ASP.NET website 'Publish' vs Web Deployment Project

Question

if i decide to use the 'publish' option for my ASP.NET website, instead of a Web Deployment Project, can i do custom msbuild things? Or do i need to stick with WDP's if i want to do custom msbuild stuff during compile/deployment.

Answer 1

I think of the publish option as a part of the VS.NET toolset for developers to use to publish web sites on dev machines. It isn't really built to be a real deployment.

If you need custom actions, a Web Deployment Project would be more suited to a real deployment that multiple people other than the developer run regularly and that you want created with each build.

I would also look at three other options:

• PowerShell: A good way to script against IIS, set up websites, etc. You can even build cmdlets from OO code (like C#) that your script can call. Many professional IT firms use it to deploy big web sites.

• MSDeploy: A new deployment tool for websites that can replicate a vroot over several servers. Very good for having your golden image and then blasting it out to various places.

• C# application: If you are a more advanced developer, you can always write your own application that xcopies files (via Process) and uses WMI to configure IIS. Harder, but you have complete control.