Visual studio Solution for two versions of a web application

Question

The issue at hand is this.
We have a web application with two different versions, a full application, and a light version of it. In it's most part the light version is a subset of the full version, which means that it uses the same web pages and references the same binaries with the full version.

However, some of the pages of the full version should not be deployed with the light version obviously, and some binaries (libraries etc) need not be deployed with the full version.

If it were a windows forms application we could attempt to approach the issue at hand with preprocessor directives, unfortunately this is not feasible I think. (please do correct me if I'm wrong with this)

Anyway, what would be a good approach on this? Thanks

Answer 1

Simple is good. Just use two solution files and change your includes accordingly. The downfall (which you really have with precompiler directives also) is that you have to remember to recompile both after you make changes.

Answer 2

Why not have one solution with two (or double what you currently have in one) projects.

In the Lite version rather than have a copy of the file if you choose to "Add existing item" the Add button has a little drop down which will allow you to "link" to an existing file in the Full version rather than add a copy.

This might help with the "edit once" scenario.

Kindness,

Dan