ASP to ASP.NET conversion

[Guest]

Good afternoon.

I'm presently tasked with sorting our our transition from traditional ASP
with a VB6 & SQL 2000 back end, to the .NET framework.

Our Extranet has been written as 1 large ASP application, with sub folders
for each individual project. This allows us to maintain state pretty much in
terms of the access control and commonality of look & feel, which is handled
largely by include files. Each ASP page has the same 'includes' thus
replicating the functionality throughout all area's of the extranet.

We are not looking to convert this onto the .NET framework at present, but
the chap who developed & maintains this beastie has the following
requirements:

1. He wants to maintain state across all the 'projects', effectively I view
this as 'Solution' state rather than Application state. The only way i can
see of doing this is to maintain state in the database, any other suggestions
would be welcome.

2. He loves the fact he can, at the request of the user, tamper with an ASP
page, and bang it onto Production with just that change in it. He doesn't
want to compile the rest of the web project to achieve this. He also wants
to maintain different versions of the same page on different servers. There
are valid reasons for this. My initial response is to advise him to learn
about version control, but alternative suggestions would be most welcome.

3. He has also voiced concerns about having to manually copy files about on
the local drive in order to ensure that IIS can find the DLL. Any guidance
would be appreciated.


He currently proposes developing without using Visual Studio.NET (mainly to
overcome 3.), which I have to confess to not being terribly keen about, but
if there are any alternative useful tools out there for this purpose, I'd
love top hear about them,

Many thanks in anticipation of your guidance.

 

[Curt_C [MVP]]

see response inline...
--
Curt Christianson
Owner/Lead Developer, DF-Software
Site: http://www.Darkfalz.com
Blog: http://blog.Darkfalz.com

Good afternoon.

I'm presently tasked with sorting our our transition from traditional ASP
with a VB6 & SQL 2000 back end, to the .NET framework.

Our Extranet has been written as 1 large ASP application, with sub folders
for each individual project. This allows us to maintain state pretty much
in
terms of the access control and commonality of look & feel, which is
handled
largely by include files. Each ASP page has the same 'includes' thus
replicating the functionality throughout all area's of the extranet.

We are not looking to convert this onto the .NET framework at present, but
the chap who developed & maintains this beastie has the following
requirements:

1. He wants to maintain state across all the 'projects', effectively I
view
this as 'Solution' state rather than Application state. The only way i
can
see of doing this is to maintain state in the database, any other
suggestions
would be welcome.

If the subfolders are different projects you will need to use a DB or some
other method of maintaining the shared info. As you indicated you aren't at
the projected level anymore and since each project is it's own site it
doesn't play well with others.

2. He loves the fact he can, at the request of the user, tamper with an
ASP
page, and bang it onto Production with just that change in it. He doesn't
want to compile the rest of the web project to achieve this. He also
wants
to maintain different versions of the same page on different servers.
There
are valid reasons for this. My initial response is to advise him to learn
about version control, but alternative suggestions would be most welcome.

You can stull use this idea in a way. I mean if you are only changing the
visual appearance you only have to replace the .ASPX file. You also have the
ability to use InLine coding, similar to classic ASP. There is also the SRC
attribute so you can drop in the .ASPX & .CS changes on only the files that
changed. Personally I like the ability to simply drop in the new DLL for my
backend changes, it's super simple and handy.

3. He has also voiced concerns about having to manually copy files about
on
the local drive in order to ensure that IIS can find the DLL. Any
guidance
would be appreciated.

Unleash It (http://www.eworldui.net/UnleashIt/). It's a super handy
deployment tool. It will compare the files and deploy only the ones that
changed. It also has the ability to let you specify specific file types to
deploy.

He currently proposes developing without using Visual Studio.NET (mainly
to
overcome 3.), which I have to confess to not being terribly keen about,
but
if there are any alternative useful tools out there for this purpose, I'd
love top hear about them,

If you are going to do .NET development, use VS. It sounds like your boss is
going to be against anything that changes anything he knows....my
recommendation, seriously, update the resume......

 

[Guest]

Many thanks Curt, much appreciated,

Matt

see response inline...
--
Curt Christianson
Owner/Lead Developer, DF-Software
Site: http://www.Darkfalz.com
Blog: http://blog.Darkfalz.com

Good afternoon.

I'm presently tasked with sorting our our transition from traditional ASP
with a VB6 & SQL 2000 back end, to the .NET framework.

Our Extranet has been written as 1 large ASP application, with sub folders
for each individual project. This allows us to maintain state pretty much
in
terms of the access control and commonality of look & feel, which is
handled
largely by include files. Each ASP page has the same 'includes' thus
replicating the functionality throughout all area's of the extranet.

We are not looking to convert this onto the .NET framework at present, but
the chap who developed & maintains this beastie has the following
requirements:

1. He wants to maintain state across all the 'projects', effectively I
view
this as 'Solution' state rather than Application state. The only way i
can
see of doing this is to maintain state in the database, any other
suggestions
would be welcome.

If the subfolders are different projects you will need to use a DB or some
other method of maintaining the shared info. As you indicated you aren't at
the projected level anymore and since each project is it's own site it
doesn't play well with others.

2. He loves the fact he can, at the request of the user, tamper with an
ASP
page, and bang it onto Production with just that change in it. He doesn't
want to compile the rest of the web project to achieve this. He also
wants
to maintain different versions of the same page on different servers.
There
are valid reasons for this. My initial response is to advise him to learn
about version control, but alternative suggestions would be most welcome.

You can stull use this idea in a way. I mean if you are only changing the
visual appearance you only have to replace the .ASPX file. You also have the
ability to use InLine coding, similar to classic ASP. There is also the SRC
attribute so you can drop in the .ASPX & .CS changes on only the files that
changed. Personally I like the ability to simply drop in the new DLL for my
backend changes, it's super simple and handy.

3. He has also voiced concerns about having to manually copy files about
on
the local drive in order to ensure that IIS can find the DLL. Any
guidance
would be appreciated.

Unleash It (http://www.eworldui.net/UnleashIt/). It's a super handy
deployment tool. It will compare the files and deploy only the ones that
changed. It also has the ability to let you specify specific file types to
deploy.

He currently proposes developing without using Visual Studio.NET (mainly
to
overcome 3.), which I have to confess to not being terribly keen about,
but
if there are any alternative useful tools out there for this purpose, I'd
love top hear about them,

If you are going to do .NET development, use VS. It sounds like your boss is
going to be against anything that changes anything he knows....my
recommendation, seriously, update the resume......