Package/Publish Web Tab, Project Properties

The Package/Publish Web tab on the Web application project Properties page lets you provide settings for how to create and publish a Web deployment package. A Web deployment package is a folder or a compressed (.zip) file that contains the files that are required in order to deploy a Web application. For more information about deployment, deployment packages, and the Visual Studio one-click publish feature, see ASP.NET Deployment Content Map

To access this tab on the Properties page

1. In Visual Studio, open a Web application project.

2. Right click the project name in Solution Explorer and select Properties (C#) or MyProject (Visual Basic) to display the Properties page.

3. Click the Package/Publish Web tab.

UI Elements

• Configuration
  Specifies the configuration type that the settings on this tab apply to. For example, you can specify package settings for a debug release (Debug) that are different from the settings for a production release (Release). When you select a configuration type, the settings that you specify are stored with that configuration type.

• Platform
  Specifies the platform that the settings apply to.

• Items to deploy (applies to all deployment methods)
  Specifies settings that apply no matter which deployment method you choose. (You specify a deployment method in the Publish Web dialog box.)

  The drop-down list in this section enables you to specify which files you want to copy to the destination server when the project is deployed.

• Exclude generated debug symbols
  Specifies whether generated debug symbols (.pdb files) should be deployed to the destination server.

  Debug symbols files are typically generated when you build a Web application using a debug configuration. Typically you would not deploy debug symbols to a production server.

• Exclude files from the App_Data folder
  Specifies whether the files in the App_Data folder should be deployed to the destination server.

  The App_Data folder typically contains test databases during the development cycle. If a site is being moved to a production environment, the contents of this folder might not be appropriate for a production environment.

• Items to deploy (applies to Web Deployment Tool only)
  Specifies settings that apply if you select the Web Deploy deployment method. (You specify a deployment method in the Publish Web dialog box.) These settings also apply when you create deployment packages.

• Include all databases configured in Package/Publish SQL tab
  Specifies whether database scripts for the databases that are configured in the Package/Publish SQL tab should be generated.

• Include all IIS settings as configured in IIS Manager (used only for IIS Web projects)
  Specifies that the IIS settings from the source computer (the open IIS Web project) should be propagated to the destination computer.

  Note

     Inherited IIS settings are not propagated to the destination server. For example, suppose that the IIS Web application that you want to deploy is under the default Web site on the source server, and the default Web site has Windows authentication set to true. If you deploy this site to the default Web site on a server that has Windows authentication set to false for the default Web site, Windows authentication will be false for the deployed Web site even if you select the Include all IIS settings as configured in IIS Manager check box.

• Include application pool settings used by this Web project
  Specifies whether application pool settings from the source server (the current IIS Web project) should be propagated to the destination server.

• Create deployment package as a .zip file
  Specifies that the deployment package should be created in the form of a compressed (.zip) file. If this option is not selected, a Web package is created that uses a folder structure.

• Location where the package will be created
  Specifies where to create the Web package when the package is created by using Visual Studio.

• IIS Web site/application name to be used on the destination server
  Specifies the name of the Web site and application in IIS Manager on the destination server.

  Note

  The default value ("Default Web Site") for the Web site will not work correctly if your operating system uses IIS 6 (Windows Server 2003) and is a language version other than English. In that case you must enter a value for the Web site.

• Physical path of the web on the destination server (used only when IIS settings are included for deployment)
  Specifies where to copy the Web package files on the destination server.

• Password used to encrypt secure IIS settings
  Specifies an encryption key to use when the deployment process encrypts secure IIS settings.

  Security Note
  This password is stored in plain text in the deployment package .cmd file.

See Also

Concepts

ASP.NET Deployment Content Map