I am publishing my node js site to azure using this tutorial - http://blogs.technet.com/b/sams_blog/archive/2014/11/14/azure-websites-deploy-node-js-website-using-visual-studio.aspx
I get the following error, as mentioned in one of the comments on the blog, any idea what this error is about and how do I fix this ? I am able to run my app locally no issues with that.
Error: InvalidParameter
Parameter name: index
P.s : the site is like a very basic "Hello world" kind of site, this is the first time I am using and deploying to azure too.
I created a new project as a "Blank Azure Node.js web application", and replaced the resulting package.json and .js files with what I had before, and it publishes fine now
All was working fine for and suddenly got the error! I pretty sure it something in the project as it's now happening on vs2013 and vs2015 on different computers.
Its something to do with Templates after a lot of searching. For me Azure TFS CI got things working again if possible for you?
I had this issue with some projects but not with others, all created in a similar way. So I went thought every change and every setting I could until eventually i worked it out. I didn't want to give up and just remake them.
Basically its file paths, the first thing you notice is that it errors very quickly compared to a usual publish, the first thing that is triggered is a build but unlike heavy framework languages there not really much to actually build.
Like all builds for VS it pops out a bin folder take not of where this appears. This is the key, you want this to appear in the root of your deployment usually at the same level as the publish profile.
Before I moved my projects to VS, TFS and Azure, I used to use git and used the azure push and deployment as part of git, so I instinctively structured my folders in the similar fashion with src folder and all the extra VS baggage in the a directory higher.
This is where I noticed bin folder, so re-structured my solution and made changes to .njsproj (notepad) and moved to be inline with source code and re-added it yo my solution.
Technically speaking this a bug within VS as it allows to create the project and specify different locations which is all fine unless you want to build and publish locally.
Once you get your head around what is going on you should be able to solve this problem easily and not make the same mistake in the future. If anyone is still confused comment and ill grab some screen shots.
I have a solution in Visual Studio Team Services that has 2 Web Applications (specifically one project for WebAPI services and another for the actual site using MVC).
I'm trying to set up continuous delivery to Azure but all the information that I can find seems to assume that you only have a single Web Application within your solution (which seems a little unrealistic for all but the simplest of projects!).
The out of box continuous delivery process seems to just pick and deploy the first Web Application it finds (which isn't necessarily the same project each time!)
I've tried specifying the Deployment Settings file, but that seems to affect the destination rather than the project being deployed since again, it seems to just "pick" a project to deploy, and each time it deploys every single compiled assembly plus all dependencies rather than just the binaries and dependencies of the project actually being deployed, which can cause issues with MVC finding duplicate controller matches for a given name (this can of course be fixed by specifying the namespace of the controllers within the route configuration, but that seems less than ideal, and still doesn't fix the entire problem).
Ideally I'd like to find a way to deploy both projects with a single build, but as a temporary solution I'd be happy with 2 builds that are both triggered by a check-in of the single solution, that each reliably deploy 1 of the 2 Web Applications.
Does anyone know if this is possible? I guess I could write my own custom build template, but I'm hoping there is an easier answer (not least because I can't imagine that this isn't a problem being faced by other people!)
I did find this question TFSPreview.com and Azure continuous deployment for multiple solutions in TFS but since that's quite old and is specifically talking about AzureWebRoleProjects rather than Web Applications being deployed to the newer Azure Websites feature, I'm hoping that there is a more positive answer?
This is possible with multiple build configurations. In addition to Debug and Release you could specify two more, one for each app.
You can find these in Visual Studio at Build -> Configuration Manager. And then in the configurations specify only one of them to be built. Then running MSBuild with that configuration will output only one WebDeploy package.
I have an MVC Web App that I am trying to get set up with continuous integration on Azure and Visual Studio Online. Basically, the solution has 4 projects within, 3 of which go to supporting the 1 Web App. The problem is, when I set up continuous deployment on Azure, it builds the entire solution and doesn't know which project I want for the root URL.
When I download the drop folder that is produced by the compilation it looks like this.
drop/lots of dlls including the dll of my web app.
drop/_PublishedWebsites
drop/_PublishedWebsites/MyWebApp (including its bin, content, fonts etc)
drop/_PublishedWebsites/MyWebApp_Package
and some other folders as well.
How can I configure the continuous deployment to put my Web App at the root of the website??
Thanks
Looks like the dumb solution is to rename your "main" project to be the alphabetically first project in the solution. Microsoft suggests this, or having only one project per solution. Either way, this is the most reliable and simple way to get the desired effect.
I am starting work on a SharePoint 2010 Project and using the Visual Studio 2010 Built-In Magical Extension to do so. However, the turn-about cycle to re-deploy the solution is terribly long (build, package, retract, deploy, then restart, etc.) The only changes during this time have been to the individual Web Parts.
In the past I have used WSP Builder and for minor updates on the dev box just using the Copy-to-GAC/Copy-to-Hive features which has a much shorter turn-about to see changes to a Web Part. I was wondering if there was a similar (or alternative) method to get a similar quick turn-about in VS2010? The Mapped Folders address say, a changing view, but it's the Web Parts that interest me most now.
Please, if you are going to say "but you should always re-deploy", please do so only as a suggestion with other [useful] advice -- the testing servers get a full re-deploy. This is simply about helping me reduce the development cycle times.
