I just downloaed the March CTP and during installation I get the following error:

A problem occured while running the installer. Please contact the content author for problems with the content.
Error message:
String cannot have zero length.

It copies the files but does not install the Template in Visual Studio.
I have tried restarting the computer and still the same error.

Are you using a beta version of Visual Studio or the RTM?

I got the same error. I'm using VS 2005 RTM. Is there a workaround for adding the templates without the installer?

Hi

I am trying to repro the problem you describe and I need your help... Can you give us some details about the configuration you are attempting the install on? I am particularly interested to know the OS, IIS (installed, not installed and if present the version), the Framework (installed, not installed and if present the version) and the Visual Studio flavor (Express, Ent etc)

Irinel

Regardless of the setup error, if the files have been copied to your machine, you should be able to launch the VSI installation to install the template by opening the file ASPNETAtlas.vsi under C:\Program Files\Microsoft ASP.NET\Atlas\v2.0.50727.

Okay, so my error is slightly different. After running the ASPNETAtlas.vsi I got this error again. "Installation stopped because the directory for the ProjectType value did not exist.  The project type is invalid for your installation of Visual Studio."

I have both VS 2003 and 2005 installed on windows XP running IIS 5.1 with .NET framework v1.0.3705, v1.1.4322, and v2.0.50727.

Thanks

I have VS 2003 and 2005 Professional installed. I am running XP SP2 Pro, IIS 5.1

I was able to get around this issue by dumping an image that I had created after installing Windows and all my software. So the issue looks like might be with the VS settings.

I am just curious if the project template directory is missing on your machine.

Can you check one thing?  Please check the following setting:
- In VS 2005, go to Tools->Options
- Expand "Projects and Solutions" on the left tree view, click the "General" node.
- There should be a textbox "Visual Studio user project templates location:".  Can you check if you have that directory already created on your machine?

One possible issue might be that if the location of "My Documents" had been changed after VS was installed, the VSI installer might not be able to locate the right directory to install the template, hence it reported that error.

I checked the my project settings in VS2005 and they are set to the default "My Documents\..." directory and yes this directory exists. Is there a way I can install these manually? Can't I just drop the files into the Templates folder? 

Even though it gives the error, it does copy the files to the following location: C:\Program Files\Microsoft ASP.NET\Atlas\v2.0.50727

Go into the folder and execute ASPNETAtlas.vsi
That should install the template.

Try this:
- Double click the ASPNETAtlas.vsi file to launch the Visual Studio Content Installer dialog.
- Find the link above the Publish information area, it is called "View files in Windows Explorer..."
- Click on it to open the content of the vsi in Window Explorer
- If you have Visual C# installed, copy ASPNETAtlasWebApplicationCS.zip to the folder C:\Documents and Settings\<your user id>\My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual Web Developer\CSharp\
- Respectively, if you have Visual Basic installed, copy ASPNETAtlasWebApplicationVB.zip to C:\Documents and Settings\<your user id>\My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual Web Developer\VisualBasic\
- Open a new VS 2005, do File->New->Web Site, you should see the Atlas Web Site template under "My Templates" when you choose Language Visual C# or Visual Basic

Hope this help.

this worked for me. thanks a lot.

i'm using VS2005, not Visual Web Developer, so I only needed to put the zip file in My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Templates\ProjectTemplates.

can u pls tell me how u were able to extract those zip files, as I tried to expore the vsi file with visual studio installer and windows explorer both. But of no help. Please let me know as I m very eager to try Atlas in my next web application..... Thanks

Hey sagginmanoj - Frank had it right when he said:

- Double click the ASPNETAtlas.vsi file to launch the Visual Studio Content Installer dialog.
- Find the link above the Publish information area, it is called "View files in Windows Explorer..."
- Click on it to open the content of the vsi in Window Explorer

Run through the install - It'll be a hyperlink on the install screen where you're prompted to install the C# and VB.NET templates.  That should take you to the directory where the zip files are.  If you follow Frank's steps verbatim, you should be good to go.