What to write in "Web location" field when starting an "New website" in Visual Studio 2010?

Question

I want a website to be deployed automatically to a local IIS (built in Windows XP Pro SP3), avoiding VisualStudio-built-in server if possible. I'd like development source files to be stored in a project folder outside wwwroot (I wouldn't mind built files to be copied to wwwroot each time I press F5).

I don't store my projects inside default directories inside "My documents". What should I specify as in "Web location" when starting an "New website" in Visual Studio 2010? A deployment path in wwwroot, a folder where I'd like to save my project, or something else?

I want the website to be a part of a complex solution in VS 2010, also icludinc a class libray project, a WinForms application project, a Windows Service project and a common Entitity Framework data model.

Answer 1

Consider using the Publish option in the Build menu to deploy your files to the actual IIS Server, wherever that is located. Undoubtedly you feel that you have strong reasons for doing it the way you described, but:

1. There is no practical way to install a current version of IIS on Windows XP
2. Putting development files directly into the wwwroot directory of an IIS Server makes me nervous
3. The web server that comes with Visual Studio is good enough for development, and is designed specifically for that purpose.

Answer 2

I use this way you say with out any problem. I describe you what I have done.

MainProjectDir
.......WebSiteDirProject-wwwroot
.......Dll_Utils_Project1
.......Dll_Utils_Project2

I save the ms visual solution on MainProjectDir.

I use as web site file system the WebSiteDirProject, where I have setup iis to see this directory as the default site.

and Finally I create inside MainProjectDir, other dll projects that I use later on my web site bin directory.

The web server that comes with visual studio is very good, but some small parts of its make dificult to handle my complex pages and project.

For example: I do not wish to press f5 to see my pages all the time - I have the browser to the next monitor and check it all the time with out pressing f5. If I like to debug, I just have a blank page with Debug.Assert(false) I load it and I jump to visual studio.

Also one problem that I have is the url that I need to be the same when I develop - and when I go live, and this is a problem with the web server that is come with vs.

One more problem that I have, is that when I develop the pages for run with more than one pool (web farm) both iis5.1 and web server with vs, did not help. So in this case I need iis 6+, to make the tests with many pools... this is one of my most difficult tests.