How to create Web Deployment Package for IIS WebSite and use standard manifest/parameters

Question

I have various IIS hosted service hosts with simple svc files etc. What I want to do is to be able to create deployment packages from our test server using IIS Export Package in a way that parameters may be saved and picked up at Export time so that the Export is repeatable and automatable. I.e. the Export will always use the necessary Manifest extensions such as XmlFile etc.

The web sites exist in the solutions and are then picked up using a Web Deployment project in each solution so that config substitutions are done etc.

We are currently on VS 2008 SP1 so do not have direct access to VS 2010

The first issue I have with MsBuild (running in TeamCity) is how to build the IIS web site (with target=Package) when there is no project file? In this way maybe I can avoid the Web Deployment projects (I use them for various configurations but don't want to do it this way for deploying to Production but rather export from our fully tested staging into a package file to be imported onto a production server).

Secondly, I want to avoid having to configure the Export in IIS 7 each time I run it. I want it simply to pick up the correct set of extensions to use and create the necessary parameters for me. Is this done from a Manifest file? I can see how to use the parameters.xml but I am unclear whether I need to use a manifest.xml (created by hand) and how to link it in. The idea is that a tester/deployment person should be able to do the Export simply without having to enable all of the extensions that are required

Any help or guidance will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Ok, in the meantime I got it figured out.

I ended up using the document at Package an Application for the Windows Web Application Gallery which gave me the means by which I could extend our automated build in TeamCity to create the "repeatable" export packages.

In short I will use the current Web Deployment Projects to create the deployment artefacts and then in MsBuild combine them with the pre-prepared manifest.xml and parameters.xml files into Build artefacts folder and zip them up into a package. From there the task will be to Import the package into IIS Deploy in the target environment.

The parameters.xml file will be used to set the HostName for wcf clients and services, connection strings, app settings etc.

This turned out to be the best solutuion bcause I can put it into our automated build.