Hi all,

I've been trying to figure out how to manage upgrading a root Web application to ASP.NET 2.0 without affecting all of the sub-virtual directories that live below it.

The problem is that the ASP.NET compiler does not stop compiling at virtual directory boundaries, so if I have a layout like this:


/                  - Root Web (ASP.NET 2.0)
/SubWeb    -  SubWeb Virtual (ASP.NET 1.1)
/SubWeb2   -  Static Virtual

the compiler will compile EVERYTHING including the 1.1 subweb and the static files. First this takes time to do something that doesn't need to be done, copies around extra files taking up space and confuses the whole deployment process.

To make things worse, a 1.1 ASP.NET virtual below a 2.0 root will look at the 2.0 web.config and fail because it doesn't recognize the schema.

I posted some more info on these issues here a while back.
http://west-wind.com/weblog/posts/2231.aspx  (Projects/Compiler)
http://west-wind.com/weblog/posts/2107.aspx (2.0 Root Web/1.1 subdir)

I haven't seen anybody else mention anything about this, so I'm wondering if I'm just missing something obvious. I bugged this in Ladybug and it came back by design. I don't know, but to me this seems like a pretty major issue as this basically means you have to design your ASP.NET sites independently of anything else or risk getting all this crap pulled into your projects. This is going to be a major problem for Portal type applications that have root webs with other virtual applications below them.

For example, I wanted to run my root Web with 2.0 but VS.NET pulled in all of the 4000+ files that make up my site. Now when I deploy it compiles all 4000 of those files into the deploy directory, including the 1.1 apps below it. Is this really what we want here???

The 2.0 web.config isse too is pretty major as this basically means if you want to deploy a 2.0 in the root you HAVE TO deploy it on all the sub directories or else have 1.1 applications fail.

I don't see a way around this, short of moving the sub web virtuals out of the root directory and externally mapping the virtuals which is a ridiculous requirement since this is not a logical layout for a Web site.

Please somebody tell me I'm missing something here <g>...

+++ Rick ---

Hi Rick,

Relating to the first issue, I do recall that it was broken as you describe at some point, but it is fixed in the later builds.  I believe that it is fixed in beta 2, though I'm not absolutely sure.  But it will be definitely be fixed by the time the final product goes out.

David

Hi David,

Well, it's not resolved in Beta 2 - this still is the behavior I see.

I bugged this in the Feedback center and it came back by design.

So can you clarify what will happen per spec? Basically, are we going to get the ability to compile only for a specific virtual and have the compiler stop at subwebs? Or some other way to 'limit' what gets compiled?

There are really two issues here: The compiler and VS.NET. Both are looking at the file system currently, so if the compiler is subweb aware that means VS.NET also would have to know somehow to figure out the subweb boundaries or else what you see in VS.NET won't match what the command line compiler generates.

Any clarfication would be great.

+++ Rick ---

Hi Rick.

The expected behavior is that aspnet_compiler only compiles one IIS app.  If a subdirectory is set to be its own application in the metabase, aspnet_compiler ignores it.  It may very well be that this was fixed post beta 2, but in any case it is working correctly in the latest bits.

I'm less familiar with the VS.NET behavior, but based on what I observed, it also does not treat nested app as part of the same app.  It does display them in the Solution Explorer, but attempting to open one prompts you to open it individually, which seems correct.

Hope this helps,
David