Best Way To Break Up Large ASP.NET Apps

[Chris]

Where I work, we basically have 1 large ASP.NET application that we
work on.

This is compiled into one big DLL.

I think it would be a good idea to somehow break up the project, so
that if I am in the middle of development on some sub project, I don't
have to push up that code to fix a bug in another part of the
application.

I was thinking of creating multiple asp.net applications, or creating
class libraries to house the programming logic, instead of using the
code behind files.

The problem with the class library is that I like to use the designer,
which (as I stated in a previous post) I don't think you can take
advantage of if you put all your logic in a class library. If all
your code is in a class library and you drag a button onto the form,
it won't add it to your class library file, know what I mean?

Creating a bunch of applications has its own issues as well. For
example I haven't found a way to share session data across
applications (I have figured out how to make a single login for
multiple apps).


What is the best way to go about this?

What path would you suggest taking?

 

[Steve C. Orr [MVP, MCSD]]

Creating a middle tier object model certainly is time consuming, but these
days it's considered a must for most large web sites, especially if they
need to be scalable or you have big plans for growth in the future.
Here is some suggested reading for you:
http://www.lhotka.net/ArticleIndex.aspx?area=CSLA .NET

Other useful tidbit of information for you is that you don't have to compile
your web apps into a single DLL. By using the command line compiler you can
split you application into an unlimited number of DLLs.

 

[WJ]

One of the option(s) is to sub-web.

John

 

[Chris]

Steve,

Thanks for the reply! Can you point me in the direction of where I
can find some examples of breaking a large DLL into smaller ones via
the command line compiler?

If I were to break the pap into, say 10 DLLs, would I be able to
update one of these DLLs on the fly on the production server just by
copying up the new DLL, or would I need to run something to register
or link the new (updated) DLL?

Thanks a ton!

Chris

 

[Chris]

Steve,

Never mind... I found some articles on MSDN that deal with it and was
able to do exactly what I had hoped.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

Chris