AjaxMin not running on CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackage when using MSDeploy to remote server

Question

I'm trying to get my JS and CSS files to be automatically minified when publishing our Web App, but it only seems to work on a File System publish not a web deploy; using the target CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackage in a .pubxml file.

I've tried running on different targets but the same result.

<UsingTask TaskName="AjaxMin" AssemblyFile="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\lib\AjaxMinTask.dll" />
  <Target Name="CompressJsAndCss" AfterTargets="CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForPackage">
    <ItemGroup>
      <JS Include="$(_PackageTempDir)\**\*.js" Exclude="$(_PackageTempDir)\**\*.min.js" />
      <CSS Include="$(_PackageTempDir)\**\*.css" Exclude="$(_PackageTempDir)\**\*.min.css" />
    </ItemGroup>
    <Message Text="Compressing JavaScript and CSS files in $(PublishDir)..." Importance="high" />
    <AjaxMin JsKnownGlobalNames="jQuery,$" JsSourceFiles="@(JS)" JsSourceExtensionPattern="\.js$" JsTargetExtension=".js" CssSourceFiles="@(CSS)" CssSourceExtensionPattern="\.css$" CssTargetExtension=".css" />
  </Target>

I'd expect it to minify the files in the temporary package folder, but nothing happens.

Answer 1

So I've managed to solve the problem. I had to find the right target and folders to do this on:

  <UsingTask TaskName="AjaxMin" AssemblyFile="$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\lib\AjaxMinTask.dll" />
  <Target Name="CompressJsAndCss" AfterTargets="CopyAllFilesToSingleFolderForAspNetCompileMerge">
    <ItemGroup>
      <JS Include="$(IntermediateOutputPath)\AspnetCompileMerge\Source\**\*.js" Exclude="$(IntermediateOutputPath)\AspnetCompileMerge\Source\**\*.min.js" />
      <CSS Include="$(IntermediateOutputPath)\AspnetCompileMerge\Source\**\*.css" Exclude="$(IntermediateOutputPath)\AspnetCompileMerge\Source\**\*.min.css" />
    </ItemGroup>
    <Message Text="Compressing JavaScript and CSS files in $(IntermediateOutputPath)..." Importance="high" />
    <AjaxMin JsKnownGlobalNames="jQuery,$" JsSourceFiles="@(JS)" JsSourceExtensionPattern="\.js$" JsTargetExtension=".js" CssSourceFiles="@(CSS)" CssSourceExtensionPattern="\.css$" CssTargetExtension=".css" />
  </Target>

Now after the first copy, it will minify the files and use those going forward