Do you mean the xml documentation files for your generated web assemblies? You can set the xmldocs option to false in your deployment project file. If it's set to true, the xml documentations files will be merged and the old files will be removed.

HTH,

Ting

Hey Ting
thanks for your help.

No I didn't mean those files, but I hadn't realized they were also being merged - which they are as you point out :)

I did try to add the following, hoping it would stop all xml file merging, but it didn't seem to have any effect...

Hi Ting,

The xml files are just config files I have for things like O/R Mapping configuration. I load them via StreamReader(filename), but since they are being merged into the assembly, I'm unable to read them in the normal way.

<MergeXmlDocs> seems to have no effect on my xml documentation files from other libraries either - they also get merged (as they are xml files).

Cheers

Aaron

I am sorry but I cannot reproduce the same behavior using the deployment project. Here are the steps that I try:

1. Create an empty web site

2. Add the webdeployment project to the web site.

3. Add two empty xml files to the project, say xmlfile.xml and xmlfile2.xml

4. Add couple pages and a .cs file to the app_code folder.

5. Compile the web site

6. Build the deployment project.

The two xml files are simply copied to the target folder, they are not merged. Could you tell me what I am doing differently?

Thanks,

Ting

Hi Ting,
Thanks for your continued input.

You're right, it works fine normally. I've narrowed it down to my use of MetaSapiens PageMethods library, which specifies a build provider (see below). This is what seems to cause the problem, although I don't know why this interacts to cause it. Any ideas or should I speak to MetaSapiens ?

Thanks

Aaron

Yes, you will need to contact the MetaSapiens regarding this issue. Basically because you register .xml for a build provider, the xml files will NEVER be deployed to the target, even if you are not using aspnet_merge or webdeployment project. You can reproduce the same behavior by simply using aspnet_comiler.exe to pre-compile your application.

The idea is that if you register a buildprovider for a known extension, the files with the matching extensions will not be copied to the target during precompilation for source code protection. Instead, the files will be compiled to assemblies which are deployed to target. If you need to access the files are runtime dynamically, you need to make sure these files do get copied during precompilation. You can do so by creating a PostBuild action to copy the xml files or unregister the build providers (depending on whether it is necessary of course).

HTH,

Ting

Hi Ting,

I implemented the post build steps and have everything working now. Thanks for your persistence in getting to the bottom of the problem.

Aaron

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