Distribute asp.net 2003 application on a cd rom

[sms1973]

Hello,
I have built an application web site using ASP.NET 2003 and MSSQL
database server.
I now need to distribute the entire application to customers on a CD
to run the web application completely from their local personal
computers. In other words, they will not need to access the Internet
to run the application.
I know I can use the redistributable MSSQL EMMSDE for the database
part, but my problem is that I want users to run the site from the CD
rom.
questions:
1) Can I run a web server from the CD that supports asp.net code and
dlls?
2) If not, is it possible to install the asp.net application on the
user's computer and ship with it a personal web server that would
support my application?

I know I can probably convert the .net webforms into windows forms,
but that will take awhile as I heavily used web functionality for my
application.

Thanks in advance for your help.
Seever

 

[Juan T. Llibre]

re:
!> 1) Can I run a web server from the CD that supports asp.net code and dlls?

Yes.

You can use ( although a bit pricey ) DWebPro or Stunnix to do that :

http://www.dwebpro.com/

http://www.stunnix.com/prod/aws/run-asp.net-from-cdrom-or-usb.shtml

With both of these you'll need to pre-compile your app.
That's because you don't want to jit-compile dlls to an ASP.NET temp dir.

re:
!> is it possible to install the asp.net application on the user's computer
!> and ship with it a personal web server that would support my application?

Also, yes.

The client will need to have the .Net Framework 2.0
installed on the system which will run the website.

WebDev.WebServer.exe (the ASP.NET Development Web Server executable) is located in :
Drive:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727

Copy that file to the client and run a batch file to start the webserver.

Here's an example batch file which shows you how to start the
ASP.NET Development Web Server from the command-line:

start /b webdev.webserver /port:1544 /path:"c:\AppDir"

The directory where WebDev.WebServer.exe is copied to must be in the computer's path,
or you must include the full path to the executable in the batch file.

You can use any port you want and any application path you want.
You must have previously copied your application's files to the "AppDir" directory, of course.

 

[Peter Bromberg [C# MVP]]

Have a look at Bart DeSmet's article here:

http://www.microsoft.com/belux/msdn/nl/community/columns/desmet/hostaspnet1.mspx

--Peter

 

[Juan T. Llibre]

Peter,

what I don't like about that is that it requires registering Cassini in the GAC.

Essentially, if registering in the GAC is OK, I'd go for using Cassiniv2,
which also requires registering in the GAC, but which is miles ahead
of the original Cassini web server in terms of features.

Direct link to the Cassiniv2 source files:
http://blogs.msdn.com/dmitryr/attachment/548131.ashx

You also need the v2.0 version of GACUTIL which is installed with VWD Express,
VS 2005 and the .Net Framework 2.0 SDK, in order to compile Cassiniv2.

If this is the option selected, make sure to read
the "ReadMe.txt" file included in the zipped source.

Otherwise, if registering in the GAC is not acceptable,
the other options I outlined in my previous reply will do.