Subject: ASP.NET AJAX Deployment Requirements

[Guest]

I see that the RTM version of ASP.NET AJAX requires installation of the
ASP.NET AJAX assemblies in the GAC. I've been through all the docs, and
deployment, per se, is never directly addressed.

1. Is installing System.Web.Extensions to the production server's GAC the
only (additional) step required to support ASP.NET AJAX? Or is the
distributed installer (.msi) doing other stuff that would be required in a
production installation? I've read elsewhere that
System.Web.Extensions.Designer must be in the GAC as well, though I suspect
that only applies to developers.

Modifying our installer to add the one assembly to the GAC is no problem; is
there any reason to run an additional .msi for production? (Of course, the
ASP.NET AJAX .msi does other useful things when it runs on a developer's box.)


2. Were Microsoft to update the assembly via Microsoft/Windows Update, would
it simply replace the RTM version? Would the assembly's reference in
web.config have to be updated, or would the app continue to work if the
reference still indicated the RTM version?

<whine>On a related note, exactly how does Microsoft expect developers to
get hold of the assembly file itself (System.Web.Extensions.dll)? Granted,
it's not terribly difficult to copy from the GAC -- it took me a couple of
tedious minutes of command-line work -- but surely there's a simpler
way.</whine>

 

[Walter Wang [MSFT]]

Hi Rich,

I saw you also posted your questions here:
http://forums.asp.net/thread/1546480.aspx, your first question is just
replied by our product team. Please let me know if you need further
information on it.

Regarding your second question, although it's not officially documented
yet, in my opinion, a fix installed by Windows Update will normally replace
the version that is already there. In other word, the app should be able to
work without changes.

For your last question, I'm not very sure about it. If you use the .msi to
install AJAX, it will install into two places: one is at C:\Program
Files\Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions\v1.0.61025\, one is at
GAC.

Sincerely,
Walter Wang ([email protected], remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Guest]

Sorry about the double post. MSDN lost my no-spam posting alias due to a
"service outage" so I reposted my question after creating a new one.

The crux of my question is what's necessary for a _production_ deployment of
a working ASP.NET application that uses ASP.NET AJAX, and it appears that
adding System.Web.Extensions to the GAC is, indeed, all that's necessary (per
the response on the original post).

Thanks for confirming my suspicions about how WU would (probably) work.