Updating a .Net 2003 application question

[dgk]

I've inherited a fairly complex application and need to make some
changes. The app sits on a Win 2000 virtual directory and the various
aspx, vb, and resx files are in the directory. I have it running fine
on a development machine. Can I just copy updated versions of a few of
the webforms (those three files) onto the virtual directory? Is there
any compilation step that I need to be concerned about?

 

[Karl Seguin]

if you only changed .aspx, .ascx, or other html files (css, html, js) then
you can just move those.

If you changed any source code (.vb) you need to recompile and move the
appropriate .dll from the bin folder.

changes made to aspx or ascx might need to be reflected in your codebehind
(.vb), but since you said it's running fine on dev, I take it that isn't the
case. I.e., if you remove a webcontrol decleration in your ascx, you'll get
a nullreference if you try to access it from codebehind.

Karl

 

[dgk]

if you only changed .aspx, .ascx, or other html files (css, html, js) then
you can just move those.

If you changed any source code (.vb) you need to recompile and move the
appropriate .dll from the bin folder.

changes made to aspx or ascx might need to be reflected in your codebehind
(.vb), but since you said it's running fine on dev, I take it that isn't the
case. I.e., if you remove a webcontrol decleration in your ascx, you'll get
a nullreference if you try to access it from codebehind.

There is a dll with the project name, but when I compiled the project
(Build menu, Build Solution) the project DLL didn't change - same
date. I didn't understand that. Also, if the dll contains the code
from the .vb files, why are the .vb files on the server?

 

[dgk]

There is a dll with the project name, but when I compiled the project
(Build menu, Build Solution) the project DLL didn't change - same
date. I didn't understand that. Also, if the dll contains the code
from the .vb files, why are the .vb files on the server?

Oops, my bad. The created date didn't change but the modified date did
change. So ok, I overwrite both the vb and dll files. Thanks, and
someone please let me know if this is wrong.

 

[Karl Seguin]

it's possible that no changes were made.

in 2005 there are compilation options which let you not compile anything
before hand, deploy your source code (.vb) and have it compile them for you.

I'm not familiar with anything similar in 2003, so I don't know why the .vb
files would have been deployed to the prod server...

Karl