.86.2
• Business Central: 23.4

Internal work item: AB#548299

[aipungggi]

I am using latest Prerelease (14) and at the moment the behaviour is:
If I only publish, the app is saved to the path specified in 'outFolder'. When I start a debug session it says:
[2024-03-01 14:02:06.66] Error: File c:\Users\ap.root\Amagno\src\Amann Informatik AG_***_23.1.0.15.app does not exist.

Few days ago this still worked fine.

Commenting out the outFolder setting and debug session starts but .app is put in root.

[RadoArvay]

Just connecting to #7536 - it was closed as solved but it has never worked correctly.
Every type of setup has different result - always.

[thloke]

We've fixed a bug related to this recently, so I think this will be addressed in the next pre-release. It should be in version 14.0.965742 or later.

[aipungggi]

No this is not fixed. I am still getting "Error: File .....app does not exist." When outFolder is configured.
v14.0.986719 (pre-release)

[thellMa]

Hi, I do get similar issue but with another relative path.
I use workspace with multiple projects in them and want to place all app files in ..\builds\ folder, together with the .alpackage folder.

the folder structure looks like this.

App1
App2
builds
  .alpackage
  App1.app
  App2.app

Workspace file:

 {
    "folders": [
       {
           "path": "App1"
       },
       {
           "path": "App2"
       },
       {
           "path": "builds"
       }
    ],
    "settings" : {
       "al.packageChachePath": [
          "..\\builds\\.alpackages"
       ],
       "al.compilationOptions": {
          "outFolder": "..\\builds\\"
        }
    }
}

Everything compiles and I can download the symbols to this relative build path, but I cant publish the apps :-( all I get is

Error: File ..\builds\App1.app does not exists.

[aipungggi]

yes I have a similar projectstructure within a workspace

[thpeder]

Hi,

I have just tried to reproduce the issue with the same setup as thellMa wrote, and the command "Publish with debugging" worked just fine.

Can you try again with the latest preview version?
Which commands are you using?
Can you reload the workspace and reproduce it immediately after loading has completed?

[RadoArvay]

This is sort of old and the current state is that it works - mostly. But, for example, there is a weird issue I entered in #7940.

[thellMa]

Seems to work fine now with pre-release version, @thpeder @RadoArvay
I am quite happy to get rid of all the .app files in the workspace now :-)
Tested with pre-release version 15.0.1290655

release version. 14.2.1249978 does not work, get the below error message when building an app in the same workspace as another, with workspace config:

  "al.packageCachePath": [
      "..\\builds\\.alpackages"
    ],
  "al.compilationOptions": {
      "parallel": true,
      "outFolder": "..\\builds\\"
   },

[2025-02-09 20:10:55.62] Error: File e:\Repos\project\s2-toolkit\SPS-Toolkit\..\builds\Sopra Steria Sweden AB_S2-Toolkit_1.0.0.27.app does not exist.

[RadoArvay]

@thellMa strange, because we build apps with released AL version regularly and there is no error (except that mentioned one)

[thellMa]

@RadoArvay think I found my issue here.
We have combined several git repositories for one customer solution.
It is setup like this.

Customer Solution
  -  Build folder
      - .alpackages
  -  Customer App
  -  Customer Test-App
  -  Common App
      - .git
      - Common App
      - Common Test-App
  -  Common App2
      - .git
      - Common App2
      - Common Test-App2

Common App + Common App2 do have thier own GIT repos, and because of that we want to have the Test-App together, so each Customer project (solution) do contains one or several git submodules. together with the normal Customer's app.

The Solution is then combined with folders and children folders.

"folders": [
		{
			"name": "Customer App",
			"path": "Customer App"
		},
		{
			"name": "Customer Test-App"
			"path": "Customer Test-App"
		},
		{
			"name": "Common App",
			"path": "Common/Common"
		},
		{
			"name": "Common Test-App",
			"path": "Common/CommonTest"
		},
		{
			"name": "Common App2",
			"path": "Common2/Common2"
		},
		{
			"name": "Common Test-App2",
			"path": "Common2/CommonTest2"
		},

The situation will occure with the apps where we have pointed out an path to a child folder. In eg. Common App and Common App2.

I never tested this out this behavior with the pre-release version, because it "worked" with the customer App.
So this does still not work with the pre-release version of AL.
However I now know what the issue is :)

Strange thing is that the compiler is doing a correct job and placing the app files in the "correct" build folder, however the publish and debug process does not find them.

[thpeder]

I'll close this issue, and let the discussion continue on the other issue.

[thellMa]

@thpeder Why close it down?, it is still a bug and now easier to get fixed when the issue is found why.
(resolving of the path of apps during publishing from vscode )