asp.net membership on a central server

Question

I'm trying to figure out the membership module in asp.net. Currently i have a site that i have programmed on my computer, i'm using the asp.net membership and regestering users through the asp.net configureation. So all the data is on my computer.

Now i want to install the web site and all the users in the membership table to a hosting server. I know i have to get the membership tables to that server, whats the best way to move the site to the server so all will work ?

Do i have to run aspnet_regsql on the server itself to make all the tables.

Is it better to program the site on the server from the beginning so i dont have to move the whole lot.

Can i access the ASP.NET Configuration when the site is on a hosting server ?

Answer 1

The best way to do it would be to make a backup of your database on your development computer and then restore it onto the hosted computer as your database. Your hosting company should give you a way to do this. By doing it that way you will be copying over all of the tables, procedures, and any other DB objects created by aspnet_regsql and any users or login information you already created.

The one change you will need to make is in you web.config file. The web.config file should have the connection string you are using to connect your website to the database and that will need to change so that it connects to your database at your hosting company. Check with the FAQ of your host and they will probably tell you what the connection string should be.

If your host is different than that please post who you are hosting with and what type of plan you have so we have some idea of what to look at.

Your comment about sharing code is a completely different topic. I think I can send you in the right direction though. Check out github.com or http://mercurial.selenic.com/. git and Murcurial are both distributed version control. That is the best way to share code for remote teams (even non-remote). Then you would just push your code from your source control to your site whenever you want to make updates.