Which version of Visual studio supports old classic ASP Project - asp-classic

Which version of Visual Studio can be used to open a project which is built as ASP Web project
I have Community edition 2019 Does this support ASP projects?
I know these days no one is using ASP for building web apps The purpose is to maintain an existing ASP solution for a couple of more months 9If any bug fix requests from the client comes ) and start to build a new project using the latest version of Microsoft technologies

Visual Studio
Most versions of Visual Studio support editing Classic ASP code, couple of things to keep in mind though.
Frontpage Server Extensions is no longer supported, the best approach is to use a mapped drive or better yet store the code in source control (Git, SVN etc.) and work with the code locally (can bind to a local instance of IIS).
The IDE can be quite cumbersome for working with Classic ASP as it's designed for more modern technologies.
It also has sophisticated debugging through the IDE via the "Attach to process" which will work with Classic ASP running in IIS as long as the web application has been configured correctly for debugging. See How do you debug classic ASP?.
Visual Studio Code
Another option is Visual Studio Code which is a free IDE built on the principle of open source projects for cross-platform. It's becoming a popular free IDE for many developers rivalling the likes of Atom, Sublime etc.
It's lightweight and extensible through extensions, there are already some useful extensions for Classic ASP including this one;
Name: Classic ASP Syntaxes and Snippets
Description: Classic ASP Language Support and Snippets from tmBundle
Publisher: Jintae Joo
It also has built-in support for popular source control solutions like Git and more powerful available through the extension marketplace that is built into the IDE. If you do use Git would recommend installing the GitLens extension.

Every version of visual studio since I started with 2010 (was there something before it?) handles Classic ASP just fine. I'm on VS2019 right now.
I even have a project which is a combo Classic ASP, Webform, and MVC all in one project, with some session sharing, and I routinely code and debug in all. The only limitation is that when you debug, you have to choose whether you're debugging Managed code or "script".
With each I "attach to process" and choose which code I want to debug. Classic ASP debugging is fantastic, and I can't believe more people don't do it. I see basic questions on here which would easily be fixed with standard debugging techniques (settings breakpoints, evaluating variables).
The ONLY thing which isn't supported is code formatting inside <% %> blocks. If I ever get some time maybe I'll make an addon for it.

Related

Is it possible to compile/customize the .net framework/asp net from source code

I recently discovered that Microsoft makes the .net frameworks source code open for the public and asp net stuff too.
Just wondering is it possible to compile/customize this and use it as a replacement for the official version?
What about compiling the .net for lets say mono/linux?
What about using the asp net source to compile it with mono?
Yes ASP.NET webstack is open sourced and it can be customized as you want. Note, ASP.NET WebForms is not opensourced only WebAPI, MVC, SignalR and WebPages is open sourced. Also IIS is closed source the last I checked it.
.NET library is but just a bunch of codes and as with any code, it can be customized as necessary.
As with Mono, I am not very fond of the distant cousin of the original .NET. It feels clunky at best at the moment and keeps changing everyday. Its best to stick with Windows for .NET for now.

Compiling ASP.NET

I'm compiling ASP.NET code for the first time ever and I'm stumped.
I downloaded MINGW-Get and just finished installing it. The client gave me the source code and I found a file called RSConfig.exe.
So I assumed that was the config file, ran it, and then tried "make" but got the error
No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop
Any idea what I'm supposed to do? I don't see anything that would resemble a makefile in the source code.
Thanks in advance!
Do yourself a favour and install Visual Studio Express:
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-editions/express
It makes development easier and fast
It sounds like you might want to get familiar with the background concepts around asp.net and it's defacto development environment Visual Studio (there are many versions of visual studio).
As Andrei recommends, using Visual Studio Express is a good free way of getting started. The version most suited for web development is Visual Web Developer Express.
Attempting to compile .net code from a toolset such as MinGW isn't a typical route for using asp.net, however I've not used MinGW before and not sure it's possible to compile .net code from it.... Although it is perfectly possible to compile .net code from the command line (using the .net framework sdk) , I certainly wouldn't recommend it if you are getting started.
I'm going to make a guess that it is an ASP.net web forms project, it being the most prolific asp.net project type at the moment.
This official asp.net site http://www.asp.net/web-forms will guide you through what web forms are and how to get the development environment setup. Having this sort of background will aid you in solving your particular situation.

If I build a web application in ASP.NET, am I married to Visual Studio?

