I am using VS2010, and I understand that when I publish a web application, the Web.config I am using is transformed based on the build settings.
i.e. When I choose Debug, it uses my development SQL server, and when I choose Release, it uses my production SQL server.
What I want to know is: Can I, using only the built in Visual Studio Development Server, select "Release" from the Configuration drop-down, and then the green "Continue" arrow (F5), and run using the transformed Web.config settings?
I would be quite happy having another file such as "generic.config" (or better: "Web.Generic.config"), which holds the master code if necessary.
I don't believe there's a simple way to do this. I would have thought it's unusual to want to run code locally against a production database, but maybe you're not in Enterprise Land which is probably what this functionality was designed for.
An alternative would be to publish your site to a server, and then use Remote Debugging to step into the code.
The plain web.config is your local and generic settings combined. The transforms tweak the generic data to match the environment you're deploying to.
There's a handy site if you just want to quickly test the results of a web.config transform: http://webconfigtransformationtester.apphb.com
Related
I'm using a blank VS2010 solution to manage a static website I maintain. I was going to use the ASP.NET website project, but that added a bunch of stuff the webserver wouldn't do. If I should still use that project, please let me know!
I have the code under source control and try to have the DEV region in source mirror the DEV webserver. I want to migrate my changes to the dev server for others to view, but I'm not sure of the best method to do this. If I use the Publish Website command in VS, it will delete the files on the server and copy all the files. The problem with this is that it takes waaayyy too long. Especially when I am on the VPN. I could manually copy the files, but that's a sloppy way to do it. And the server doesn't have FTP so that's not an option either. Is there some blatant method I am missing?
I thought about setting up a workspace with the server as the working folder. Then, whenever I wanted to migrate a change, I'd just do a "get latest" in that workspace and it would bring down any files that have changed. Does this sound like an okay method or is there a preferred method for this?
Have you tried the copy/website functionality
First of all, I recommend against using web site "projects" for anything. Use a Web Application Project instead.
Secondly, when you use MSDEPLOY from the Publish command, it synchronizes the target web site with the source - it will only deploy changed content.
Set up a continuous integration server (ex. CruiseControl.NET).
Create a new build project for each website you wish to deploy, initially configured for manual invocation.
Configure the build project to do a get latest and deploy.
Here are some possible implementations:
http://callicode.com/Homeltpagegt/tabid/38/EntryId/27/How-to-only-publish-the-runtime-files-of-an-asp-net-application-using-CruiseControl-net.aspx
http://confluence.public.thoughtworks.org/display/CCNET/Build+Publisher
I’m looking for a good deployment strategy for deploying a ASP.NET MVC3 application. What I imagine is that each deployment would be some kind of commit to a Source Management System in the sense that a deployment tool could automatically do the following:
1) Upon generating a deployment package (a commit) the tool would
remember the state of my Web.Config file, the state of a folder of
auto-generated scripts containing new database changed, the state of
a folder of batch files that contain new tasks to be run on the
server, the state of files specifying ISS settings changes, etc.
2) When I build a package the next time, the tool would know to only
package the new script files, web.config changes, new batch files,
new ISS settings since my last package
3) Apply the package unto my web application
I started looking into MS Deploy but it only seems to do number 3. I’ve been searching around for either an application that that does what I imagine or a strategy to combine some SMS and MS Deploy. I'm hoping that someone has already solved the problem I feel I have here. My last resort of course is to build the tool but again, that would be my last resort.
Are you using Team Foundation Server? If so, TFS comes with tools to automate builds (including labeling code, running unit tests, deploying, et cetera.) Take a look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181710(v=vs.80).aspx
TFS is not exactly easy to configure and get going but it's free if you are already using TFS.
If you are not using TFS, look for continuous integration tools like NAnt or TeamCity.
Have you used Web Deploy and the "Publish" feature under Build in Visual Studio?
You can set options for things like leaving the previous files on the server.
Your web.config file, do you mean the main one or one that already exists elsewhere on the server? Your web.config file should copy from your project to the server, or are there settings that are different when running locally vs server? If so, look at using transforms to modify web.config.
This is only a partial answer to #1 for you, but we looked for a long time on a migration tool that we liked... We ultimately found Migrator.Net: http://code.google.com/p/migratordotnet/
Doing this, you can turn db migrations into a batch command
I need to deploy a website from the SVN to different servers all within our own network. The code is currently not compiled but probably will be in the future.
First, the site would need to be deployed to the development server for the developers to test.
Once the Developer signs off, it would be deployed to the staging server for the testers.
Once final sign off was given it would be deployed to a server farm- two live servers.
Each server has a couple of settings in the web.config to that are different (except the two live servers, of course). I would like to use templates, the way the Ruby on Rails world does. It seems like an elegant solution to multiple web.config files.
I also need to create a list/report of the files that were changed and what the change was since the last deployment.
