Archives

Archives / 2005 / August
  • Building Re-Usable ASP.NET User Control and Page Libraries with VS 2005

    One of the questions I’ve been asked a few times recently is whether it is still possible to build web projects that encapsulate common libraries of .ascx web user controls or .aspx pages with VS 2005 that can then be easily re-used across multiple other web projects (note: the quick answer is “yes").

  • Some techniques for better managing files in VS 2005 Web Projects

    I’ve seen several questions come up in the last few days regarding techniques for structuring project layouts with web projects in VS 2005.  In particular, I’ve received several good questions asking for ways to manage large image directories as well as temporary storage directories underneath web project roots.  One goal with both questions has been to find ways to avoid these files from showing up in the VS web project solution explorer and cluttering up the web project view, as well as to avoid having these files/directories be prompted to be added to source control during check-in (note: you can just unclick having these files added to source control – but having to-do so can be a pain). 

  • Using IIS with VS 2005 and the new Web Project system

    A number of people have asked me questions through my blog over the last few days about how VS 2005 uses and handles IIS (especially in cases of nested applications and virtual directories).  This blog entry provides more information on how this works, and hopefully clears up a few questions people might have.

  • VS 2005 Web Project System: What is it and why did we do it?

    There has been a lot of online discussion lately about the new web project system that is being introduced with VS 2005.  My goal with this post is to explain a little more about what it is, and provide some background as to the features it provides and the motivation we had in introducing it.

  • Quick Web Project System Post

    I've been on vacation the last few days in Mexico (and fly back Sunday night), so am just catching up on all the web project system threads that have been flying the last 48 hours (serves me right for finding an internet cafe to check my email when I'm not supposed to).

    I'm planning on posting a blog post on Monday or Tuesday when I get back that goes into the web project system in more detail and why we've made some of the changes we've made.  My sense in reading some of the recent comments is: 1) we haven't done a good job of explaining all the new capabilities that the new web project system provides (and there are a lot of good new features), and 2) we haven't done a good job of clarrifying people's concerns about the changes and what they might worry about loosing in terms of functionality as a result of them.

  • Obscure but cool feature in ASP.NET 2.0

    I learned about a neat little feature that I didn't know existed in ASP.NET 2.0 today that I thought I'd pass on.  It is a way to extend the attributes supported by the <%@ Page %> directive at the top of a .aspx page.  Previously the supported page directive attributes were hard-coded and the parser only supported the specific ones that ASP.NET knew about out of the box.  With ASP.NET 2.0, if you declare a base-class with a public property, you can now set it using a page directive attribute.