We're preparing an app to be deployed for the Windows Store, using the desktop bridge.
Using the "Project -> Deploy" option from within the IDE will use an AppxManifest.template.xml to generate the AppxManifest.xml, replacing some variables with the current settings from the project.
[UWP] Generating manifest: .\Bin\AppxManifest.xml
Is there any way to trigger this build step without using the IDE, so one may use it for automated builds?
The Desktop Bridge itself has not provide such a tool for you to do such things. But if you check Desktop to UWP Bridge: Manual Conversion documentation, you will see a minimun manifest template file.
Then if use the Desktop App Converter (DAC) to convert your app, you will need to type some parameters. For example, “Publisher”, “Version” etc. After you input these parameters, the DAC tools will help you fill these values into manifest file. If you download the DesktopAppConverter.zip from here. You will find that actually there are many PowerShell script files, the DAC integrate these files. When you input the parameters, it will automatically help you call the specific PowerShell script to do some operations. You could see DesktopAppConverter\manifest\ folder, there should be some script files which is used to generate manifest file.
So, for your requirement, you would have to manually do these things, you could make a tool (by using any programming language) to compare your AppxManifest.template.xml with the standard manifest file and fill the specific values. You also could make a PowerShell script, if you’re familiar with PowerShell, you can do it.