ASP.NET's ClickOnce: what's the suffix-less .application file? - asp.net

I suffer from InvalidDeploymentException which apparently occur when there is something wrong with my manifest files. I look into the folder where my application is published but there are always more than one manifest file (.application) in it.
One is with the version suffix, and the other is without the suffix. As far as I see, the contents of both files seem to be identical, so why the one without the version suffix is ever automatically generated? I can't find info on the mechanism behind this.

Ok, I finally figured it out.
YourApp.application is a deployment manifest and YourApp_#_#_#_#.application is a backup file of each version's deployment manifest. When some troubles happen, we can manually replace YourApp.application by YourApp_#_#_#_#.application, and web browsers always look at the former file.

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Why does ASP.Net bundling include multiple versions of matching files? Can I stop this?

When I bundle a script like so:
bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/bundles/Product/Details").Include(
"~/Scripts/external/XXXXConfig-{version}.js",
"~/Scripts/external/Views/Product/ProductFavorite-{version}.js"));
My expectation is that if there were two files in that directory:
XXXXConfig-1.0.0.js
XXXXConfig-1.0.1.js
That it would only include the latest version, i.e., XXXXConfig-1.0.1.js. Instead it is bundling BOTH together, which causes the system to fail spectacularly.
My expectation comes from here, and other sources. Is this expectation wrong? In any case, is there some way to make it so that it ONLY includes the latest version?
Yes, your expectation is incorrect. The {version} wildcard is used as a placeholder for any version, not the latest. It allows it to update your NuGet package without having to change your bundling code every time.
The only smart thing that the {version} wildcard does is that it select the file with min (if it exists) for release and with no min for debug. Other than that, it's just a wildcard like any other.
I'm not aware of any built-in feature that selects the latest release for you. You'll have to program it by yourself if you want that. You can search to see if someone has already done such a thing. But I wonder why you want more than one version to exist in your folder.
Edit: To elaborate on the min feature as your requested, I think the MSDN that you linked to described well, but here is an example:
Let say your folder has two files SEMSConfig-1.0.0.js and SEMSConfig-1.0.0.min.js. When you run your project in debug mode, the file SEMSConfig-1.0.0.js will be used. When you run your project in release mode (or publish it), the file SEMSConfig-1.0.0.min.js will be used.

automatically compile less file on save of a imported less file

I have split my less/css into several files grouped by certain categories, so the single files stay easy to maintain. Though I only want to have one css file which gets imported into the layout.
For this I have - how I call it - a master less file which imports all the others like config, forms, layout and so on.
Now the problem is, that for example WinLess or all the other copilers i tried, only monitor the save of my master file, and only then compiles it. However this is stupid, because this file nearly never gets any changes. So what I would like to have is something, that detects changes on the imported less files and then only compiles the master file.
Does anyone know any tools, which are capable of that?
Or how do you manage your less files to bypass this problem?
Further Info: I have mapped the server directory locally via SSH and edit the files in there, i.e. the files are only pseudo local. They are on the server but accessible with a local path over a drive letter. The compiler should be able to work with that setup.
Thanks for the answers!
In all honesty, your best bet is to actually use Less's own compiler which will of course be the most up to date option. It will be done through command line but it's the best way to know that everything is correct, working and up-to-date.
All the information can be found in the Less Documentation Here
More information about compiling with imports can be found HERE
The latest version of WinLESS does report that it has automatic re-compiling when an #import file is changed so it could be that your version of WinLESS is out of date. (See HERE - 3rd bullet point under Features)
Alternatively, see if you can get it to work on purely local files. If this works, it may be an issue with the compiler not being able to do asynchronous checks over SSH.
I use Notepad++ with the NppExec-plugin on-save script. If you make a convention decision to always name your primary file "master.less" you can use this script:
NPP_CONSOLE 0
NPP_SAVE
if $(EXT_PART) != .less goto end
"C:\Node.JS\node_modules\.bin\lessc.cmd" -x "$(CURRENT_DIRECTORY)\master.less" > "$(CURRENT_DIRECTORY)\master.min.css"
:end
You can do something similar with any editor that supports batch scripting (like Stewartside suggests)

