Does VS2010 run activities in WF project during compile?

I've just encountered a compile error I've not seen before. In a solution that contains Windows Workflow Foundation 3 projects, Visual Studio reports that it failed to compile the projects because it couldn't find an application-specific configuration file. The configuration file is NOT added to any of the projects. It is looked for only at runtime by the workflows. Other solutions using the same runtime config file compile without error. If I put the config file in the expected location then the workflow solution compiles without error.

The behavior suggests that when VS2010 is compiling WF3 projects that it is actually running the activities contained in the project at some point during the compile. Does VS actually run activities in WF projects during compile? Does it create activities? If it doesn't, why would the compil开发者_开发问答e error be thrown for a file that isn't part of the project?

Actually I believe it suggests you have a compile time dependency on the config file in question on this one solution that you do not have in the others you mentioned.

Check if the error provides any details as to WHERE it has this compile time dependency and remove it if it is not needed. If there is nothing informing you or hinting where this may be, start digging into the various project properties in question and see if you have a build dependency on the config file.