Publishing a .NET C# website to an external server

Question

Hi,

I have just completed my first aspx/c# project using Visual Web Developer Express and consuming some custom controls and external web services. It runs fine on my development machine.

If I now want to test this on a shared hosting account, do I just upload all the files with the current project structure? Will there be any problem uploading the DLLs to a shared Windows hosting account? Anything I should be aware of or changes to be made to the code? Can anyone recommend a cheap and good provider (this is just for testing - no mssql required yet).

Thanks!

Answer 1

It would depend on your website provider. You need to get one that supports the .NET runtime. Once you have that, then you simply upload your code and all should work. I personally use www.godaddy.com. You can see an example ASP.NET site hosted by them at www.chessbin.com.

I hope this helps.

Adam

Answer 2

The hosting companies may vary on what they require, but I would think a simple xcopy deploy would be sufficient for most. Here's a link to one that seems to have good prices (disclaimer: I have never used them) http://www.reliablesite.net/v3/index.asp

Answer 3

Does visual web developer have a "publish website" menu item under the Build menu?

If you want to pre-compile your site and publish it with all dependencies the easiest way I've found. You can then choose to publish it to either an FTP site or the file system. I usually choose the filesystem and then FTP it up myself to make sure I don't overwrite any config files.

If I'm working on a low volume site for a client and performance isn't a problem, I'll just upload my working directory right up to the server so I don't have to deliver the source code separately and I know they won't loose it.

Oh, and one other thing, if you don't configure it special, I would expect you will have to upload your site to the root directory of your hosting account. GoDaddy does have the ability to specify certain directorys as their own ASP.NET application. If you do that you can put your app in a sub-dir of your choosing.

-Al