Creating project from existing IIS/ASP.NET website, building stuff

So I'm left maintaining a proprietary codebase from a third-party vendor. The vendor is still sort of around, but support is limp. The site is ASP.NET.
I have made some changes but I am having a really hard time getting IIS to compile these changes in. The bin/ directory has what I believe is a precompiled dll for the core classes. I've changed these but it doesn't recompile. I have tried deleting the dll but then the app refuses to build saying that the Global.asax can't inherit the type anymore, so I don't really know how to rebuild with changes.
I spent all day Saturday setting up a build environment and trying to get a testing thing working. I have just been importing into VS2008 as a web site from the local IIS server. I got it to rebuild the app without changes, but it ignores changes I would place in it.
So I need to make a solution out of this website and/or directory structure so that I can do actual, big, full grown-up rebuilds and make changes to this codebase. Anyone know how I can go about this?
EDIT: A bit more elaboration. I've tried creating a blank project and just Add Existing File... on the whole website directory. This hasn't worked, it stops the import about 10% in.
Keep in mind there are two (actually, three) levels of 'builds' or compiles going on here.
1) The DLLs in the /bin directory should be pre-built, by visual studio or otherwise. The content of .ASPX, ASCX, ASHX, ASAX etc fiels are not included in those.
2) The ASPX, etc files I noted above are then compiled by IIS when the first request comes in (normally; there are ways to change that behavior). That is the source of the error with Global.asax you are seeing; With the DLL(s) gone, the class that Global.asax is supposed to inherit from does not exist.
3) Then there is the just-in-time compilation, which is not relevant for this discussion.
It sounds like you may be missing the source files for the project, or perhaps the web site is not getting properly set up as a project to compile that DLL
Try these links, I suppose this is what you are looking for.
http://www.dotnetmafia.com/blogs/dotnettipoftheday/archive/2010/01/20/linking-files-in-visual-studio.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306234
Not sure this question is really valid anymore. The source we were working with was rather different than it should have been. Not sure if someone got angry in the past and moved stuff around or what, but grabbing a new copy of the source fixed most of our issues. I am able to build now with an included csproj.
This doesn't really help many others with the same issue I suppose, but if you are getting weird build behavior like this, you might want to start with basics, like making sure that your source checkout is valid.
I am new in asp.net so I am not sure it is a professional way or not.
I have the project without .snl file. I just create a empty web site and then paste the files inside the folder where I created the project.
It worked for me.
I think pasting the files and folder directly by file manager will help you.

Which files should go into source control in a Flex Builder project?

I noticed that Eclipse (Flex Builder) generates hundreds of metadata files. Should I check them into my source control? They seem necessary, because if I delete them Flex Builder just opens up an empty workbench...
Some of these files plainly do not belong in source control (like .history files and some cache files). If I delete them my project opens up again without a hitch. But the list is long and there seem to be no clear separation between folders that contain files that belong in source control and those that do not.
I can't just shove them all into svn, even if I were to ignore the inefficiency, because Eclipse generates new ones constantly, with different names, which in turn also seem to be crucial for the project to load.
Can someone please enlighten me?
Don't check in the hundreds of metadata files. If you want to be able to check out the project in a way that it can just be imported, then check in:
.actionScriptProperties
.project
.flexProperties
And "html-template" and "libs". As Christian says, any resources you depend on. I usually keep those as separate Flex Library projects though.
I generally put all of my source code under src, and I check in src and all of its descendents. If my project relies on any external dependencies (e.g., the Cairngorm SWC, as3corelib, etc.), Flash/graphical assets, stylesheets, or resource files, I check those in, too. But I don't check in any generated (bin-*), intermediate or IDE-specific stuff, because having that stuff in source control doesn't seem to provide much practical benefit, and in my experience has only caused me headaches; in general, I check in the most minimal set of whatever I'd need -- given a clean FlexBuilder installation (or none at all -- for example, if I were compiling instead with mxmlc or compc) and an empty project -- to build the project successfully.
Most of the eclipse project files, like .project, .properties, everything in .settings, can go into your source control. As long as the files don't have user-dependent settings like file paths or local urls, you should be fine.
One method we use is creating local property files that don't get used in SCM, but are included in the ones that do. I.E an ant build file including a local.properties file which has local metadata.
What if the .actionScriptProperties, .project, or .flexProperties have user-dependent stuff in them? Typically this will be url or path information. What's the best practice way of externalizing this? I tried creating path variables, but this only works obviously for paths. Not for things like hostname, etc.

Liferay: how to avoid rebuilding/redeploying CSS files

if you're familiar with Liferay you'll know that when you make an itsy-bitsy change to a css file you shall rebuild the theme and redeploy it.
As for redeploying I made a symlink (mind you I'm on Windows: for the curious creating a symlink on Vista is just a matter of issuing mklink /d dir1 dir2).
But what about rebuilding the stuff with maven? I'd rather skip that step. Basically what it does is combyining and packing all CSS in one everything_packed.css. Is there a sort of config variable to tell liferay just to include the raw files and skip redeployment alltogether?
Thanks
Guys I found the solution myself.
You should have a file called portal-ext.properties file in
$TOMCAT_DIR/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INFO/classes
Or more specifically for my win setup in
C:\liferay\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes
The file would hold the value
theme.css.fast.load=false
This will prevent liferay to be looking for the everything_packed.css and so you're free to modify your stuff without rebuilding and CTRL-R to refresh the page and see the changes.
Just for completeness, as this question is somewhat old and the problem already solved: There's a lot more along these lines, e.g. javascript, layouts etc. that can be used uncached. This is documented in either the Liferay Wiki (as Developler Mode) or the Development Guide, available from the documentation site (though currently it's not there for the last version - if it's still not there when you're reading it, look for it (PDF) in the older versions.
It's advisable to use these settings only in development, not in production, as putting all css and javascript in as few files as possible results in a huge performance impact.
to include all those settings, just can also just add the following line into your portal-ext.properties file:
include-and-override=portal-developer.properties
this will include all the developer specific settings, and when you want to remove them, you can just comment out this line.
you can edit the css files of your theme from Webapps{your theme}\css
And can see the changes directly.
You can edit almost every file which doesn't require compilation.like .jsp files but not .java files

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