Publishing ASP.NET web site in Visual Studio and deploying it in IIS

Publishing/deploying ASP.NET web sites is easier and more efficient with Microsoft’s deployment tool, called Web Deploy. I will be showing how to publish and deploy a web site step by step.

What you will use is:

• Visual Studio (the tool in which you develop your web site)
• Web Deploy (the tool that installs necessary components)
• IIS (the tool that publishes your web site )

End-to-end steps:

1. In Visual Studio, Go to “Build > Publish projectname“. In the wizard, configure the settings:
   • Profile: Create a new profile if there is no one exits
   • Connection: Select “Web Deploy Package” in Publish Method list. Choose a path
   • Settings: Keep it as is
   • Preview: Click “Publish”. We will use the zip file in step 3

     

2. In the computer that you will publish your web site on IIS, download and install Web Deploy: http://www.iis.net/downloads/microsoft/web-deploy
3. Open IIS:

• • Create a new web site
  • Click on the web site. Click the link “Import Application“
  • Specify the “zip” file you created in step 1

    

Yes, that’s all!

Note: If you get an error saying that some dll files are missing (example error message is below), find those files in the computer you use for developing and copy them under C:\inetpub\wwwroot\websitename\applicationname\bin