Creating a server-level Web Deploy package - asp.net

Question

I can use Web Deploy to create packages that can be imported in existing IIS sites after the IIS server administrator manually creates the site for me.
Can I use Web Deploy to create packages that can be imported as a site instead of an application?
When I try to import my existing packages, I get this ugly error.

Answer 1

This might not be an answer to the question as was not able to find information on how to create a site package.
But as you asked for it in the comments, here's my approach on how to use the .cmd file created by the package process to install on site level.
Step 1
I create a package in our build process with msbuild. I've just added an extra step to our normal build that creates the project files in a deploy directory.
<Target Name="CreateDeploymentPackage">
<MSBuild Projects="$(CurrentProject).csproj" Targets="Package"
properties="Platform=$(Platform);
Configuration=$(Configuration);
DeployOnBuild=false;
DeployTarget=Package;
PublishProfile=$(Environment);
PackageLocation=$(DeployDirectory)\_PublishedWebsites\DeployPackage\$(CurrentProject).zip;
PackageAsSingleFile=true;
_PackageTempDir=$(PackageOutputDir)\temp;">
</MSBuild>
</Target>
I did set a specific PublishProfile to be able to pass a Web.config transformation for everything I know at build time.
Step 2
I've created a Parameters.xml in my project to be able to change params on install time of the package.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<parameters>
<parameter name="Log4net to email"
description="Please provide the email address for Log4net."
defaultValue="itsupport#ourcompany.com"
tags="">
<parameterEntry kind="XmlFile" scope="\\web.config$" match="//log4net/appender[#name='SmtpAppender']/to/#value" />
</parameter>
<parameter name="Webservice address"
description="Please provide the endpoint address for the document web service"
defaultValue="http://test.services.ourcompany.com/Service.svc"
tags="">
<parameterEntry kind="XmlFile" scope="\\web.config$" match="//system.serviceModel/client/endpoint/#address" />
</parameter>
<parameter name="Elmah error email subject"
description="Please provide the elmah errormail subject"
defaultValue="Our Portal (Production) | An unexpected error occurred"
tags="">
<parameterEntry kind="XmlFile" scope="\\web.config$" match="//elmah/errorMail/#subject" />
</parameter>
</parameters>
You might think why there is no sitename and connection string in the Parameters.xml. But these are created automatically configurable when the deploy package is created and can be set with the SetParameters.xml
Read here: Why are some Web.config transforms tokenised into SetParameters.xml and others are not?
Step 3
Then I created a SetParameters-.xml for every environmen we have (prod, staging, test, dev). Here's one example for staging:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<parameters>
<setParameter name="IIS Web Application Name" value="staging-sitename.ourcompany.com" />
<setParameter name="Log4net to email" value="webdev#ourcompany.com" />
<setParameter name="Webservice address" value="http://staging.services.ourcompany.com/Service.svc" />
<setParameter name="Elmah error email subject" value="Our Portal (Staging) | An unexpected error occurred" />
<setParameter name="PortalEntities-Web.config Connection String" value="metadata=res://*/Src.Entity.PortalEntities.csdl|res://*/Src.Entity.PortalEntities.ssdl|res://*/Src.Entity.PortalEntities.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider connection string="Data Source=test.sql.ourcompany.com;Initial Catalog=Portal_Staging;User Id=<userid>;Password=<password>;Application Name ='OurPortal';Connection Timeout=180;MultipleActiveResultSets=True"" />
</parameters>
Step 4
Then I excecute the install on the server with the following command
Portal.Web.deploy.cmd /Y -setParamFile:"Portal.Web.SetParameters-STAGING.xml"
There's still a lot of room for improvement, and I would like to automate more but this is what I have right now.

Answer 2

Basically instead of installing at the root of the site, deploy to a folder within the site!