Using the Visual Studio 2005 Web Application Project with MCMS SP2

Introduction
With the recent release of Service Pack 2 for MCMS, it is now possible to develop MCMS applications using Visual Studio 2005. Visual Studio 2005 offers a vastly enhanced design time experience and significantly reduces the time to develop solutions. One of the most useful aspects of Visual Studio 2005 for MCMS developers is the improved design time Web designer, which amongst a myriad of new features includes superb support for HTML validation. However with Service Pack 2 MCMS Applications are developed using the new 'Web Site' Visual Studio project type, which has a number of MCMS integration issues and causes an undesirable design time experience for developers.

This article details an approach to using the Visual Studio 2005 Web Application Project to avoid problems associated with the 'CMS' Virtual Directory and the default Item Templates.

When creating a new MCMS Web Application using Visual Studio 2005, the wizard will create the 'CMS' Virtual Directory in IIS. It doesn't appear in the Solution Explorer until the Refresh button is clicked, or the project is closed and reloaded. Once it does appear, however it is considered part of the Web Site by Visual Studio. This means that the Web Author files are included in the build of the Web Site. This causes three main issues for MCMS developers:

1. Web Author files are included in pre-build validation.
   If Include Accessibility Validation is selected in Build Options, the Web Author files are validated and fail pretty badly! The Web Site won't build until all 14 errors (in the default Web Author files) are corrected or Accessibility Validation is disabled.
    
2. The Web Author files are easily accessible and can be modified in Visual Studio.
   Whilst the files are read only by default, hitting Save followed by Overwrite will make changes to files that Microsoft say you should never touch and won't support your deployment if you do (even if you are fixing the above accessibility issues!).
    
3. Any additional files in the 'CMS' path with be included in the build and possibly cause the build to fail.
   If you have installed additional files for the Web Author, or are using support files for the excellent Telerik r.a.d Editor or MCMS Controls Suite, these files will be included in a build, even though you don't want these files to be built!

Because the Web Author has to be an Alias, there is no easy means to exclude it from the build. One potential workaround is to make the Web Author an Application within IIS, build the Web Site and then revert the Web Author back to an alias. This is messy and makes the debug experience painful. Another potential option is to use the Exclude From Project option, but this renames the files with a .exclude extension (which will break the Web Author) and every file (301 by default) has to be excluded manually.

Some of these problems and others are also faced by ASP.NET developers and those who are generally unhappy with the new Web Site project model. This has prompted the Web Tools team to produce the Visual Studio 2005 Web Application Project, which can also provide a solution for MCMS developers.

Note: The Visual Studio 2005 Web Application Project is currently in Beta and expected to ship this Spring.

Creating MCMS Applications with the Visual Studio 2005 Web Application Project.
After downloading and installing the Visual Studio 2005 Web Application Project you will have a new project type, ASP.NET Web Application which is available under the language specific project type of your choosing. Follow the steps below to use it with MCMS Service Pack 2.

1. Create a new MCMS Web Site.
   1. From the File menu, click New, followed by New Web Site...
   2. Select the MCMS Web Application icon and enter MCMS_VS_Support in the Name text box and click OK.
      
      Note: This is simply a mechanism to get the MCMS Template Explorer active in Visual Studio.
    
2. Add a new ASP.NET Web Application to the solution.
   1. From the File menu, click Add, followed by Project.
   2. In the New Project dialog, click the ASP.NET Web Application icon, and enter a name in the Name textbox. Click OK.
   3. The project will be created and opened in Visual Studio 2005.
       
3. Add the required MCMS references and files.
   1. In the Solution Explorer, right click the project created in step two followed by Set As Start Up Project.
   2. In the Solution Explorer, right click the References folder for the project created in step two, followed by Add Reference...
   3. In the Add Reference dialog, click the Browse tab.
   4. In the Look in combo box, navigate to c:\Program Files\Microsoft Content Management Server\Server\bin.
   5. Select the following assemblies:
      Microsoft.Content.Management.Common.dll
      Microsoft.Content.Management.Publishing.dll
      Microsoft.Content.Management.Publishing.Extensions.Placeholders.dll
      Microsoft.Content.Management.Publishing.Extensions.Placeholders.Office.dll
      Microsoft.Content.Management.Web.dll
      Microsoft.Content.Management.WebAuthor.dll
      Microsoft.Content.Management.WebControls.dll
   6. Click OK.
   7. In the Solution Explorer, right click the References folder for the project created in step two, followed by Add Reference...
   8. In the Add Reference dialog, click the Browse tab.
   9. In the Look in combo box, navigate to c:\Program Files\Microsoft Internet Explorer WebControls.
   10. Select the Microsoft.Web.UI.Controls.dll assembly and click OK.
   11. Drag and drop the Console folder in the MCMS_VS_Support Web Site to the Project created in step two.
   12. Drag and drop the web.config file in the MCMS_VS_Support Web Site to the Project created in step two.
   13. Click Yes when prompted by the Destination File Exists dialog.
   14. Right click the default.aspx file, followed by Delete and OK.
        
4. Configure IIS.
   1. Open Internet Information Services and create a new Virtual Directory for the project created in step two above.
   2. Create the 'CMS' alias under the Virtual Directory just created.
      (ensure that the the application has Windows Authentication enabled, and the alias has Anonymous enabled.)
       
5. Configure Project Properties.
   1. Right click the project created in step two, and click Properties.
   2. Click the Web tab.
   3. Select the Use IIS Web Server radio button, and enter the URL to the Virtual Directory created in step four in the Url text box.
   4. Save your project.

Click here to download a project template for the above solution.

Known Problems with this Solution.
Because this solution does not address the MCMS Template Explorer window adequetly there is the requirement to browse for the Template Gallery Item's Template File as the Template Explorer opens in the Virtual Directory associated with the MCMS_VS_Support application.

In addition, this beta release of the Visual Studio 2005 Web Application Project does not support Design mode drag and drop for User Controls.