title: Using MSBuild PropertyGroup outside of Target block
body: <p>I have a project files collection:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;ItemGroup&gt;
    &lt;ApplicationToDeploy
      Include="Frontend.WebSite.csproj;11.WebServices.csproj;22.WebServices.csproj"/&gt;
    &lt;ApplicationToDeploy
      Include="33.WebServices.csproj;44.WebServices.csproj;Workflow55Svc.csproj"/&gt;
  &lt;/ItemGroup&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm trying to get collection of .config-files of these projects:    </p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;Target Name="111"&gt;
    &lt;PropertyGroup&gt;
      &lt;Cfgs&gt;@(ApplicationToDeploy-&gt;'%(RootDir)%(Directory)*.config')&lt;/Cfgs&gt;
    &lt;/PropertyGroup&gt;
  
    &lt;ItemGroup&gt;
      &lt;InputConfigs Include="$(Cfgs)" /&gt;
    &lt;/ItemGroup&gt;
  
    &lt;Message Text="Cfgs: @(InputConfigs)"/&gt;
  &lt;/Target&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Inside the <strong>Target</strong> block all works fine (I see collection of Web.Configs, App.Configs, Log4net.Configs etc.):    </p>
  
  <pre><code>Cfgs: C:\Sources\WebServices\11\WebServices\11.WebServices\Web.config;C:\Sources\WebServices\22\WebServices\22.WebServices\web.log4net.config;C:\Sources\WebServices\33\WebServices\33.WebServices\web.environment.config
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But I want to initialize this <strong>ItemGroup</strong> outside of the <strong>Target</strong> block. Like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;PropertyGroup&gt;
    &lt;Cfgs&gt;@(ApplicationToDeploy-&gt;'%(RootDir)%(Directory)*.config')&lt;/Cfgs&gt;
  &lt;/PropertyGroup&gt;
  
  &lt;ItemGroup&gt;
    &lt;InputConfigs Include="$(Cfgs)" /&gt;
  &lt;/ItemGroup&gt;
  
  &lt;Target Name="111"&gt;
    &lt;Message Text="Cfgs: @(InputConfigs)"/&gt;
  &lt;/Target&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And when I do this outside of the Target block I get this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Cfgs: C:\Sources\WebServices\11\WebServices\11.WebServices\*.config;C:\Sources\WebServices\22\WebServices\22.WebServices\*.config;C:\Sources\WebServices\33\WebServices\33.WebServices\*.config
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I don't understand what's happens. Is it possible to get the same result outside <strong>Target</strong> block?</p>