Tool or Standard Procedure to add a different type of Visual Studio Project to an existing one? - asp.net

I have an existing website coded in ASP.Net 4.0 Webforms, and would like to add an "ASP.Net Dynamic Data Entities Web Application" (project templates of VS2010 to my actual project):
So my question is, what are the steps to "merge" the 2 projects or integrate the "ASP.Net Dynamic Data Entities Web Application" to my actual webforms.
I think I must merge my Global.asax.cs files and web.config file + move rest of the files. Is that correct ?
I already read that post (that may be outdated?):
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/IntegratingASPNETMVC3IntoExistingUpgradedASPNET4WebFormsApplications.aspx
Thanks for your answers :)
(the original title of this post was: “ASP.Net Dynamic Data Entities Web Application” integration with an existing Webforms)

I've read Scott Hanselman's article which you've provided in your question and yes the same technique still applies today, here are a few steps/considerations which should help you along the way:
When you create the new ASP.NET Dynamic Data Entities Web Application make sure that it's the same .NET Framework version as your Web Forms project, to avoid version conflicts.
Remember to add a reference to all the required libraries that you've been using in the Web Forms project.
Now it's safe to copy all the necessary .aspx pages to the new site.
There is some automatically generated code inside the Global.asax of a Dynamic Data project which is used to configure ASP.NET routing, it may be useful later so instead of replacing it with your Global.asax use a tool like WinMerge to merge the two files.

Related

can I add the Web API folders to an existing project?

Microsoft has a great tutorial here for learning how to build Web API web apps in Visual Studio 2013:
http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/getting-started-with-aspnet-web-api/tutorial-your-first-web-api
in it, he shows you how to include the Web API folders and references:
...is there a way to add these to a previous ASP.NET Webforms project that didnt have that checkbox selected? I'm working on an existing app and want to add Web API functionality to it.
thanks
yes -- there is a tutorial for adding Web API to an existing ASP.NET Webforms project here:
http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/creating-web-apis/using-web-api-with-aspnet-web-forms
...it doesn't create the Models, Controllers, or App_Start folders, but i added them manually and placed my files from another stand-alone project there. once adjusting the namespaces it all operates properly.

Convert a webforms project to a hybrid MVC4 project

At the moment, we have an old style ASP.NET project that has around 800 .aspx pages.
We are looking at migrating this from ASP.NET webforms to MVC4 + Razor over time, but do not want to have to scrap the entire project and start again.
Is it possible to convert the project file to an MVC project and add the required files/folders for the project to run as an MVC project, but at the same time, preserving the original file/folder structure allowing the existing/legacy pages to still be accessed in the same way as they are now accessed.
You may want to check below links:
http://rachelappel.com/integrating-aspnet-web-forms-and-aspnetmvc
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/integratingaspnetmvc3intoexistingupgradedaspnet4webformsapplications.aspx
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PlugInHybridsASPNETWebFormsAndASPMVCAndASPNETDynamicDataSideBySide.aspx
Is it possible to convert the project file to an MVC project and add
the required files/folders for the project to run as an MVC project
Based on my experience with a Web Application project on VS2012 featuring several hundred .aspx, it is definitely possible to have webforms and mvc 4 with razor running in the same application.
We did not modify the project file (more on that later). We started from a bare MVC4 application and copied the needed features in our webforms application. This included :
packages and references
directives in the web.config (as far as I remember : extensionless handlers, system.web.webPages.razor element, and some assembly bindings )
most of the global.asax mechanisms ( namely routing for a bare application)
directory structure (models, views and controllers)
This was a tedious work, but it also helped us understand what makes an MVC project work. We still miss some IDE features like not having MVC components (views, controllers) offered when right-click -> Add... I guess this would require a csproj editing. We did not go that far.
To prevent conflicting urls, MVC is used through several dedicated areas which would, in the end, replace the corresponding webforms folders.

Named Pipes references not working with ASP.NET MVC 4

I'm working on a API and using ASP.NET Web API in order to expose it. I tried to add a service reference to a Named Piped service that is responsible for authentication and authorization, but I couldn't reference it on my code.
That Named Pipe service is working properly and is used on a wide variety of projects. That is the first time we try to use it with ASP.NET MVC 4. It's working very well on another project that uses ASP.NET MVC 3.
Like you could see on the following image, I'm able to add the service reference. But It didn't appear on Object Browser or auto-complete!
When I try to invoke that service, it just does not show up anywhere.
It appears to be a problem with ASP.NET MVC 4 projects and Named Pipes service references.
I really don't know if that is a well know / documented behavior, but I wasn't able to find anything useful related to that question on the internet.
I could add a reference to that service using Visual Studio 2012 on any kind of project, except ASP.NET MVC 4 ones. The problem is specifically related to ASP.NET MVC 4 projects.
I tried to add the reference using Visual Studio 2010 and I had the same problem: working pretty well with ASP.NET MVC 3 and any other kind of project. Again, the problem is specifically related to ASP.NET MVC 4 projects.
Is anyone having the same problem? How could I go through it?
Since it appears to be a Visual Studio / ASP.NET MVC bug I just found an workaround.
I just figure out that I could use svcutil command line tool in order to generate the code for service client and data structures. Here are the syntax for the command:
> svcutil net.pipe://my_sevice/mex /namespace:"*, MyNamespace"
It generated the following files:
SecurityService.cs
output.config
Then I just imported the generated SecurityService.cs file into my current project and did a merge of the binding configurations available on the generated output.config with my own web.config.

Visual Studio 2010: convert website project to web application project?