Doesn't Visual Studio generate all kinds of things when you build asp.net websites? I haven't used it in a while but back in webforms with a the dal and a bll, VS generated xml files and other things (don't remember what). And, while I technically could use notepad to fix it, VS seemed to be the only way to make sure things worked right.
How about today with MVC or something else asp.net? Am I tied to Visual Studio forever if I want to build websites? I liked in PHP that I can open up a file and it be simple to change things and it just works.
I am not knocking Visual Studio. It is a great product, but for those in my group that do not use it, it is a learning curve. Not asking for why asp.net is better than php or vice versa, just about visual studio.
EDIT: Is Visual Studio the BEST way to build asp.net projects?
You can use MonoDevelop, Webmatrix, Visual Studio Express but i suggest SharpDevelop, its open source.
sharpDevelop (short for SharpDevelop) is a free IDE for C#, VB.NET and Boo projects on Microsoft's .NET platform. It is open-source, and you can download both sourcecode and executables from this site. In addition, you can find the latest information and changes on #develop, as well as get in touch with the team in the forum.
More Information
SharpDevelop Website
MonoDevelop
Webmatrix
Visual Studio Express
No, you can build with MSBuild from command line, just simple msbuild.exe app.sln
You can also use MonoDevelop, which will run on Windows/Mac/Linux.
You could use Microsoft WebMatrix, which is free and aims to simplify the web development process. Another alternative is MonoDevelop, which is an open source IDE for multiple platforms.

VS2008: Make a non-LINQed website LINQed

I've recently started playing around with ASP.NET and I was just about to connect to a database using LINQ, when I realised that you have to change a bunch of stuff in the project first if you created a normal web site project in Visual Studio 2008.
All the information about LINQed projects in VS2008 that I have found start directly from scratch with a completely new web site. What modifications do I have to make to my project to be able to make use of LINQ?
I think that your question can be answered by viewing this post on stackoverflow.com.
In short your application will need to have access to System.Linq which comes from the .NET 3.5 framework. If your application is currently using .NET 2.0, it is possible to hack a setup with the CTP packages for Linq prior to it being released with Visual Studio 2008, but you might find it hard when you push your application out to production to a hosting company because you will have to install .dll's into areas you generally don't have access too.
Good luck on your conversion to Linq.

Visual Web Developer Express and .NET, et al

I'm coming from the open source world, and interested in giving ASP.NET a spin. But I'm having a little trouble separating the tools from the platform itself in regards to the licensing. I've downloaded Visual Web Developer 2008 Express, but not sure how different this is from one of the full-featured Visual Studio licenses -- and whether or not my Express license will prevent me from using all the features of ASP.NET.
Is a Visual Studio license just an IDE, or does it include pieces of .NET not available to the Express license? What about the other tools like IIS and SQL Server?
Thanks.
All of .net is available in the .net SDK, so in theory you will not need Visual Studio at all.
Now, there are some things that Express will not do. For example, the Database Designer is not very comprehensive and adding different remote databases is not or only very hardly possible. Still, in code you can connect to everything.
There is also no Remote Debugger, no support for creating Setup Files (well, that does not apply to ASP.net anyway), no real Publish Web Site Feature (although that can be added manually as it's just a Frontend for a SDK tool), no integrated Unit testing (and Microsoft loves to threaten people who add it), etc.
For a full comparison, see here:
Visual Studio 2008 Editions
But as said: Functionality of .net is all in the SDK, Visual Studio is just making it a bit easier to work with.
Visual Studio is just an IDE, you can do all your .NET development with the SDK and notepad if you choose. In fact there is something to be said for learning it that way so you understand better how the pieces fit together!
Microsoft have a version comparison matrix available so you can see exactly what is included each version.
IIS is a Windows component and considered part of the OS, there is nothing else to buy.
SQL Server comes in many flavours, SQL EXpress is free to use and whilst limited compared to the versions you pay for, it is more than enough to get started with ASP.Net
Visual Studio is the IDE and does not include the platform.
IIS and SQL Server are separate products. IIS is available as part of the windows install and the version is different depending on what version of Windows you are using.
SQL Server also has an express product which is not as full featured as the Full versions of SQL Server, yet it is still rather valuable and useful especially for learning purposes.
You can learn a lot from the free tutorials found on asp.net.
Visual Studio is just the IDE. You could theoretically create every file in Notepad and compile manually with just the .net framework.
IIS is an operating system feature, and SQL Server has different flavors with different capabilites.
SharpDevelop is a Open Source IDE for C# and VB.net

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