Making changes to a .NET web site.

[Denster]

I have a web site that compiles and runs on an intranet. My question is what happens when I want to make changes to a class module. My understanding is that I have to recompile the whole site and upload everything again, is this right?

 

[Sorwen]

I can't answer your question as I've never tried, but would suggest that if you have classes that will likely change much it would be better to create a separate dll for them no matter the answer.

-I hate Microsoft!
-Forever and always forward.

 

[Qik3Coder]

Dll's are back end.
.aspx's are front end

you have to replace the changed dll(s) and any affected .aspx's
If you have your .aspx.vb's on the server it's a good idea to paste them as well.



-Sometimes the answer to your question is the hack that works

 

[dbsquared]

You have to copy the changed aspx pages and the bin directory after you have built the website, if your using VS 2005.
I usually copy my app_code directory as well as that is where I put my class code.

To go where no programmer has gone before.

 

[Denster]

In the bin folder there seems to be a lot of .compiled files which relate to the relevant aspx page.
The dll's however are named something that looks like it has been generated during compilation "App_Web_q_vk-zap.dll"
The site Im developing is for an intranet and dont want to send the company in question the whole site again if I can help it. The changes that are being made are in the class objects.

 

[bboffin]

If you're using "code behind" (and if not why not?) and there are no changes to any of the .aspx files all you need to install is the new application DLL(s).

In general I would advise against copying the .vb files to the web site as there are very few circumstances under which they are required (I think dynamic switching of master pages caused me a problem in this area once) and they are your master source files in plain text and are your intellectual property.

I thought that the other oddly named DLLs were created dynamically the first time the new application dll is run.

However even if they are created by the compiler it is essential that you remove all of them from the web site's bin folder and copy the new equivalents (which will have different random names) across. If you don't delete the old ones you may get some very peculiar results.

I build my web applications as Projects not Web Sites and find that I get a much cleaner bin folder as these additional files are not created.

However all you need to do is copy the new dlls over the old ones. The site won't crash even if there are users on it as IIS seem to be able to figure it all out correctly but it's usually a good idea to choose a quiet time such as overnight.



Bob Boffin

 

[Denster]

Thanks for the advice, will give it a go.