Best Practice of .net deployment

[peac3]

Hi guys,

Just wondering how you guys usually do the deployment package for .net application.

I have read some people usually create 2 packages:
one - for bin directory included dll file and default.aspx without any cs files.
the other one - for web.config

Any input about this will be much appreciated.

 

[craigber]

Best practices are to automate the process. Don't deploy directly from Visual Studio. Separate configuration from installation. Doing this, it won't matter if you put everything into one deployment package. The automation will change the web.config settings to their proper values. You should have separate settings for debug, staging, and release.

You may want to readup on web.config transformations.

http://www.bing.com/search?q=web.config+transformations

Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual C# MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com/blog

 

[peac3]

Hi craigber,

Would you care to elaborate more about automate the deployment process from your side? with example if possible.

and where do we store the proper values (ie. connectionstring) to update the web.config

Thanks Heaps in advance man

 

[craigber]

Read the links I posted about web.config transformations to find out where to store connection strings.

Automated deployment is easy to do with tools such as Go or Octopus. You can even setup TFS or Team City to do it. Research topics such as Continuous Integration or Continuous Deployment. My book, Continuous Integration in .Net has some good information.

Basically, you have a build server that builds and handles automated testing of your app. It stores and catalogs the build artifacts (assemblies, etc). Then, when you're ready, you use a deployment tool to select which version of the artifacts to deploy.

Craig Berntson
MCSD, Visual C# MVP,

http://www.craigberntson.com/blog