ASP.NET MVC - Publishing the Website

Learn how to publish an MVC application without using Visual Web Developer.

Publish Your Application Without Using Visual Web Developer

An ASP.NET MVC application can be published to a remote server by using the Publish commands in WebMatrix ,Visual Web Developer, or Visual Studio.

This function copies all your application files, controllers, models, images, and all the required DLL files for MVC, Web Pages, Razor, Helpers, and SQL Server Compact (if a database is used).

Sometimes you don't want to use this option. Maybe your hosting provider only supports FTP? Maybe you already have a web site based on classic ASP? Maybe you want to copy the files yourself? Maybe you want to use Front Page, Expression Web, or some other publishing software?

Will you get a problem? Yes, you will. But you can solve it.

To perform a web copy, you have to know how to include the right files, what DLL files to copy, and where store them.

Follow these steps:

1. Use the Latest Version of ASP.NET

Before you continue, make sure your hosting computer runs the latest version of ASP.NET (4.0).

2. Copy the Web Folders

Copy your website (all folders and content) from your development computer to an application folder on your remote hosting computer (server).

If your App_Data folder contains test data, don't copy the App_Data folder (see SQL Data below).

3. Copy the DLL Files

On the remote server create a bin folder in the root of your application. (If you have installed Helpers, you already have a bin folder)

Copy everything from your folders:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET Web Pages\v1.0\Assemblies

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET MVC 3\Assemblies

to your application's bin folder on the remote server.

4. Copy the SQL Server Compact DLL Files

If your application has a SQL Server Compact database (an .sdf file in App_Data folder), you must copy the SQL Server Compact DLL files:

Copy everything from your folder:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition\v4.0\Private

to your application's bin folder on the remote server.

Create (or edit) the Web.config file for your application:

5. Copy SQL Server Compact Data

Do you have .sdf files in your App_Data folder that contains test data?

Do you want to publish the test data to the remote server?

Most likely not.

If you have to copy the SQL data files (.sdf files), you should delete everything in the database, and then copy the empty .sdf file from your development computer to the server.

THAT'S IT. GOOD LUCK !