VS.NET copy websites: why doesn't vs.net keep track of changed/unchanged for my site?

[Ken Fine]

Hi,

I'm using the VS.NET 2008 website copy tool. It is supposed to keep track of
whether files are new, changed, or unchanged relative to a site on my
"remote" server. Most of the time it does not maintain that information
between sessions and the local and remote window indicates a "?" for the
state of each file. Can anyone speculate why this behavior happens? It
definitely makes the tool less easy to use.

Off-topic, but I wish VS.NET had a key binding to upload a given page to a
particular place in a defined "site" as lesser tools like Dreamweaver have
(CTL-SHIFT-U). I recognize that behavior is a bit reductive for how VS.NET
can be used, but the fact is that for some of us it is replacing DW for our
day-to-day site maintenence work and it is annoying that there aren't
trivial agilities like this built into the tool. (Suggestions for
workarounds and hacks eagerly solicited.).

Thanks,
-KF

 

[Jialiang Ge [MSFT]]

Hello KF,

According to the MSDN article "Walkthrough: Copying a Web Site Using the
Copy Web Site Tool"
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xay0wxbf.aspx
The Default.aspx files have question marks (?) next to them. This indicates
that the file has the same name in both sites, but different timestamp data
and no information about the last time the files were copied.

The file status information is maintained based on the files' timestamps
and the last time the files are edited/copied. When you see "?" in the
tool, it means that both the files in the local and remote machine have
been changed since the last synchronization, thus the tool needs to know
whether you want to overwrite the changes on the remote side. This is an
expected behavior from the tool. If you want to discard the changes on the
remote machine, we can click the left-arrow, and select the "Apply to all"
checkbox in the "Confirm File Overwrite" dialog box. Is this explanation
clear for you? If you have any other concerns or questions, feel free to
let me know.

Have a nice day!

Regards,
Jialiang Ge ([email protected], remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Ken Fine]

Thanks Jialiang. I guess what's weird in my case is that I'm getting the
question marks even when files on the remote machine *haven't* been changed,
at least by me. Simply closing VS.NET and reopening is usually enough to
bring the ? marks back. Perhaps there's some process on my webserver that's
altering the timestamps, but I don't know what that could be. (I do control
the server; it's a Win2003k box). I was curious if anyone else has had this
same experience.

Anyway, thanks for your help. I can start examining if anything is causing
my file timestamps to change.

-KF

 

[Jialiang Ge [MSFT]]

You are welcome, KF.

Apart from the suggestion of examining if anything is causing the files'
timestamps to change, you may also test the Copy Website Tool for a
small/simple web site project and see if it works as expected. For example,
we can create a web site project from Visual Studio, do no changes to the
auto-generated codes, and use the Copy Website tool to copy the site to a
remote directory. Then restart VS, open the tool and check if there are any
question marks beside the files.

If you have any other questions or concerns feel free to let me know.

Have a nice day!
Regards,
Jialiang Ge ([email protected], remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

=================================================
Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
(e-mail address removed).

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
=================================================