Hi,

A very basic question that I am struggling to understand.

When deploying a asp.net web application why should I create a web setup project? Why can't I just copy, by ftp, the source files to the destination webserver?

 Many thanks

But wouldnt this mean that there would be a whole lot of .resx, .vb, .cs files rolling around in the directory unnecessarily?

Is there any risk of leaving any business logic open to interference?

Rick Strahl's got a good one in code magazine.

http://west-wind.com/weblog/posts/5601.aspx 

You wouldn't want the source files on your server because even though they are unaccessible to the client, anyone who has access to the server could view them.

The easiest way to deploy if you're using 2005 is to R-Click on project and do Publish Web Site to a local folder. 

Hi doUMissClassic,

Once you publish to a local folder, do you just ftp it all to the host? And if so, how is the database handled?

Thanks,

Claude.

You should understand that the "Web Setup" project and "Web deployment" projects are two different things.

 The web setup project is for creating an msi that installs the web application.

 
The web deployment project is for creating a ready-to-deploy version of the web site. The output of the web deployment project can have the source removed (non-updatable), which is useful for hiding intellectual property. Also, it is precompiled, which avoids compilation when the web app is running.