Question

I am working on a web project that contains three web services and a website. My source code is stored in TFS for version control and I regularly have to work in several different branches on the same code. These branches are merged regularly and are all set up in the same way. They all use WebDev.WebServer as default host. Which is fine because it saves other teammembers from having to continuously alter settings in IIS to switch to the proper folder.
Well, guess what?
I want to move to IIS and still be able to use the same config for every branch. This will results in conflicts since I Need to change the virtual folders for these projects every time when I switch branches. I also need to be able to turn off these IIS sites to enable the use of WebDev. Manually, that’s a bit of work and I’m a programmer. This needs to be automated…
My idea is to create a small web application running on my local host, which I can use to change the virtual folder and/or to turn on/off the IIS site. Sounds simple enough so all I need are two things:

1. How do I change the virtual folder of an IIS site from one location to another in code?
2. How to turn on and off a site in IIS?

Simple, right? So, point three: do you have any other suggestions that I could use?

Oh, other developers are also working on the same project. Not all of them will use IIS to run it. Thus I cannot alter the config files for these projects. I must manage it all through IIS.

Answer 1

Personally, I would use Powershell in this instance.

$websitePath = "IIS:\\Sites\Path to your website in iis"
$fullWebSiteFilePath = "file path to your content"

if(-not (test-path $websitePath))
{
    new-item $websitePath -physicalPath $fullWebSiteFilePath -type Application
}
else
{
    Set-ItemProperty $websitePath -name physicalPath -value $fullWebSiteFilePath 
}

with a little jigerry pokery you could read the different configurations from an xml file and then call the shell script passing the xml file name as a parameter.