Just installed this add-on and finally!! everything works as I'm used to. Now I can include/exclude with a simple touch of a button, use subprojects, sub sites and everything else that worked in VS.NET 2003. I don't understand why you had gone into such major changes, when things don't get easier but get worse. And I consider myself advanced web developer.

VS 2005 has numerous great features but managing complex/advanced web projects was not it's strong side, thanks to this update things changed.

So thank you for making the things the way they should be in the first place.

Although it comes a bit late (just spent a week changing projects back and forth to make my 2003 projects work) it is still great!

regards

Cool -- I'm glad you like it!

We will be coming out with an update for it in about a week that adds more features.  In particular, it will support auto-generation of control field declarations (a big missing feature today), as well as support for migrating a VS 2003 code behind page or a VS 2005 web site page to the web application project approach.

Hope this helps,

Scott

I've just encountered an issue. I have two websites in my solution, then try to drag and drop user control from solution explorer from one site to another. VS drops only link in the designer window. What's with that? If a drag and drop user control that is member of one website project on pages in the same projects everything works well.

Web Application Projects don't yet support the ability to drag/drop user controls from the solution explorer into the design surface and have it automatically set the <%@ Register %> directive.  This is on the list of features still to implement.

Instead, what you'll want/need to-do is to manually add the register directive to the top of your .aspx page, and then declare the user control in source view.  Once you declare it, you can then flip to the design surface and manipulate the control using the designer (just like web site projects).  The only thing that needs to be done manually is declaring it.

Hope this helps,

Scott

I started using the new Web Application projects add-on too.  I am very glad to have this coming from VS 2003.

I too notice that the user controls are no longer drag/drop capable.  Also, style sheet drag/drop appears to not work also.  Looking forward to the next update.

Thanks.

Hi cgsturm,

Yep -- this is still on the list of things to implement.  In the meantime, you'll need to add stylesheet references and user-control declarations in the .aspx file using source view.

BTW -- here is a blog post I just did about the update we are doing this week for the Web Application Project: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/02/05/437439.aspx

Hope this helps,

Scott

Hello.

As far as I understand it is still Beta version of this feature. Does anyone know when the real version will be available?

Thanks!

Hi VGL,

My blog post above provides more of a roadmap update.  But our goal is to have the feature-set finalized the end of next month.

Hope this helps,

Scott

Will Microsoft support both models moving forward?  I have moved my 2003 project to the web project model that comes with vs.net 2005. It took me about a day and I still have some bugs to work out.  I have heard lots of complaints about the new web site model.  Since I have went through most of the torture of converting already, would it make any sense for me to move to the web application project?

It seems like the new web site model may be better for content rich sites that ned to be updated on the fly and the web application project would be better for a code rich site.  Is this what the major reasoning would be for using one project over the other?

 

Thanks.

Yep -- both models will be fully supported going forward.  If you are using the VS 2005 Web Site Model today and happy with it, then you should definitely use it going forward.

We are going to be coming out with whitepapers that describe the differences and pros/cons of each option for different scenarios over the next few months (each option can be used for pretty much all scenarios -- but some are more optimal than others). 

Hope this helps,

Scott

Hello,

This new project model looks great! As a developer entering the implementation phase next week on a product with a target ship date at the end of June for the first iteration, I'm thinking it wouldn't be wise to use the Web Application Project model (correct me if I'm wrong!). However, due to the code-heavy nature of the web application we'll be building and our desire to use test-driven development (NUnit), it might be beneficial to refactor towards the new model when it becomes more stable. So in the meantime, we'll be placing most of the business logic in seperate class libraries which can be tested independently, and the resulting assemblies will be referenced by the web site.

Will there be tools to easily automate the conversion between the two models? Or will it be as simple as dragging the source and content files from one project to the other and making a few quick changes where needed?

Is there anything we need to watch out for? What are your recommendations?

Thanks.

Hi Jesse,

It will be pretty easy to migrate from the web-site project model to the web application.  My blog post (http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/02/05/437439.aspx) shows a little how to-do this -- basically you just add your pages into the project and right click and choose the upgrade option to migrate them to use the new project system option.  I'll post more detailed tutorials on how to-do this over the next week or two.

For right now, you might choose to just start with a web-site project -- with your business classes cleanly separated into class library projects.  We are planning on having the VS Web Application Project feature complete in late March -- so if you want to migrate then (or even before then), that will also be an option for you to consider doing.

Hope this helps,

Scott

Sorry if this is going to be a little bit "bitchin" post...

After testing it some more I discovered that this download is very buggy. At least once per few hours I experience "memory corruption" and inability to build/clean solution. From time to time debugger doesn't work as it should - it just hangs at some strange points/lines.

Solution files (specifically .designer.cs files) keep getting deleted?? I thought I personally deleted it when it first happened or did something that I wasn't aware of, but then again it happened again. And again. And the thing with user controls not being able to be drag&dropped...

So basically this feature is useless in its current state. I think it is terrible that we have to wait another two months to get the functionality that once existed in Visual Studio.

I don't know what were you thinking with this new website project model, but it should be the second on the to-do list and Web Application projects should be the first. I don't even know what kind of advanced stuff can you make with the default method - why do you always take the most inexperienced users as your default user base? not to mention that not everyone is suited to be a programmer/developer...

The memory corruption error and debugging problem you are seeing is a known issue that is documented with the first preview -- it basically occurs if you keep the exception assistant enabled and manipulate documents while debugging is occuring.  If you turn off the exception assistant checkbox in tools->options you shouldn't see this issue at all (several people who have had this instability have changed this setting and have all reported that things worked fine after that).  The new refresh build that we are shipping this week turns off the exception assistant for you by default -- so people won't run into this error.

I have not heard of any issues with .designer.cs files being deleted.  Are you sure this is the case (the first preview today doesn't ever touch them -- so it is unlikely that the IDE is doing this)?

If you want to send me email ([email protected]) I'd be happy to send you the latest build (which we will be publishing shortly on the web).  It has more features, automatically updates the .designer.cs file with control declarations, and also has a number of bug fixes.

Hope this helps,

Scott

On the site, you mention "With the next refresh of the VS Web Application Project download, we will add context-menu support in the solution explorer for automatically converting an existing code-behind page into two separate files "

.. when do you predict this feature will be added, and available for download?

 

- Jonathan Minond

 

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Jonathan Minond
http://www.Jonavi.com
http://www.jonavi.com/Default.aspx?pageID=21
http://RainbowBeta.com
http://community.rainbowportal.net/blogs/jonathans_rainbow_blog/default.aspx
http://dotnetslackers.com/community/blogs/jminond/default.aspx

Hi Jonathan,

Our plan is to have it available for download either today or tomorrow.  If you send me email ([email protected]) I can send you the build a little early.

Hope this helps,

Scott

Just getting around to installing VS 2005, installing the Enterprise Library and the Web Application Project Tmeplate.  Is the ScottGu blog still the current place to get information on the Web App Project?  Any new gotchas?  Coming from 2003 (little too long I guess) I hope to jump right in building web apps the way we did in 2003.

Of, course this leaves me in the "which do I use?" situation.  dangit!  New site to build and no VS2005 experience.  Will one be easier than the other to do "hey can you add this to the site?" requests from management, having a 3 ter system, etc...