What was the outcome of the analysis on the submitted files? 

We're now using VS 2005 RTM and trying to publish via the new WebDeployment Project and configurations other than release and debug.  Of course now the "Circular file references..." error is back.

Would you be able to send me mail directly at: [email protected] with details on the exact error and when it happens?  We can then kick off a mail thread with several folks on the team to help you through with this.

Thanks,

Scott

Investigating the previously submitted files, we did find a circular reference in the user app. I don't remember the specifics, but I believe it was in the format that is similar to

Folder a contains:

Usercontrol  a

Page a (references Usercontrol b)

Folder b contains

Usercontrol b

Page b (references Usercontrol a)

This is a circular reference : page a -> usercontrol b -> page b (batching) -> usercontrol a -> page a (batching)

Note that this could happen in different variation if the folder contains a page that references another page (or usercontrol, masterpage) which in terms reference some other page in the same original folder. The bottom line is, to completely avoid this issue, we recommend that you move any files that can be referenced into a separate folder.

HTH,

Ting

Scott and Ting,

Thank you for your help!  I've resolved the issue by moving offending controls to new folders.  I see now how the circles were produced.  We have so many user controls...luckily I only had to move 6 of them in order to get us by.  Now, if I could get someone to help out with this... http://forums.asp.net/1177169/ShowPost.aspx...our build automation would be in good shape!

Scott

Sure, I am glad we work this out. I will reply to the build issue from the other thread.

Ting

Hello

I tried to convert an ASP.NET 1.1 project and I had the same problem.

The problem analysis lead me to one conclusion: the ASP.NET 2.0 project should have an option to compile all the files into one DLL, just like in ASP.NET 1.1

I tried to measure the conversion cost, and it will be hard to eliminate all the circular references.

Since circular references inside one assembly are possible, and some of the logic in our classes was and is based on that, the option of one DLL per Web Project seems to be valid.

                                                            Best regards

                                                                        LS

You have couple of options.

1. Turn batch compilation of in web.config and use publsh web feature for deployment.

2.Fix circular references manually

3. Use web application projects http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/reference/infrastructure/wap/default.aspx

4. Use Web deployment projects

http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/reference/infrastructure/wdp/

Baiju

Hi LS,

We recently announced our plans to release a new VS Web Project Option that we are calling VS 2005 Web Application Projects.  It provides the ability to compile the entire project into a single assembly/dll -- just like VS 2003 did. 

We released a preview build in December that you can download today from http://webproject.scottgu.com.  We are going to be updating this next week (probably Wednesday) with a newer build with more features.

The nice thing about this option is that you do not need to change any code from your VS 2003 project to take advatnage of it.  Migrating an existing VS 2003 web project to it should only take about 15 minutes.  You can follow these steps (once you download and install it) to migrate your project forward: http://webproject.scottgu.com/CSharp/Migration/Migration.aspx

Based on the issues you identified above, I'd strongly recommend you follow this option to upgrade.  I think you'll find it relatively painless -- and give you the same experience you had in VS 2003.

Feel free to send me mail directly ([email protected]) if you run into any issues.

Thanks,

Scott

Hello

I?m glad to ear about your new VS.NET 2005 Web Project option.

Even so, the ASP.NET 2.0 Converter is acting as a Code Inspection Tool , showing code / logic problems. We?ll use it to improve our Web Application code, and try to conform it to the new rules, so we can take advantage of the new features.

Despite that, with the new option, it would be much easier to convert the application, if we need to do it fast and without major changes.

I?ll try to convert it, with the new option.

                                Best regards

                                      LS

I would like to suggest that there is something wrong with the logic of the designers relating to this issue.  I spent several hours trying to trace just three instances of the error discussed in this thread, and feel very frustrated by that wasted effort because I do not think there is anything wrong with the structure I had in place for my web application.

I always try to take a modular approach to my development and create features in a way that can be re-used, even if it is not practical to put them in a component such as a server control.

I wanted to add a News module to my web app, which included support for Newsletters.  Thinking this could be used elsewhere I started out adding a folder "News" to my web project, in which I would create all of the pages and user controls I had in mind.  I always put my Master Pages in a folder called MasterPages (strangely enough)  so I had the following structure

MasterPages
     TwoColumn.master
     ThreeColumn.master
News
     NewsManager.aspx
     NewsLetterManager.aspx
     NewsReader.aspx
     NewsPanel.ascx

Wanting to have a rotating news panel in the left column of every page on my site I added a reference for NewsPanel.ascx to both master pages.  All of the pages in the News folder reference the TwoColumn.master master page, so on building the site I got the circular reference errors.

To resolve it I moved my NewsPanel.ascx user control to another folder (UserControls).  My original plan was for a simple copy of a single folder to deploy the News module to another application, which I think is a perfectly reasonable expectation, but now that this problem has materialised I cannot do that without having to use methods/configurations that are not best practice and sacrifice performance, and I don't understand the logic of designing a product with these limitations.

I appreciate that templates are being shipped that address these issues, but question why they are there in the first place.  IMHO it should be an obvious requirement that MasterPages can reference any user control from anywhere in the application hierarchy, and any page anywhere in the hierarchy should be able to reference any master page.  Therefore the default compilation mode should have permitted this, instead of us having to work around the issue.

Mike:

 I just wanted to provide some additional feedback based on my experiences with the circular file references problem. First of all, I have experienced this problem repeatedly even in Visual Studio 2005 where zero conversions are involved. I have spent a great deal of time trying to identify folder hierarchies that will avoid this condition based on the recommendations by the ASP.Net team(s). I still get this error even when I follow the guidelines strictly. The most non-obtrusive form of this error will report the "circular error" during a Solution Rebuild, but then mysteriously disappear on a consecutive Solution Build. The only way I have found to eliminate it completely is when I place all user controls in a separate root-level folder within the website hierarchy.

 Thanks,

Chris

Hi, I also experienced the same problem while migrating from 1.1 to 2.0 . My scenario was that

In my ascx their was a reference for aspx which was using that ascx.

So i just deleted that Reference line from ascx file and now it worked fine.

Hi, one of my clients had faced a similar problem. After referring http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa479312.aspx#issue3, I checked the option "Generate fixed name single assemblies" and tried to publish the website as I felt generating single assemblies will remove the circular references. As expected, the site got published successfully. But in the bin directory, there were many dlls. Though the problem has been solved, I would like to know if this can be an acceptable solution as I feel having so many dlls will affect the performance of the web application. Kindly confirm.