VS 2008 help

[Vampdee]

I have a really stupid question:

In my job, once in awhile I have to perform maintenence on a client's website. I work for a small business so I don't have much staff to rely on, hence my post. I also do a plethora of other activities that have nothing to do with web design such as Exchange administration and Great Plains customizations, so I look at web design stuff once, maybe three times per year. I'm basically maintaining things my predecessors made.

Well, I have a site I need to modify. It is an .aspx site and to make the modifications, I need to get the site files onto my local network where I can set it up and manipulate it without worrying about damaging the original site that is published to the internet.

I have spent 6 hours trying to figure out how to download the files and open them in either Visual Studio.net 2008 or ExpressionWeb 2. I can get the files down, but the environments can't open anything. If I open default.aspx for example, it will say it can't see the master page which is IN THE SAME FOLDER.

Next, it can't see the database files. I kept everything in the same folder structure that it was in online. Why would it not be able to find anything?

Sorry to rant. I hate websites. They are just wierd. They don't behave like normal code.

OH, I guess I should get to the question: I have done all I am trying to do before but I can't remember how. How do I get this thing to open where I can edit it and it looks like the version on the web?? I forget. I figure it out then I don't do it for 6 months or so and I have to relearn again. :angry:

[vuyiswamb]

Good Day

i want to help you , but i want to laugh at you on the statement you have made

Sorry to rant. I hate websites. They are just wierd. They don't behave like normal code.

The Version of .NET are not the same and Visual Studios are the same. Visual Studio 2003 was for 1.1 and if you try to open a Project of that kind in VS2008 , i can imagine the Problem you will encounter , the Gap between the Versions is huge. Can you determine what Version of .NET is your Project. because really you cant just open everything aspx file in anytime of version of VS you want.

[sknake]

Vampdee,

You need the source code for the website -- not the code where the website has been deployed. Do you have a bunch of source files or *.dll files in the project?

[vuyiswamb]

sknake it seems as if they have done a pre-complilation and now he is trying to open those aspx page , but let us make sure.

Vampdee in the File that you have do you have a Solution file(.sln) and do you have a (.cs) or (.vb) files for each aspx page ?

[Vampdee]

I don't see a .sln. I do have everything else. I think my problem resides within IIS. I hoave no clue how to configure IIS to run this thing manually. If I try to build the project I get

"Error 41 It is an error to use a section registered as allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' beyond application level. This error can be caused by a virtual directory not being configured as an application in IIS. C:\JT\webname web redesign stuff\sites\webname.com\Web.config 27"

Not too sure where to go. As I said earlier, the file structure and everything is exactly as it is on the web server. All I want to do is edit some of the files and put them back on the webserver, but I need to be able to see the effects of my changes before putting them up for the world to see.

It is my understanding that when you manually bring in a site like this as oopsed to actually creating a site, VS does nothing to configure IIS, which leads me in that direction.

The site structure contains several folders, and webconfig is actually several folders down into the directory. I tried setting that folder as a virtual directory and an applicaton, but then it couldn't see it's data which is in a whole other branch.

I don't understand why this thing will run on a web server but not on my laptop...
Frustrating.

[vuyiswamb]

How many web config do you have in your Project ?

Do something for me, so that i can know what is the problem exactly. go to one of the aspx file and right click -- Open with --> Notepad and Tell me what you see there.

Kind Regards

Vuyiswa Maseko

[Vampdee]

Actually I have figured it out! :-) It really was a stupid question! The .sln file was missing! I looked back in our SourceSafe and found where it had been checked out and never returned. I managed to get it back and once I dropped that into the directory where it belonged, everything worked!
I have since updated Sourcesafe with updated files (my 2 predecessors did not) and made things where I hopefully won't have to rely on my memory again in 6 months the next time I have to use VS to do something or modify a website.

Thanks Vuyiswamb! Thanks to everyone else for your posts also!

[vuyiswamb]

You are Welcome. Mark the Thread as Resolved and give one of us a Reputation is we deserve it

Kind Regards

Vuyiswa Maseko