Generic Development/Production Question

[James]

Say I have a project that I have hosted locally. I have a separate machine
which is our production environment. To do our deploys, we've been
copying/pasting the folder from our local machines and overwriting the
production folder(s) after backing them up. This works ok. Both folders
have the same name. Now, say we're weeks into developing/redesigning a
portion of the website. Client requests a change to the production site.
We can't roll out our development code as it's unfinished. We need to make
a change to the production site.

How can I run these two code bases in parallel, locally? Is this even
possible? Right now the best I can come up with is to backup my development
code in some other location, place the production code in the local folder,
rebuild and pray that paths don't cross. It just feels very very kludgy.
I'm hoping I'm missing something (or many things) entirely. Seems very
likely. For the record, we're still using 1.1.

Thanks

 

[bruce barker]

you should be using some sort of source control software. if you don't
have vss or team studio look at the open source cvs (see sourceforge.net)

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)

 

[James]

Right, we still use VSS 6.0d or whatever the version number is. How does
that come into effect here? We don't want to roll it back? Are you saying
have two different applications entirely? That would necessitate two
different names obviously. Can you give an archaic design diagram?

 

[Robbe Morris [C# MVP]]

With VSS 6.0, it was typical to branch the code after
each production release and store it separately from
the "working version".

If you need to change production code, you
had to make it in two different places.

--
Robbe Morris - 2004-2006 Microsoft MVP C#
I've mapped the database to .NET class properties and methods to
implement an multi-layered object oriented environment for your
data access layer. Thus, you should rarely ever have to type the words
SqlCommand, SqlDataAdapter, or SqlConnection again.
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/articles/adonet_source_code_generator.asp

 

[Flinky Wisty Pomm]

+1 for CVS, or better yet, Subversion.

If you need to run code bases in parallel, you can create a branch, but
you can merge changes from one branch to another, so bugfixes etc. can
be easily shared.

 

[bruce barker]

you should label and branch your code when you do a release.

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)

 

[Robbe Morris [C# MVP]]

Subversion has got to be the absolute worst source code
control system I've ever used. I spend more time
f'ing with it just to get the right things added, checked in,
deleted, etc. than anything else I've ever used.

Open Source = Open Crap

--
Robbe Morris - 2004-2006 Microsoft MVP C#
I've mapped the database to .NET class properties and methods to
implement an multi-layered object oriented environment for your
data access layer. Thus, you should rarely ever have to type the words
SqlCommand, SqlDataAdapter, or SqlConnection again.
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/articles/adonet_source_code_generator.asp

 

[James]

Seems to be a concensus about branching. Neophyte relative to that. So
assume I have

c:\inetpub\wwwroot\ABC

and it contains my web app. Now I deploy that to a web server, and the
application has the same name. Then I've "branched" my code, which I'll
research but assume means that I'm just adding another "app" to source
control. Now I need to change production code. How do I go about it? If I
"get the latest version" using VSS 6.0d, I'd overwrite my development copy,
wouldn't I? Or do I check in the latest version, nuke the folder locally
and do a massive GET from VSS for the "old" version? Just curious what the
common practice is here, much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Patrice]

Does it occurs in the same module ? If not, you could also break your
ASP.NET application into several DLLs being then able to deploy an updated
DLL for a single module (compiling to a single DLL in 1.1 is a VS limitation
not an ASP.NET limitation). Worked quite well for us (but we generally add
new stuff instead of working extensively on something while having a request
change on this same module).

The other option is to "branch" using your source code control as answered
in other threads...

Patrice