PreCompile or Publish websites in Visual Developer 2008 Express Edition

One of the most wanted feature missing in Visual Developer 2008 Express Edition is precompiling/publish feature which is available in Visual Studio Professional Edition.

I don't want to deploy the website with code behind and class source files. So, I googled on this and found interesting sources online.

Have consolidated and below are the steps to precompile/publish your websites in Visual Developer 2008 Express Edition

1. Launch Visual Web Developer Express Edition.
2. Select Tools > External Tools to access the External Tools dialog.
3. Type Pre-&Compile (non-updatable) in the Title text box. The ampersand in the title means that the character immediately after will be defined as a hotkey for the menu item.
4. Click the browse button next to the Command text box and browse to aspnet_compiler.exe in the Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727 directory.
5. Click Open to select the aspnet_compiler.exe application.
6. Type -p " in the Arguments text box.
7. Click the right-facing arrow button on the right edge of the Arguments text box and select Project Directory, as shown in below screenshot

You configure the arguments for aspnet_compiler.exe by using the menu to the right of the Arguments text box.

1. Enter a closing quote at the end of the arguments you've entered so far. At this point, the Arguments text box should contain the following text:

   -p "$(ProjectDir)" 

2. Press the spacebar to add a space at the end of the arguments you've entered so far, and then type -v / ".
   
3. Click the right-facing arrow button at the right edge of the Arguments text box again and select Project Directory.
   
4. Type \..\Compiled" after the existing arguments. At this point, the Arguments text box should contain the following text:
   
   

   -p "$(ProjectDir)" -v / "$(ProjectDir)\..\Compiled"

   
   
5. Check the Close on Exit check box.
   
6. Click OK to add the new external tool to the list.
   

You now have a new menu option in Visual Web Developer Express Edition (see below screenshot) that enables you to precompile your web application as a non-updatable application.

That's it!!! Now compile/publish your websites in Visual Developer 2008 Express Edition and start rocking!!!