I have an existing solution in VS2010. When I click the properties of my project I get the view as can be seen in image1.png:
When I create a new empty ASP.NET web application and click the properties of my project I get the view as can be seen in image2.png:
A huge difference.
Now I'm implementing this code here: http://wcf.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Getting%20started:%20Building%20a%20simple%20web%20api
And that tutorial assumes I get a view as I've shown you in image2.png
In image1 and image2 I've also marked the menu items: "Website" and "Project"
This makes me assume that I've created a website application whereas I need something different (I'm thinking a web application project).
Not sure what to do now, I need to convert my current application to another thing, but to which type and how to do it?
I also came accoss this post: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webdevtools/archive/2009/10/29/converting-a-web-site-project-to-a-web-application-project.aspx
But before I start screwing up everything :P Is that what would solve my problem?
It should be possible to use either a web site or a web application project. In the example on the link you've posted, they use the predefined template for ASP.Net MVC Web Applications. This has several advantages - it sets up the structure and other resources for you - it's effectively a template.
For the purposes of the tutorial, why don't you just set up an application that way? If you've already written some code, you can just import it into the new application.
For future projects, you might want to consider which is best for your needs. Apart from structure, there are some other key differences between a web application and a web site project.
MSDN handily provides the differences here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd547590.aspx
If you find you want the features of the web application, then the link you've posted is fine. You'll need to do some re-organizing of your references and so on and so forth, but the process is fairly straightforward (but not painless).
A "web site" in visual studio is the old, .net 1 style of creating web sites. It basically dynamically compiles the code in a folder when it's hit for the first time. Later .NET introduced a "web application" model where the code is compiled into a DLL and no code files are deployed with the site. "Web sites" are pretty much depcrated and shouldn't be used for any new projects unless you're doing a quick demo site.
The codeplex project you referenced also depends on MVC 3 (which are web applications).
You are probably better off just restarting like the tutorial says - create a new MVC application like it shows in its first screenshot.
If you do not have that option, use Web Platform Installer to add MVC for you - http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx
Good luck!
I can't tell exactly what's going on from your screenshots, but if you have a web site that you need to convert to a web application project, you can find the directions here
Although the instructions are specific to VS2005, they are basically the same for 2010 as well.

Hybrid WebForms/ASP.NET MVC [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 11 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
ASP.NET MVC alongside Web Forms in the same web app?
I am kinda new to .NET applications, I have a web forms application that I am working on and I am about to start the development of new pages, I am trying to make the new pages with the ASP.NET MVC, but I am not beeing able to make the pages hit the controllers. First i added the library references added the routes on the global.asax but not sure what else is missing, can someone help me out?
thx.
Reading between the lines I gather you are trying to add MVC pages to your existing ASP.NET Webforms Webapplication?
If that is the case then you probably need some MVC specific config. settings. Easiest way is to create a new MVC web app and then merge the config settings.
Furthermore if you are doing a hybrid project I'd recommend giving Scott Hanselmann's post on the topic a read.
There's a more step-by-step description of adding MVC to a WebForms Application at these links:
Integrating ASP.Net MVC Into An Existing ASP.Net Web Application
Mixing ASP.NET Webforms and ASP.NET MVC
You might also want to add the ProjectTypeGuid to the project file with a text editor ({603c0e0b-db56-11dc-be95-000d561079b0} is used to designate to Visual Studio to use the MVC extensions.)
<ProjectTypeGuids>{603c0e0b-db56-11dc-be95-000d561079b0};{349c5851-65df-11da-9384-00065b846f21};{fae04ec0-301f-11d3-bf4b-00c04f79efbc}</ProjectTypeGuids>
The links above also don't fully cover the system.webserver area of web.config that needs to be configured.
Scott Hanselman released a "totally unsupported" Nuget package that adds MVC 3 features to an existing Web Forms project. It also works on my PC (ha ha) and I've used it on several projects.
http://nuget.org/List/Packages/AddMvc3ToWebForms
He blogged about it here:
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/CreatingANuGetPackageIn7EasyStepsPlusUsingNuGetToIntegrateASPNETMVC3IntoExistingWebFormsApplications.aspx
One newb tip: this package will configure your MVC routes in /App_Start/RegisterMvc3Routes.cs
I've spent a lot of time over the past few months on this. Here are my observations.
The good/easy
- Getting Webforms to call into MVC controllers
- It was remarkably easy to stand up a new MVC3 project and drop Webforms pages into it.
- I was able to move my <pages><controls></controls></pages> section into the /pages directory in a new web.config there
The dirty/difficult
Regarding the GUID
Please note that the GUID has to be added at the front of the line for some reason... everytime I tried it failed. Until I stumbled on a post that insisted it be the before the others.
also I don't know what the difference is but I have a different GUID working... {E53F8FEA-EAE0-44A6-8774-FFD645390401}
getting the landing page to be Webforms caused ALL kinds of snags.
getting jQuery intellisense to play nicely with T4MVC
this is what I did to address that
#if (System.Diagnostics.Debugger.IsAttached)
{
<script src="../../Scripts/Mvc3/jquery-1.7-vsdoc.js" type="text/javascript"></script> #* intellisense! *#
#Html.RelativeJavascript(Links.Scripts.Mvc3.jquery_1_7_js)
#Html.RelativeJavascript(Links.Scripts.Mvc3.jquery_unobtrusive_ajax_js)
}
else
{
#Html.RelativeJavascript(Links.Scripts.Mvc3.jquery_1_7_min_js)
#Html.RelativeJavascript(Links.Scripts.Mvc3.jquery_unobtrusive_ajax_min_js)
}
Recommendations:
Use T4MVC in ALL cases even if you are pure webforms. The elimination of magic strings for static content (.js,.css, images, specifying templates) is outstanding.
and if you have any part of your build process compiling views then you get compile-time safety on any of those links.

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