Hi all,

Under my website i have some of the following structure:

/web.config
/App_Data
/Enigma
/Enigma/web.config
/Enigma/App_Data
/Enigma/App_Data/enigma.mdf

Now when i run a webpage which is connecting to that sqlexpress database, the page works. However, when I open visual studio, it doesnt see the database. It wants the database to live in /App_Data/enigma.mdf - if i move the database there, visual studio sees it and i can work with it through the server explorer.

Is there any way to slap VS2005 and get it to see the database in the other app_data folder? Is there anything else i should be aware of with having other app_data folders under the same web? If there's no way to get VS to work with it other then inside the root app_data folder, i can move the database there. It's not super critical that it remain in the other folder.

The connection string for this database is in /Enigma/web.config

Thanks 

I believe that if you open the /Enigma web site through Visual Studio, you rill not have a problem.

Visual Studio is configured to look for databases in the ~/App_Data folder, I strongly believe.

The enigma folder is not a separate website. It's just a subfolder. So i open the root of the website, which has the enigma folder in it.

Yeah, but that's the way Visual Studio works

 so in order to keep VS2005 happy, i need to make the enigma folder a separate website?

Yeah. Just open the /Enigma folder with the Open Web Site and you are done. However, as I recall from your writings, you only need to do that in order to manage the .mdf inside the /Enigma/App_Data folder, right? So, I suppose it won't be so painful for you

actually the first thing i did was to try to open mysite/enigma with the open website command in VS and it failed saying there was no web there.

I think i have to go into IIS and make it a subweb for that to work. At least thats my guess. But if its this much of a hassle, i think i'll just make a new site for this. Just seems pretty stupid that VS cant see if unless its in the root app_data folder, even though the pages themselves work fine with it living elsewhere.

thanks for the help
 

Inside IIS, try creating a new virtual directory, not a different website  

 Ok, i'll give that a try.

thanks 

dt008:

Inside IIS, try creating a new virtual directory, not a different website  

well that doesnt seem to work, since VS doesnt even see the virtual folder.
 

Hm. You are opening it through file system? If you try and open it as an IIS website? (I haven't done it myself, just wondering)

 i'm opening it in VS through the open website menu. I'm working directly on the live site since this isnt anything important so it doesnt matter if it stops working for a bit while i figure it out.