I would strongly recommend using Continuous Integration.
We use a combination of TeamCity for CI, Rake and Albacore for automating the build.
TeamCity will check the code out of your source code repository, then, using Rake, build the application, execute unit tests and even run your database scripts if you so desire. After a successful build you can package your source code in a zip file or copy it to a destination of your choice.
We use Git, although TeamCity works with all source control systems.
Using TeamCity and Rake would be similar to using CruiseControl and NANT, without the XML file editing. Of course, you can use TeamCity with NANT if you prefer.
A short sample pulled from a rakefile.rb which performs the build. IMHO, easier to read and debug than an XML file.
require 'albacore'
require 'rexml/document'
require 'find'
VERSION_NO = "1.0"
OUTPUT_PATH = "output"
WEBOUTPUT_PATH = "output/web"
ADMINOUTPUT_PATH = "output/admin"
CONFIG = "Release"
WEB_PATH = "app/Company.Website.Web"
ADMIN_PATH = "app/Company.Website.Admin"
PACKAGE_PATH = "build/package"
DB_SCRIPT_PATH = "Company.Website.DB"
SOLUTION = "Company.Website.sln"
ARTIFACTS_PATH = "d:/build/artifacts/"
DEPLOY_WEB_PATH = "d:/deploy/company/website/"
DEPLOY_ADMIN_PATH = "d:/deploy/company/admin/"
task :default => ['setuptest','assemblyinfo','config','msbuild','createdb','sqlcmd','deploy']
task :setuptest do |setup|
if ENV['BuildNumber'].nil? then ENV['BuildNumber'] = "000" end
VERSION_NO = VERSION_NO + '.' + ENV['BuildNumber']
puts 'Version Number : ' + VERSION_NO
ZIPFILE_WEB = 'Company.Website.Web.' + VERSION_NO
ZIPFILE_ADMIN = 'Company.Website.Admin.' + VERSION_NO
DB_SERVER = "WEB2"
DB_DATABASE = "Website"
CREATEDB_SCRIPT = "app/Company.Website.DB/00CreateDatabaseTEST.sql"
end
assemblyinfotask do |asm|
asm.version = VERSION_NO
asm.company_name = "Company Name"
asm.copyright = "Copyright 2010"
asm.output_file = "CommonAssemblyInfo.cs"
end
task :config do
FileUtils.cp 'NHibernate.test.config', 'NHibernate.config'
end
msbuildtask do |msb|
msb.properties = { :configuration => :Debug }
msb.targets [:Clean, :Build]
msb.solution = "Company.Website.sln"
end
sqlcmdtask :createdb do |sql|
puts "executing sql scripts..."
sql.log_level = :verbose
sql.path_to_command = "sqlcmd.exe"
sql.server = DB_SERVER
sql.database = "master"
sql.scripts << CREATEDB_SCRIPT
end
sqlcmdtask do |sql|
puts "executing sql scripts..."
sql.log_level = :verbose
sql.path_to_command = "sqlcmd.exe"
sql.server = DB_SERVER
sql.database = DB_DATABASE
sql.scripts << "app/Company.Website.DB/01CreateTables.sql"
sql.scripts << "app/Company.Website.DB/02InsertReferenceData.sql"
end
task :deployprep do
FileUtils.remove_dir 'app/Company.Website.Web/obj'
FileUtils.remove_dir 'app/Company.Website.Admin/obj'
end
ziptask :zipweb do |zip|
puts "creating zip package in " + ZIPFILE_WEB
zip.directories_to_zip = ["app/Company.Website.Web"]
zip.output_file = ZIPFILE_WEB + '.zip'
zip.output_path = File.dirname(__FILE__)
end
ziptask :zipadmin do |zip|
puts "creating zip package in " + ZIPFILE_ADMIN
zip.directories_to_zip = ["app/Company.Website.Admin"]
zip.output_file = ZIPFILE_ADMIN + '.zip'
zip.output_path = File.dirname(__FILE__)
end
Albacore is suite of Rake tasks specifically build for deploying .NET application.
Best Answer
Why not Django?
A model consisting of all the parameters (build number, filesystem location, name, and so on), and use built-in admin to edit and add those objects (or do it programmatically with a build script). Extend the built-in user object, wrap some generic views (object_detail, object_list) to display the list(s) of your products, etc. A simple join is all you need to display the list of products per user, which is abstracted with a decent ORM (or, use SQLAlchemy, if that's your bag.)
That's just an elevator pitch of how I personally would go about it. Django is designed to be "batteries included", so you'll find that most things (tedium you wouldn't really care about much for this application, really) are all set to go. User authentication, admin panel, etc.
It's Python, so I'm unsure if that's your skillset. However, I think it would be a solid tool for the job, given the information provided. If you're a fulltime sysadmin, I highly recommend learning it.