Produced artifact has too many layers of folders - azure

Question

I have the following pipeline that builds a ASP.NET Core 5 Web project, but the artifact produced has the following structure
ProjectName.zip
Content
D_C
a
1
s
ProjectName
obj
release
package
PackageTmp
(Finally The actual content) as it should be
archive.xml
parameters.xml
systeminfo.xml
I simply want my zip to be the content of packagetmp without any parent folders
trigger:
- master
pool:
vmImage: 'windows-latest'
variables:
solution: '**/*.sln'
buildPlatform: 'Any CPU'
buildConfiguration: 'Release'
steps:
- task: NuGetToolInstaller#1
- task: NuGetCommand#2
inputs:
command: 'restore'
restoreSolution: '**/*.sln'
feedsToUse: 'select'
vstsFeed: ''myfeed'
- task: VSBuild#1
inputs:
solution: '$(solution)'
msbuildArgs: '/p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=Package /p:PackageAsSingleFile=true /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true /p:PackageLocation="$(build.artifactStagingDirectory)"'
platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'
- task: VSTest#2
inputs:
platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'
- task: PublishBuildArtifacts#1
displayName: "Upload Artifacts"
inputs:
PathtoPublish: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)'

Answer 1

You can change the msbuildArgs as below to generate the artifacts as files instead of a zip file. And then you can use Archive files task to zip the artifacts. See below:
- task: VSBuild#1
inputs:
solution: '$(solution)'
msbuildArgs: '/p:DeployOnBuild=true /p:WebPublishMethod=FileSystem /p:publishUrl="$(build.artifactstagingdirectory)" /p:PackageAsSingleFile=false /p:SkipInvalidConfigurations=true'
platform: '$(buildPlatform)'
configuration: '$(buildConfiguration)'
The msbuildArgs in above example will output the artifacts to folder $(build.artifactstagingdirectory) unzipped.
Then after VSBuild Task. You can add Archive files task to zip the artifacts:
- task: ArchiveFiles#2
displayName: 'Archive task'
inputs:
rootFolderOrFile: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/'
includeRootFolder: false
archiveFile: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/Temp/ProjectName.zip'
Above example will zip the artifacts in $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory), and save the zip file in $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/Temp/ProjectName.zip
Then in the PublishBuildArtifacts task. Set the PathtoPublish to folder $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/Temp
- task: PublishBuildArtifacts#1
displayName: "Upload Artifacts"
inputs:
PathtoPublish: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/Temp'
You should get a zip file with the content of packagetmp only.