App_Code and server

Question

I'm having a "tiny" issue with my App_Code folders.

I'm learning ASP.NET and, therefore, ordered a webserver with the support of ASP.NET 4.0. I'm using Visual Web Developer to program my webpages. When I upload my website to this webserver everything runs fine.

However, if I then add another web project to my server, my App_Code folder gets all messy. The server wants all my class files in the App_Code folder in the root. Is there any way I can create subdirectories in my App_Code folder or something to keep my projects organized or am I missing the point here?

Answer 1

Alright I found a solution to my problem. Although most of your answers might work aswell, this proved to be the best in my case. I created a subdomain and threw all files into that folder and it worked fine.

Answer 2

If you have access to a hosting control panel it's probably best to configure your hosting environment with a virtual folder for your second website and run it from the sub folder, e.g. www.example.com/project-b. The first site can still be running in the root folder, e.g. www.example.com.

So both sites will essentially be isolated from each other (just like they are now isolated as two separate projects in Visual Web Developer Express). And both sites have their own App_Code folder (and web.config file).

If you don't have access to a configuration panel, most hosting providers are willing to add a virtual folder for you, since it's really not a special requirement.

The virtual folder should show up as a regular folder in your FTP folder, usually inside the www or wwwroot folder. Now you can copy your project files into that folder.

Take care to use root-relative paths for URLs in your second project, so all links will work even when the website is run from the subfolder. Root-relative URLs look like this:

<asp:HyperLink runat="server" NavigateUrl="~/Default.aspx"  />
<asp:Image runat="server" NavigateUrl="~/images/logo.png"  />

This will automatically go to www.example.com/project-b/Default.aspx and www.example.com/project-b/images/logo.png when the website is deployed in the virtual folder.

If you need to re-use code from one site in the other, it's typically best to move such code into a separate Class Library project type, and then add a reference to that project to each website project (right-click the website project, choose Add reference..., then select the Projects tab and select the Class Library project).

Answer 3

You should try to avoid using the App_Code folder for your own stuff, especially if you're using a web application project.

Whenever you convert a website to a web application project, the process actually renames your existing App_Code directory to Old_App_Code.

See Here, even though this is specific to converting .net 2.0 apps, I believe it still holds true in 4.0 since converting a 4.0 app does the same thing.:

VERY, VERY IMPORTANT: Because ASP.NET 2.0 tries to dynamically compile any classes it finds under the /App_Code directory of an application at runtime, you explictly DO NOT want to store classes that you compile as part of your VS 2005 Web Application Project under an "app_code" folder. If you do this, then the class will get compiled twice -- once as part of the VS 2005 Web Application Project assembly, and then again at runtime by ASP.NET. The result will most likely be a "could not load type" runtime exception -- caused because you have duplicate type names in your application. Instead, you should store your class files in any other directory of your project other than one named "app_code". This will be handled automatically by the "Convert to Web Applicaiton" command. This command will rename the folder Old_App_Code.

Answer 4

You should take a look at codeSubDirectories in the web.config