Package/Publish Web Tab, Project Properties

The Package/Publish Web tab on the web application project Properties page lets you specify settings that are used when you deploy the project.

Note

This topic applies to Visual Studio 2012 and Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web. The topic covers features that are included in the latest Visual Studio Web Publish Update available as of June, 2013. Most of these features are also available in Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Web Developer 2010 Express when you install the Web Publish Update.

This topic applies to the following products and assumes that you have installed the latest release of the Visual Studio Web Publish Update:

• Visual Studio 2012

• Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web

• Visual Studio 2010

• Visual Web Developer 2010 Express

Some of the settings that you can specify in the Package/Publish Web tab can also be specified in a publish profile. If any settings are specified both in a publish profile and on the Package/Publish Web tab, the publish profile setting takes precedence. (The Include all databases configured in Package/Publish SQL tab is an exception to this rule.)

For information about how to configure publish profiles, see How to: Deploy a Web Project Using One-Click Publish in Visual Studio. For more information about how to deploy a web application project by using Visual Studio, see Web Deployment Overview for Visual Studio and ASP.NET.

To access this tab on the Properties page

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

2. In Solution Explorer, open the shortcut menu and choose Properties (C#) or MyProject (Visual Basic) to display the Properties page.

3. Choose the Package/Publish Web tab.

   

UI Elements

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

• Platform
  Specifies the platform that the settings apply to.

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

  The drop-down list includes the following options:

  • Only files needed to run this application

    Files that are not required in order to run the site, such as source code files that are compiled into assemblies, are not deployed to the destination server.

  • All files in this project

    All files included in the project are deployed to the destination server. Files that are in the project folder but are not included in the project are excluded.

  • All files in this project folder

    All files in the project folder are deployed to the destination server, even if they are excluded from the project.

  For more information about how Visual Studio determines which files to deploy, see Why don't all of the files in my project folder get deployed? in Web Deployment FAQ for Visual Studio and ASP.NET.

• 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.

• 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 profile.) These settings also apply when you create deployment packages.

• Include all databases configured in Package/Publish SQL tab
  Specifies whether Visual Studio will deploy databases as well as files. Although the check box label only mentions the Package/Publish SQL tab, clearing this check box also disables database deployment that is configured in the Publish Web wizard.

• Include all IIS settings as configured in IIS Express
  Specifies that the IIS settings from the source computer (the open IIS Web project) should be propagated to the destination computer. This option is disabled if the project does not use IIS or IIS Express, and the option will only work with the Web Deploy publish method.

  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.

• 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

Web Deployment Overview for Visual Studio and ASP.NET

Other Resources

Web Deployment Content Map for Visual Studio and ASP.NET