Web deployment project will not expose Publish option

Question

User-2144198429 posted

For some unknown reason, my Web Deployment project is suddenly not allowing me to publish to my remote host  Cannot find any information on 'Unload Project' option - should I just try it ? Here is what I am facing now (selecting the WDP does not expose the Publish menu option (greyed out)):

Opened the project file for my WDP and found these warnings (but the whole solution builds without error):

 

Warning	1	The element 'PropertyGroup' in namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003' has invalid child element 'SourceWebPhysicalPath' in namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003'. List of possible elements expected: 'Property' in namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003'.	C:\Documents and Settings\johna\Local Settings\Temp\Dir1\ShowSummaryData.vbproj_deploy.wdproj	12	6	Miscellaneous Files

I get the same warning complaining that 'EnableUpdateable' is an invalid child element.   

Here is the entire project file pasted below:

 

<!-- 
  Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Web Deployment Project 
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=55111
-->
<Project DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>
    <Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">AnyCPU</Platform>
    <ProductVersion>8.0.60403</ProductVersion>
    <SchemaVersion>2.0</SchemaVersion>
    <ProjectGuid>{A2101C6F-D38C-490F-9A11-D94BF84507BA}</ProjectGuid>
    <SourceWebPhysicalPath>..\ShowSummaryData</SourceWebPhysicalPath>
    <SourceWebProject>{2601D3A9-D3C9-41C7-9ED1-495477AB1DF5}|ShowSummaryData\ShowSummaryData.vbproj</SourceWebProject>
    <SourceWebVirtualPath>/ShowSummaryData.vbproj</SourceWebVirtualPath>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|AnyCPU' ">
    <DebugSymbols>true</DebugSymbols>
    <OutputPath>.\Debug</OutputPath>
    <EnableUpdateable>true</EnableUpdateable>
    <UseMerge>true</UseMerge>
    <SingleAssemblyName>ShowSummaryData.vbproj_deploy</SingleAssemblyName>
    <UseWebConfigReplacement>false</UseWebConfigReplacement>
    <VirtualDirectoryAlias>ChartViewerBeta</VirtualDirectoryAlias>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|AnyCPU' ">
    <DebugSymbols>false</DebugSymbols>
    <OutputPath>.\Release</OutputPath>
    <EnableUpdateable>true</EnableUpdateable>
    <UseMerge>true</UseMerge>
    <SingleAssemblyName>ShowSummaryData.vbproj_deploy</SingleAssemblyName>
    <VirtualDirectoryAlias>
    </VirtualDirectoryAlias>
    <UseWebConfigReplacement>false</UseWebConfigReplacement>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
  </ItemGroup>
  <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\WebDeployment\v8.0\Microsoft.WebDeployment.targets" />
  <!-- To modify your build process, add your task inside one of the targets below and uncomment it. 
       Other similar extension points exist, see Microsoft.WebDeployment.targets.
  <Target Name="BeforeBuild">
  </Target>
  <Target Name="BeforeMerge">
  </Target>
  <Target Name="AfterMerge">
  </Target>
  <Target Name="AfterBuild">
  </Target>
  -->
</Project>

  

 

Answer 1

User796746907 posted

Hi John,

You won't see the Publish menu option available when a WDP is selected.  If you want to deploy your website using a WDP and the configurations you made in there, all you need to do is build the WDP.  You will see your precompiled website built to the location you specified as the "Target Folder:" of the WDP (on your local system).  When you open the actual WDP file and see the warnings about schema, that is expected.  They are harmless.

If you wanted to deploy your website using the Build->Publish menu item, you will have to first select the Website project in the solution explorer.  Then the Publish Website feature will become enabled.  This feature is different from WDP but will allow you to specify a remote server destination as your output folder.

Hope this helps,
Alison

Answer 2

User-2144198429 posted

 Thank you - this did help.

Yesterday, I thought I was doing exactly what you said above but I was not seeing the Publish menu item exposed in the Build choices when I had my web app project selected. In fact, it seemed intermittent which made no sense to me. But today, it behaved like you said. Maybe I was just having a bad day. Thank you - marked above as the Answer.  

Answer 3

User-2062798237 posted

Hi Alison,

how can I use the Build->Publish command to publish the compiled WDP output instead of the Website Project source code? I don't understand why this seems to be not possible...