No valid MSBuild was detected for the selected target about cordova-windows

[janpio]

Please make sure you have the necessary workloads and products installed: https://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/dev/guide/platforms/windows/index.html#visual-studio-2017

[janpio]

What version of Visual Studio 2017 are you using?
What values did you set the env vars to?

[robertnicjoo]

@janpio

system info

Ionic:

   Ionic CLI                     : 5.0.1 (C:\laragon\bin\nodejs\node-v11\node_modules\ionic)
   Ionic Framework               : @ionic/angular 4.4.2
   @angular-devkit/build-angular : 0.13.9
   @angular-devkit/schematics    : 7.3.9
   @angular/cli                  : 7.3.9
   @ionic/angular-toolkit        : 1.5.1

Cordova:

   Cordova CLI       : 9.0.0 ([email protected])
   Cordova Platforms : windows 7.0.0
   Cordova Plugins   : cordova-plugin-ionic-keyboard 2.1.3, cordova-plugin-ionic-webview 4.0.1, (and 4 other plugins)

Utility:

   cordova-res : 0.3.0
   native-run  : 0.2.2

System:

   Android SDK Tools : 26.1.1 (C:\Users\Theo\AppData\Local\Android\sdk)
   NodeJS            : v11.10.0 (C:\laragon\bin\nodejs\node-v11\node.exe)
   npm               : 6.7.0
   OS                : Windows 10

Project package.json

"dependencies": {
   //....
    "cordova-windows": "7.0.0",
    //....
  },
"cordova": {
    "plugins": {
      "cordova-plugin-whitelist": {},
      "cordova-plugin-statusbar": {},
      "cordova-plugin-device": {},
      "cordova-plugin-splashscreen": {},
      "cordova-plugin-ionic-webview": {},
      "cordova-plugin-ionic-keyboard": {}
    },
    "platforms": [
      "windows"
    ]
  }

Environment

Hope it helps

[robertnicjoo]

@janpio i just installed the sdk

here is the result:

ENV var VSINSTALLDIR is set C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community
Building project: C:\laragon\www\ionic\WinApp\platforms\windows\CordovaApp.Windows10.jsproj
        Configuration : debug
        Platform      : anycpu
        Buildflags    : /p:AppxBundle=Never
        MSBuildTools  : C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin
buildProject spawn: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\msbuild [ 'C:\\laragon\\www\\ionic\\WinApp\\platforms\\windows\\CordovaApp.Windows10.jsproj',
  '/clp:NoSummary;NoItemAndPropertyList;Verbosity=minimal',
  '/nologo',
  '/p:Configuration=debug',
  '/p:Platform=anycpu',
  '/p:AppxBundle=Never' ] { stdio: 'inherit' }
  prebuild.js: Patching platform `10`
  - Injected `base.js` reference to `/www/index.html`
  - Removing /( *)(<script\s+(?:type="text\/javascript"\s+)?src="\/\/Microsoft.WinJS.2.0\/js\/base.js">\s*<\/script>)(\s*)/ from /www/index.html
  - Removing /( *)(<script\s+(?:type="text\/javascript"\s+)?src="\/\/Microsoft.Phone.WinJS.2.1\/js\/base.js">\s*<\/script>)(\s*)/ from /www/index.html
No valid MSBuild was detected for the selected target: AppPackages folder doesn't exist

[janpio]

That's better.

"Universal Windows Platform development" Workload also selected?

If so try cordova run windows --archs=x86.

Also try to build with --verbose to see if you get additional output.

[robertnicjoo]

@janpio

"Universal Windows Platform development" Workload also selected?

Where should i select that?

