Upgrading web site from 2.0 to 3.5 WITHOUT Visual Studio

Last post 09-08-2008 2:50 PM by DarthSwian. 5 replies.

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  • Upgrading web site from 2.0 to 3.5 WITHOUT Visual Studio

    09-05-2008, 10:31 PM
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      87 point Member
    • geekmeister
    • Member since 04-01-2004, 2:28 PM
    • Posts 21

    I have some web sites developed using .Net 2.0 and I have installed .Net 3.5. Now I need to make whatever changes necessary to web.config, machine.config or whatever so the web site can use the new 3.5 features. I do not have Visual Studio, so please don't tell me to use Visual Studio to do the upgrade.

     What changes need to be made to which files? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  • Re: Upgrading web site from 2.0 to 3.5 WITHOUT Visual Studio

    09-08-2008, 8:39 AM
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    • DarthSwian
    • Member since 12-04-2007, 2:47 PM
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     First off, you could always use Visual Web Developer Express 2008, its free.

     Second, 3.5 is only a layer on TOP of 2.0 to allow for development using WPF and WCF as well as some of the newer AJAX extensions. If your existings sites don't require any of that, there is no need to upgrade them. 

    What did you do the sites in if not VS or Visual Web Developer?

    "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side."
  • Re: Upgrading web site from 2.0 to 3.5 WITHOUT Visual Studio

    09-08-2008, 9:19 AM
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      87 point Member
    • geekmeister
    • Member since 04-01-2004, 2:28 PM
    • Posts 21

    Hi DarthSwian,

    Thank you for your response. I am using DreamWeaver to do .Net development because it's why my employer paid for. And even though Visual Web Developer Express 2008 is free, it's not allowed in our environment so that is, unfortunately, not an option either. As we are planning on adding some of the new 3.5 features to our sites, we will need to upgrade, so we still need to know how to upgrade our sites.

    Again, thanks for responding. I appreciate it.

  • Re: Upgrading web site from 2.0 to 3.5 WITHOUT Visual Studio

    09-08-2008, 12:35 PM
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    • DarthSwian
    • Member since 12-04-2007, 2:47 PM
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     You might want to suggest to your boss that using VWD 2008 could increase productivity as dreamweaver is not the best tool for doing .Net web development. I would actually suggest a full blown version of visual studio, but the free route would be a good starter. Having to use dreamweaver to do .Net development is like using notepad for php/classic asp developmet. Can you use it? Yes. But better more productive tools exist.

    "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side."
  • Re: Upgrading web site from 2.0 to 3.5 WITHOUT Visual Studio

    09-08-2008, 1:14 PM
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      87 point Member
    • geekmeister
    • Member since 04-01-2004, 2:28 PM
    • Posts 21

    It's been tried before. And will probably be attempted again. But until that happens, how do we fix the immediate problem?

  • Re: Upgrading web site from 2.0 to 3.5 WITHOUT Visual Studio

    09-08-2008, 2:50 PM
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    • DarthSwian
    • Member since 12-04-2007, 2:47 PM
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    • Posts 1,021

    You'll definitely need to update your web.config. The Assemblies need to reflect the newer framework, for example:

     <compilation defaultLanguage="vb" debug="true">
                <assemblies>
                    <add assembly="System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/>
                    <add assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/>

    Also the compiler

     <compilers>
                    <compiler language="vb;vbs;visualbasic;vbscript" extension=".vb" type="Microsoft.VisualBasic.VBCodeProvider, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" warningLevel="4">
                        <providerOption name="CompilerVersion" value="v3.5"/>

    Its all going to be in the web.config, the actual code behind and html will not need to change.

    "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side."
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