Question Bringing site into VWD?

[VicMatson]

I'm having a site developed for me and after reading how difficult importing your site into VWD from your hosting company, is it best to get it from the developer and publish it yourself (if so how). VWD 2010 has a one click publish and I find it difficult to believe you can't simply do it in reverse. Am I missing something.

If necessary I can buy Visual Studio 2008 or 2010 (prefer 08, MS no longer offers the standard version and the cheapest is pro@ ~$900.00).

 

[jmcilhinney]

Um, it's easy to squirt toothpaste onto a toothbrush. Is that easy to do in reverse? A VWD project contains all the source for a web site. The web site itself doesn't. How easy it is to recreate the original project depends partly on whether it was a web site or a web application. A web application contains binary files so you can't simply uncompile those to get the original source. If it's a web site then there's no binary files so the output is very similar to the source, so creating a new project and importing all those files is not a big job.

 

[VicMatson]

Um, it's easy to squirt toothpaste onto a toothbrush. Is that easy to do in reverse? A VWD project contains all the source for a web site. The web site itself doesn't. How easy it is to recreate the original project depends partly on whether it was a web site or a web application. A web application contains binary files so you can't simply uncompile those to get the original source. If it's a web site then there's no binary files so the output is very similar to the source, so creating a new project and importing all those files is not a big job.

OK, were on to something, I can have him make it a web site, so if I'm understanding correctly, can I import his web site into VWD and publish it myself?

I really don't understand the difference, but if I create a web site myself I can do a lot with it, except use Telerik ASP.NET AJAX controls because they require Visual Studio and Telerik@~$2,000.00. So I'm now assuming that he can create an ASP.NET site in VS that I can bring into VWD. Yes I understand I won't be able to do anything with the Telerik controls, but it would allow me to add and change other things.

Do you have any links for some documentation about importing a site into VWD?

Alternatively, can I just have him publish a page and create the rest myself using/sharing the DB tables?

 

[VicMatson]

Sorry but after some Googleing, it looks like a web site is contained in a folder. Is there any reason why I can't paste a folder in the correct directory and be off to the races? If that works, it seems to me that a site is easily exchanged from one developer to another?

I see where you must change some of the document files and backup files to .exclude.

 

[jmcilhinney]

If you have the original project then you can move that project around as much as you want. If you don't have the original project then you may need to add some extra files to get it to work in the IDE. Like I said, things are much simpler with a web site than a web application because publishing a web site doesn't involve compiling source code into executables, while a web application does. Which is yours? Does the published site have a 'bin' folder? If so, it contains compiled binaries and you can't just recreate the original source code from them.

 

[VicMatson]

If you have the original project then you can move that project around as much as you want. If you don't have the original project then you may need to add some extra files to get it to work in the IDE. Like I said, things are much simpler with a web site than a web application because publishing a web site doesn't involve compiling source code into executables, while a web application does. Which is yours? Does the published site have a 'bin' folder? If so, it contains compiled binaries and you can't just recreate the original source code from them.

That's where I have an advantage, the site is currently being offered to a few developers so I can tell them what I need.

No bin folder in sites that I can find. And I think you are under the impression I am a developer, I am not, but I do want to learn. After a few hours of reading documentation and watching a Telerik video I was able to put together a RadGrid with a data source table and I simply used the default ASP.NET page, changed the ugly colors, and added some text. Beyond that is my wild card. So that's why I need to be able to share the site between myself and a developer.

 

[JohnH]

is it best to get it from the developer and publish it yourself (if so how).

You can zip the project folder and upload it to your host, or any online storage provider, so the other person may download it. You can also email with the project zip attached to the other party.

 

[VicMatson]

You can zip the project folder and upload it to your host, or any online storage provider, so the other person may download it. You can also email with the project zip attached to the other party.

Hey thanks, I'm going to try an experiment this weekend. I'll download VWD to a different machine and copy the folder into Dropbox and see what happens in the second machine. May not be a real good experiment, but if I publish both to a few extra URL's that will either work or create the death of a thousand cuts for me!

 

[JohnH]

Further about what jmcilhinney mentioned, have a look at these articles:
Difference between web site and web application in Visual Studio 2005 Articles, samples and tutorials
Web Application Projects versus Web Site Projects
They say the same thing basically, but first is more simplified. Also, for MSDN link check the articles down the navigation tree at "ASP.Net Web Site Projects". As I understand it you should be able to, with correct configurations, to have a ASP.Net web site type project and allow for multiple developers to open and edit it directly from a deployment server via Http or Ftp - right from within VWD. I haven't tried this, but the information sounds promising for what you seems to want to do.