[janpio]

On the "Workloads" tab, see the screenshot on https://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/dev/guide/platforms/windows/index.html#visual-studio-2017

[robertnicjoo]

@janpio yes i start to download it sorry for that anyway here is the result of --verbose

Prepared windows project successfully
No scripts found for hook "after_prepare".
No scripts found for hook "before_compile".
getLatestMatchingMSBuild
getLatestMSBuild
ENV var MSBUILDDIR is set C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin
Running command: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\msbuild -version -nologo
Command finished with error code 0: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\msbuild -version,-nologo
Using MSBuild v15.9 from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin
Building project: C:\laragon\www\ionic\WinApp\platforms\windows\CordovaApp.Windows10.jsproj
        Configuration : debug
        Platform      : anycpu
        Buildflags    : /p:AppxBundle=Never
        MSBuildTools  : C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin
Running command: reg query HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs\Windows /s /v InstallationFolder /reg:32
Command finished with error code 0: reg query,HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SDKs\Windows,/s,/v,InstallationFolder,/reg:32
buildProject spawn: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\msbuild [ 'C:\\laragon\\www\\ionic\\WinApp\\platforms\\windows\\CordovaApp.Windows10.jsproj',
  '/clp:NoSummary;NoItemAndPropertyList;Verbosity=minimal',
  '/nologo',
  '/p:Configuration=debug',
  '/p:Platform=anycpu',
  '/p:AppxBundle=Never' ] { stdio: 'inherit' }
Running command: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\msbuild C:\laragon\www\ionic\WinApp\platforms\windows\CordovaApp.Windows10.jsproj /clp:NoSummary;NoItemAndPropertyList;Verbosity=minimal /nologo /p:Configuration=debug /p:Platform=anycpu /p:AppxBundle=Never
  prebuild.js: Patching platform `10`
  - Injected `base.js` reference to `/www/index.html`
  - Removing /( *)(<script\s+(?:type="text\/javascript"\s+)?src="\/\/Microsoft.WinJS.2.0\/js\/base.js">\s*<\/script>)(\s*)/ from /www/index.html
  - Removing /( *)(<script\s+(?:type="text\/javascript"\s+)?src="\/\/Microsoft.Phone.WinJS.2.1\/js\/base.js">\s*<\/script>)(\s*)/ from /www/index.html
Command finished with error code 0: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\msbuild C:\laragon\www\ionic\WinApp\platforms\windows\CordovaApp.Windows10.jsproj,/clp:NoSummary;NoItemAndPropertyList;Verbosity=minimal,/nologo,/p:Configuration=debug,/p:Platform=anycpu,/p:AppxBundle=Never
No valid MSBuild was detected for the selected target: AppPackages folder doesn't exist
CordovaError: No valid MSBuild was detected for the selected target: AppPackages folder doesn't exist
    at C:\laragon\www\ionic\WinApp\platforms\windows\cordova\lib\build.js:83:29
    at _rejected (C:\laragon\www\ionic\WinApp\node_modules\q\q.js:844:24)
    at C:\laragon\www\ionic\WinApp\node_modules\q\q.js:870:30
    at Promise.when (C:\laragon\www\ionic\WinApp\node_modules\q\q.js:1122:31)
    at Promise.promise.promiseDispatch (C:\laragon\www\ionic\WinApp\node_modules\q\q.js:788:41)
    at C:\laragon\www\ionic\WinApp\node_modules\q\q.js:604:44
    at runSingle (C:\laragon\www\ionic\WinApp\node_modules\q\q.js:137:13)
    at flush (C:\laragon\www\ionic\WinApp\node_modules\q\q.js:125:13)
    at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/next_tick.js:74:9)

[robertnicjoo]

@janpio

Thanks for the helps man it's working now after installing "Universal Windows Platform development"

Here I'd like to share process step by step for others in future.

1. Install VS17 (vs19 won't work)
2. Install MSBuild from VS17 Installation
3. Install SDK 10 from VS17 Installation
4. Install Universal Windows Platform development from VS17 Installation
5. Install cordova globally
6. Install cordova-windows platform
7. Last but not least restart your system otherwise you still get the errors

Hope it helps to ease the process for others with the same issue.

[janpio]

You can probably skip step 2 - the general MSBuild should not be required and probably do more harm than good.

But great it now works for you ❤️