How to *not* deploy 2 files in web project?

Question

User1331336983 posted

 I have a big web project that has been previously deployed to a Test Server.  In WDP I'm using "Merge each individual folder output to its own assembly" since we have several folders that contain files named the same as files in other folders.  In the web project App_Data folder I have about 10 xml files, and 2 of those files are updatable through the web app on the Test server, so I don't want to overlay those - I want to leave those in place, especially since they both have additional security settings to make them updatable.  I found that if I use "ExcludeFromBuild" item, the things in the "Include" don't get deployed at all, and since the deployment seems to clear out the destination first, the ExcludeFromBuild items end up being "removed" from the target.

 

I guess my first general questions is...is it most common to deploy locally first, and then XCOPY files from that local deployment to the target server?  Or, is it most common to deploy directly to the target server?

 

My second more specific question is, how can I use WDP to leave 2 files in place on the target server while deploying the rest of the web project?

 

Thanks for any help or guidance.

 

Answer 1

User-240370940 posted

In your case i'll prefere youre first solution. Deploy local and then xcopy to exclude the critical files.

 

Answer 2

User-2005691517 posted

 The procedure I follow is to build the app locally first and then XCopy it over to the production server.

This way, I can control the files being overwritten and exclude the files /folders that I do not want to overwrite.