What method do you use to deploy ASP.Net applications to the wild?

Question

Currently we deploy compiled ASP.Net applications by publishing the web site locally and emailing a zip file to the system administrator with a (usually) lengthy set of inst

Answer 1

A couple things that I have done is the following:

1) Use a Web Deployment Project in order to compile and clean the build as well as handing web.config section replacement if the config changes between environments. 2) Use NAnt to do all of the building, archiving, and copying in a repetitive manner.

The Web Deployment Project ends up creating a MSBuild file which can be used in place of NAnt; however, I came from a Java background and used Ant all of the time so NAnt is my preference in .Net. If you add in the NAnt Contrib tasks, you will be able to deploy not only the files but also handle items such as your source control (incase it is not part of the default tasks) and Sql Script Execution for changes.

Currently I use both of the options together. I have my NAnt build file call the Web Deployment Project through MSBuild. With the configuration manager setup for each environment, it allows me to manage the web.config section replacements automatically and still have fairly decent control over my copying and archiving of a release.

Hope this helps.