Reliable ASP.Net Deployment?

[Phill. W]

Apologies if this has already been asked a thousand times before
(please point me in the direction of the F.A.Q. Page) but...

How do I *reliably* deploy ASP.Net solutions onto a [Production]
host that does *not* have Visual Studio installed upon it - just the
Framework?

I've copied all the "source" files to a new server, set up the Virtual
Directory in IIS and still get a Server error trying to load up the first
page, "Parser Error ... cannot load Type" referencing the dll that should
be JIT'ted for me!

Searching Google, I found lots of suggestions to "rebuild" the solution
on the target machine - please note; this is *not* an option.

Also, is there any way to get a /meaningful/ error message in this
situation?

TIA,
Phill W.

 

[Kevin Spencer]

How you deploy your app depends on how you created it. If you use compiled
CodeBehind, you do it differently than if you use CodeBehind scripts.
However, I have a sneaking suspicion that your problem lies not with how you
copied your files and folders, but how you configured the web application.
An ASP.Net app must reside in a web server directory marked as an
Application. Then the dlls would be deployed to the /bin folder directly
beneath the Application Root. The .aspx files, and the global files, such as
global.aspx and web.config would be deployed normally. There is no need to
build anything on the web site itself; this can all be done by simply
copying the files and folders.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer
http://www.takempis.com
Big Things are made up of
Lots of Little Things.

 

[John Saunders]

Apologies if this has already been asked a thousand times before
(please point me in the direction of the F.A.Q. Page) but...

How do I *reliably* deploy ASP.Net solutions onto a [Production]
host that does *not* have Visual Studio installed upon it - just the
Framework?

I've copied all the "source" files to a new server, set up the Virtual
Directory in IIS and still get a Server error trying to load up the first
page, "Parser Error ... cannot load Type" referencing the dll that should
be JIT'ted for me!

Does the dll exist in the bin directory?

If you're using codebehind, the source files won't be compiled for you. You
have to compile them on your development or build machine, then you have to
deploy the bin directory as well.

Searching Google, I found lots of suggestions to "rebuild" the solution
on the target machine - please note; this is *not* an option.

Also, is there any way to get a /meaningful/ error message in this
situation?

The error message was fairly meaningful. "Cannot load type" usually means
that the type isn't there, or that something referenced by the type isn't
there. Unfortunately, in order to find out exactly what's missing (if it
isn't obvious), you have to try to load the type yourself. A simple program
which tries to load the type and displays any exceptions can be useful here.