Question

Years back I inherited a project that is written in VB.net – the problem with this site (it’s a website in Visual Studio, not a web application) is that if you change any code you have to compile and upload the entire site each time.

Why? Because it seems to generate a bunch (maybe 10-15) of randomly named DLLs in the BIN directory on every compilation. Each page in the site then references these randomly named DLLs so I have to upload them all and the new DLLs if the site is to continue working.

What ‘setting’ is this site built using, or more importantly how can I change it to a more convenient system of generating one or two consistently named DLLs?

Answer 1

If you want get rid of many annoying DLLS – convert Web Site to Web Application otherwise use Web Deploy feature

Some tips:

• Each project generates own DLL so you can not have less DLLs than number of projects in your solution
• Visual Studio provides nice Deploy and Publish feature which check whether file has been changed and deploy onle updated files so you basically click one button and deploy is done for you

Some links:

• Walkthrough: Deploying a Web Site Project by Using the Publish Web Site Tool
• Deploy an ASP.NET site through Web Deploy using Publish in Visual Studio