R – Precompiling asp.net solutions for deployment

asp.netaspnet-compilervisual-studio-2008

I'm using aspnet_compiler.exe to precompile my application for deployment.

However, I don't think it's working, for two reasons:

I see my applications assemblies under C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files, even if i manually clear out this directory & restart the app.
The performance hit to JIT the application is present. This is very specifically what I'd like to avoid, even though it is 'one time'.

Here's specifically what I'm doing:

Build the solution in studio.
execute aspnet_compiler.exe -v /Foo -p c:\builddir c:\deploydir (where Foo is the vdir my app runs under, c:\builddir is where studio builds to, and c:\deploydir is the location where
I then copy c:\deploydir to the web server.
I access http://localhost/Foo
After 30 seconds, the app displays, and I can see that assemblies have been generated in Temporary ASP.NET Files.

If it's notable, I'm using .net 3.5 SP1/Studio 2008 SP1. compilation debug=false is also set in web.config.

Best Answer

Your two points are moot:

ASP.NET precompilation doesn't result in native image generation so JIT overhead will still be there. There might be a worker process creation overhead too.
ASP.NET precompilation has the option to compile everything (incl. ASPX stuff, ...) or just source code (which you can specify with the -u switch). In case of the latter, those assemblies will still be generated for ASPX files. In case of the former, what you are seeing is not assembly generation. The runtime just copies and caches the assemblies in /bin in Temporary ASP.NET Files. You can confirm this fact by comparing the assemblies byte by byte and see that they are identical.

Website:

The Web Site project is compiled on the fly. You end up with a lot more DLL files, which can be a pain. It also gives problems when you have pages or controls in one directory that need to reference pages and controls in another directory since the other directory may not be compiled into the code yet. Another problem can be in publishing.

If Visual Studio isn't told to re-use the same names constantly, it will come up with new names for the DLL files generated by pages all the time. That can lead to having several close copies of DLL files containing the same class name, which will generate plenty of errors. The Web Site project was introduced with Visual Studio 2005, but it has turned out not to be popular.

Web Application:

The Web Application Project was created as an add-in and now exists as part of SP 1 for Visual Studio 2005. The main differences are the Web Application Project was designed to work similarly to the Web projects that shipped with Visual Studio 2003. It will compile the application into a single DLL file at build time. To update the project, it must be recompiled and the DLL file published for changes to occur.

Another nice feature of the Web Application project is it's much easier to exclude files from the project view. In the Web Site project, each file that you exclude is renamed with an excluded keyword in the filename. In the Web Application Project, the project just keeps track of which files to include/exclude from the project view without renaming them, making things much tidier.

Reference

The article ASP.NET 2.0 - Web Site vs Web Application project also gives reasons on why to use one and not the other. Here is an excerpt of it:

You need to migrate large Visual Studio .NET 2003 applications to VS 2005? use the Web Application project.

You want to open and edit any directory as a Web project without creating a project file? use Web Site project.

You need to add pre-build and post-build steps during compilation? use Web Application project.

You need to build a Web application using multiple Web projects? use the Web Application project.

You want to generate one assembly for each page? use the Web Site project.

You prefer dynamic compilation and working on pages without building entire site on each page view? use Web Site project.

You prefer single-page code model to code-behind model? use Web Site project.

Web Application Projects versus Web Site Projects (MSDN) explains the differences between the web site and web application projects. Also, it discusses the configuration to be made in Visual Studio.

C# – Compile Error CS0433 on pre-compiled ASP.NET 2.0 site

killing Cassini instances as above didn't work for me. ScottGu posted about this issue

setting the batch="false" attribute on the compilation section in web.config worked for me.

<configuration>

   <system.web>
       <compilation debug="false" batch="false"></compilation>
   </system.web>

</configuration>

This tells ASP.NET to dynamically compile individual .aspx/.ascx files into separate assemblies. This avoids the circular reference issue that triggers the exception.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

.net – ASP.NET Web Site or ASP.NET Web Application

Website:

Web Application:

C# – Compile Error CS0433 on pre-compiled ASP.NET 2.0 site

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