Brief:
Usually we create setup for windows applications but there are options to create setup for Web Application.
It will automate the hosting process which we were doing manually in IIS. Previously we were hosting the application on server using IIS with these steps https://support.microsoft.com/
So we have created the Custom Web Installer where it will consolidate all the file needs for the web application for hosting. We have customized it to read the ChangeLog.xml where we specifies the SQLServer database changes, at the time of installation it reads the xml file and adds the database changes.
Need:
It is helpful if a non techinical person is installing or upgrading ASP.Net web application on Server. You can specify if you want to install as Virtual Directory.
How It Works:
1. Open your ASP.NET Web project.
2. In Solution Explorer, right-click the solution node, click Add, and then click New Project.
3. In the Add New Project dialog box, in the Project Types area, expand Other Project Types, expand Setup and Deployment Projects, and then select Visual Studio Installer. In the Templates area, select Web Setup Project.
4. In the Name text box, type a name for the Web Setup Project. You can use the same name as the ASP.NET Web Site project and add "_Setup" as a suffix and then click OK.
5. In Solution Explorer, right-click the newly created Web setup project node, and point to View, and then click File System.
6. In the File System window, right-click the Web Application Folder node and point to Add, then click Project Output.
7. In the Add Project Output Group dialog box, select Primary Output and Content Files from the ASP.NET Web Site project and then click OK.
8. In Solution Explorer, expand the Detected Dependencies node under the Web setup project.
9. Select all dependencies. In the Properties window, set the Exclude property to True.
10. Build your Web setup project.
11. Just browse the debug folder location of Setup project. We find an msi and a setup.exe. You can run either to initiate setup.
Usually we create setup for windows applications but there are options to create setup for Web Application.
It will automate the hosting process which we were doing manually in IIS. Previously we were hosting the application on server using IIS with these steps https://support.microsoft.com/
So we have created the Custom Web Installer where it will consolidate all the file needs for the web application for hosting. We have customized it to read the ChangeLog.xml where we specifies the SQLServer database changes, at the time of installation it reads the xml file and adds the database changes.
Need:
It is helpful if a non techinical person is installing or upgrading ASP.Net web application on Server. You can specify if you want to install as Virtual Directory.
How It Works:
1. Open your ASP.NET Web project.
2. In Solution Explorer, right-click the solution node, click Add, and then click New Project.
3. In the Add New Project dialog box, in the Project Types area, expand Other Project Types, expand Setup and Deployment Projects, and then select Visual Studio Installer. In the Templates area, select Web Setup Project.
4. In the Name text box, type a name for the Web Setup Project. You can use the same name as the ASP.NET Web Site project and add "_Setup" as a suffix and then click OK.
5. In Solution Explorer, right-click the newly created Web setup project node, and point to View, and then click File System.
6. In the File System window, right-click the Web Application Folder node and point to Add, then click Project Output.
7. In the Add Project Output Group dialog box, select Primary Output and Content Files from the ASP.NET Web Site project and then click OK.
8. In Solution Explorer, expand the Detected Dependencies node under the Web setup project.
9. Select all dependencies. In the Properties window, set the Exclude property to True.
10. Build your Web setup project.
11. Just browse the debug folder location of Setup project. We find an msi and a setup.exe. You can run either to initiate setup.