Copy to 14 / Copy to GAC functionality in Visual Studio 2010
If you deploy the BIN directory rather than the GAC then you can just do a copy on postbuild - no restart/deploy etc needed.
Can anyone suggest the best deployment approach for VSeWSS 1.2 based development?
I have been working with this for more than 6 months now.. has anyone tried using WSPBuilder for this purpose?
I Personally prefer using stsdev (http://www.codeplex.com/stsdev). I've used both WSPbuilder and STSDEV. Stsdev offers some development project templates that you create using an stsdev gui, not like the standard project templates you create using new > project.
The stsdev projects has got a Rootfiles folder, which corresponds to the '12 hive' on the destination server. All the files you put into Rootfiles folder and subfolders, is automatically added to solutionpackage.ddf and manifest.xml, so you dont have to worry about editing these files and compiling them using makecab.
Another great thing that stsdev offers is build targets, like build, deploy, redeploy, Refresh Assembly in GAC, retract and upgrade. So stsdev projects automatically compiles the binaries, builds the .wsp package, and runs the stsadm commands according to the build type. You can customise the behavior of the build targets if you like, by editing the Microsoft.SharePoint.targets located in the DeploymentFiles folder of the project. As long as you are only working on the code, Refresh Assembly in GAC is a very fast build method, and you can see the changes in sharepoint immediately after.
An disadvantage of stsdev is if you use source control, the manifest.xml and SolutionPackage.ddf if not checked out, are read only, and will result in a compile error (i usually check out all the files in DeploymentFiles folder when working on a project). So you have to check out these files before building. Another thing is that it takes all the files under the Rootfiles, including the hidden vssver2.scc files if you are using source control. The project still builds and deploys without problems, but the files are in the wsp package, and copied to the '12 hive' on the destination server.
I think that compared to WSPbuilder, stsdev lets you customize just about anything of the development project, which i haven't been able to do in WSPbuilder.
You should do yourself a favor and look at VSeWSS 1.3. See Kirk Evans' blog for a good video overview: http://blogs.msdn.com/kaevans/archive/2009/03/13/sharepoint-developer-series-part-1-introducing-vsewss-1-3.aspx.
Major downside could be that it requires Visual Studio 2008.
I have been a STSDEV advocate, but am now leaning towards VSeWSS 1.3. My suspicion is that other WSPBuilder and STSDEV users will feel the same over time, but I haven't finished my evaluation of it yet.
We have always used WSPBuilder. This is best if you are looking to create wsp's.
It also provides a VS Add-in. You can build, deploy, upgrade etc. right from VS. Provides VS templates like Blank features, Web Part Feature, Feature with Receiver, Workflow feature, Event Handler, Item Template etc...
We manage 20+ projects with WSPBuilder
As Kirk Liemohn points out, you really should upgrade to VSeWSS 1.3. We took lots of customer feedback and there's lots of new features for developers in this version.
It includes quick deploy commands for deploying just the new binary or just the files into the SharePoint 12 folder structure. It also runs on x64 OS with Visual Studio 2008. It has command line support.
Available here
I prefer WSPBuilder as well. I don't have any problem with not being able to configure WSPBuilder the way I want it. In the latest version you can override its settings for each project or developer individually should you want to.
There is also a great add-on to WSPBuilder called SPVisualDev (codeplex.com/spvisualdev). Among other features it provides templates for adding ASCX files and it automatically pushes down files you have put in your project 12-hive folder from VS into the real 12-hive folder.. A huge time saver for me.
One downside to VSeWSS 1.2 was the lack of deploy to bin support. 1.3 adds that, but I haven't gotten it to work with referenced assemblies.
I've switched to STSDev 2008, a spinoff of the original STSDev with bug fixes. I've been working with the main contributors to add documentation to the project on CodePlex, but it's had 1900 downloads in little over a year.
I have used VSeWSS 1.2 and 1.3 and it does make deployment pretty easy. The question I had was, what do you guys usually do if you wanted to distribute the Web Parts to a customer administered SharePoint server.
Do you just take the Release folder and tell them to run the setup.bat script? Do you package it differently? Do you create custom installers?
VSeWSS 1.3 CTP is out now, and does have command-line support. That being said, the extensions are IMHO--and based on currently using them for a very large, very complex project--a pain in the rectum for the following reasons:
Every time you open a solution of extensions-enabled projects, you will have to sit and wait while the VSeWSS wheedles through each and every project, checking structure and trying to repackage each solution. The wait seems to grow exponentially with every extensions-enabled project you add to the solution. Given all of the waiting already included in doing SharePoint development inside a VM, the wait can be excruciating.
While VSeWSS is making its way through the projects, no indication is given of any work going on; VS simply becomes unresponsive.
Every time you close your VS solution with extensions-enabled projects, VSeWSS does the whole operation over again. Given that, by this time on my current project I'm usually 10 or so hours in the seat, and the last thing I want to do is wait longer to go home, this process is worse that excruciating (if that's even possible.) Most of the devs on our team just go to Task Manager and kill the devenv.exe. process rather than waiting.
We've had a very bad time of it trying to use the current (CTP) version of the extensions to do an integrated build. We've been having a number of problems using VSeWSS from the command line to do build and packaging of all of our projects.
In brief, use STSDEV. Setting up the folders is kind of a pain, but once you have everything scripted out, you're pretty much set.