I am thinking of writing a script that will do the following:
1. Take args for server to deploy to, and revision
2. Export a copy of the source to a directory with svn export -r <deploy revision>
3. Delete the web.config file
4. Use ttree (a template tool http://template-toolkit.org/) to create the correct web.config
5. Create a list of file changes with svn list -r <deploy revision>:<current server revision>
6. Store the <current server revision> of the website for when the script is run next time
The problem I have is it doesn't seem like the most elegant solution. It could become unmaintainable, and I prefer to use tools that are already available rather than re-invent the wheel. Unfortunately I don't think MSDeploy will do what I need, but I'm happy to use it, or anything else, if it will do what I need it to. Does anyone know of any tools that are up to the task or is the script my only option?
Check out TeamCity. I have my build server setup so that it can deploy to different environments with different settings based on the build configuration all in "One Click". It's relatively painless to setup and integrates directly with Subversion and other source control systems. This would be a more elegant solution to the issue you are dealing with...
I'm trying desperately to move from VSS to a real source control system. Options include TFS and SVN.
My designers need to keep their ability to modify source files and instantly preview their changes in a browser without having to commit their changes. Using FPSE with VSS, this works flawlessly, since saving a file causes the copy in the working folder on the dev server to be updated, so they can just save and refresh their browser which is pointed at the dev server.
The site in question consists of 350k+ lines of classic ASP code and some new ASP.NET MVC. They only need to be able to modify views within the MVC code, not C#.
Though Expression includes a version of Cassini for local debugging, Cassini does not support classic ASP.
Surely someone has solved this problem before. It can't be necessary to install IIS on each designer's machine (this is absolutely untenable). I need a way to have a common working folder on a dev webserver updated whenever someone saves a file locally, just like using FPSE.
I'd rather not write an FPSE proxy that knows how to talk to TFS/SVN. Any suggestions?
(I know I've asked this question in the past, but I haven't yet found a solution.)
Why the need to copy the source files when they are saved, why not simply save the files to a network share and work on them directly? If the dev server is constantly being overwritten after every save anyway surely the effect is the same?
This probably won't be as instantaneous as you like, but with TFS you could set up a Continuous Integration (CI) build that builds and deploys the project to a test server on check-in. If you do this, you'll want them checking in to a QA type branch, then, once they are happy with how they look, they can then merge to the mainline branch for the real build and integration.
As part of my overall development practices review I'm looking at how best to streamline and automate our ASP.net web development practices.
At the moment, our process goes something like this:
Designer builds frontend as static HTML/CSS on a network share. This gets tweaked until signed off. (e.g. http://myserver/acmesite_design)
Once signed off, developer takes over and copies over frontend HTML/CSS to a new directory on the same server (e.g. http://myserver/acmesite_development)
Multiple developers work on local copy until project is complete.
Developer publishes code to an external publicly accessible server for a client to review/signoff.
Edits made locally based on feedback.
Republish to external server.
Signoff
Developer publishes to live public server
What goes wrong? Lots of things!
Version Control — this is obviously a must and is being introduced
Configuration errors — many many times, there are environment specific paths and variables (such as DB names, image upload directories, web server paths etc. etc.) which incorrectly get copied from local to staging to live etc. etc. with very embarrassing results.
I'm pretty confident I've got no.1 under control. What about configuration management? Does anyone have any advice as to how best to manage an applications structure within asp.net apps to minimize these kinds of problems?
I found that using SVN, NAnt and NUnit with Cruise Control.net solves a lot of the issues you describe. I think it works well for small groups and it's all free. Just need to learn how to use them.
CruiseControl.net helps you put together builds and continuous integration.
Use NAnt or MSBuild to do different environment builds (DEV, TEST, PROD, etc).
http://confluence.public.thoughtworks.org/display/CCNET/Welcome+to+CruiseControl.NET
You got the most important part right. Use version control. Subversion is a good choice.
I usually store configuration along with the site; i.e. when coding a PHP-based site I have a file named config.php-dist. If you want the site to work at all you'll have to copy + edit in all the required parameters (this avoids storing passwords in version control). The -dist file should have reasonable defaults.
Upload directories should be relative if possible; actually all directories should be relative. I'm not experienced in ASP.net, but if it's anything like PHP the current directory is always the directory of the file being requested. If you channel all requests through a single file (i.e. index.asp), then this can even be found programmatically. Or you could find it programmatically by using the equivalent of dirname(____FILE____) in your configuration file.
I also recommend installing IIS (or whatever webserver you are using) on all development workstations (including the designers). Makes life easier as noone can step on each others toes. What one has to do is simply add test hosts to the hosts file (\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts iirc) in addition to adding a site to the local IIS. This plays well with version control (checkout, add site to IIS and hosts-file, edit edit edit commit).
One thing that really helps is making sure you keep your paths relative where you can and centralise them where you can't, so when I've been working with ASP.Net I have tended to use web.config to store any configuration and path related data that can't be found programmatically. It is quite possible to find information like your current application path programmatically through the Request object - it's worth looking in some detail over what the environment makes available to you.
One way to make sure you don't end up on something that is dependent on the path name is having a continuous integration server executing your test suite against your application. Each time this happens you create a random filepath. As soon as someone introduces a dependency on the filepath it will fail.