Build and Deploy an ASP.NET Website on WHS

JohnBick · **Posted:** Sun Apr 13, 2008 6:49 pm

An interesting post on the MSWHS.COM website (courtest Phil Churchil)
(April 13, 2008 — Philip Churchill)

A great 7 part guide is available showing you how build and deploy an ASP.NET website using the Whiist Add-In on to your Windows Home Server.

Read the guide here: http://whswebsite.googlepages.com/

I haven't had the time to try this yet but it looks interesting!

Notice: (And thanks to ttoomm for the update!)

Google closed GooglePages and moved the website to Google Sites. The old URL, http://whswebsite.googlepages.com/, still works. It transfers to http://sites.google.com/site/whswebsite/. I am not sure how long this will last so please note the new address:

http://sites.google.com/site/whswebsite/

ttoomm · **Posted:** Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:55 pm

JohnBic-

Thank you for the mention.

I am one of the authors. ttoomm is the name I use in the guide.

What fastfoto (the other autor) and I wanted to do is/was write a guide to help others because we struggled so much getting our sites turned up. So our WHOLE purpose is to get this information out there and your metion will help that cause.

You say you've not read it yet so let me give you a very brief overview. The Guide basically combines the following:
* Free Microsoft Express software
* Free Starter Kits with all the website's code
* Free IIS Web Server OS That comes with Windows Home Server already
* Free Guide so others don't have to "bleed" like we did
To allow you to build and deploy a fully functional dynamic website on your WHS.

The website features:
* User Login
* User Forum
* News Articles
* Automatic Email Notifications
* Events Calendaring
* User Polls
* Membership Lists
* Animated Banners
* Two kinds of Photo Albums
* Three Built-in Themes

One last thing. Don't let the 7-Part thing scare you away.
1. Part 1 is short and just an intro (and a breif exercise for those who want to know if they are really capable of this)
http://whswebsite.googlepages.com/WhiistWebsiteConstructionPart1IntroE.pdf
2. Part 2 is all you need to have a full website
http://whswebsite.googlepages.com/WhiistWebsiteConstructionPart2Activa.pdf
3. Part 3 walks you through changing the color/layout Theme so the site truly becomes your unique website
http://whswebsite.googlepages.com/WhiistWebsiteConstructionPart3Makeit.pdf
4. The other parts are features additions like
Professional Touches
http://whswebsite.googlepages.com/Whiist_Website_Construction_Part4Fin.pdf
Trouble Shooting
http://whswebsite.googlepages.com/Whiist_Website_Construction_Part5Tro.pdf
Photo Album, GIF Animation & TestBed
http://whswebsite.googlepages.com/Whiist_Website_Construction_Part6Pho.pdf
Part 7 will include User Forum, Yser Polls and User Download

So it boils down to just Part 2 and you are up and running. Follow the walk through of Part 3 and you have a customized unique site.

Thanks again

JohnBick · **Posted:** Wed Apr 16, 2008 1:52 pm

ttoomm: Welcome!!

Any chance you could edit your post just above to include links to the actual sources? I suspect it would encourage a number of folks here to have a "go" at it!

ttoomm · **Posted:** Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:04 pm

JohnBick wrote:

ttoomm: Welcome!!

Any chance you could edit your post just above to include links to the actual sources? I suspect it would encourage a number of folks here to have a "go" at it!

JohnBick-

Ask and you shall receive.

As far as "welcome" goes, you invited me (sort of.) All I did was backtrack a bunch of hits and found your original mention.

Really, truly, all Fastphoto and I are interested in is getting this info into the hands of those who might be interested. What we found as we worked through this is that the information that was available was in little bits and pieces all over the place and generally assumed a starting level of knowledge that we did not have (most of the time we had to research what the help we found was really saying.)

So thank you again for the original post

JohnBick · **Posted:** Thu Apr 17, 2008 6:23 pm

Heck, after all those glowing words I'm getting tempted to try it myself!

ttoomm · **Posted:** Thu Apr 24, 2008 6:17 pm

Part 2 of the Tutorial mentioned in the posts above has been updated. ome folks were having difficulty with the database write permissions. Five steps, Steps 9 - 13, have been added to help make sure others do not have this problem

http://whswebsite.googlepages.com

ttoomm

ttoomm · **Posted:** Thu May 01, 2008 6:40 pm

Part 7 – WWC (Whist Website Construction) has been posted. This is the final document that is planned at this time. Part 7 includes modules for a User Forum, User Polls and Secure Downloads functionality.

This can be found with the previous six parts at
http://whswebsite.googlepages.com/

ttoomm · **Posted:** Thu May 22, 2008 10:26 pm

John and all the others that have visited off this thread, if it has been awhile since you have visited the http://whswebsite.googlepages.com/ site, you should go take a quick look again. As our counters show the Instructions have been fairly successful but that is not why another visit would be a good idea.

There is some new information and downloads you might find useful:
- There is a revised Starter Kit available for download. It includes three new themes, each with animations. And it has most of the fixes in Part 4 already done for you.
- If you have already started your site they have the three new themes as an add-on too
- There is an added FAQ’s for the most frequent mistakes
- There is also a clearly marked Help section

ttoomm · **Posted:** Mon Jun 09, 2008 12:26 am

WWC – Complete 7-Part Package Posted as a single Document

This post is to let you know that the Complete 7-Part WWC (Whist/WHS Website Creation/Construction) Instruction has been posted as a single MS Word document. The first page is a hyperlinked Table of Contents which adds greatly to the usefulness of the document. Heck, we wrote the Instructions and sometimes we forget what is covered in each of the seven Parts.

Take a look at: http://whswebsite.googlepages.com/

mentor · **Posted:** Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:15 am

ttoomm wrote:

WWC – Complete 7-Part Package Posted as a single Document

This post is to let you know that the Complete 7-Part WWC (Whist/WHS Website Creation/Construction) Instruction has been posted as a single MS Word document. The first page is a hyperlinked Table of Contents which adds greatly to the usefulness of the document. Heck, we wrote the Instructions and sometimes we forget what is covered in each of the seven Parts.

Take a look at: http://whswebsite.googlepages.com/

Thank You ttoomm for your guide it help me in getting my MSS website up and running.

JohnBick · **Posted:** Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:56 am

Ahhhh.... Fantastic timing! I was going to start this this week!

THANK-YOU!

ttoomm · **Posted:** Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:10 pm

Hey John-

The Instruction must be pretty good because we only get one or two questions per week out of the 5000 or so using it. Sometimes, however, folks just get a block. Advice - Don't try to thrash through it. Use the help email link. Of the 50 folks who've tried thrashing only one did not get deeper into the mud.

Good luck, write if you get stuck.

For those just seeing this post alone and can't figure out what we are talking about, see:
http://whswebsite.googlepages.com/

JohnBick · **Posted:** Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:13 pm

OK, will do. I expect to be going slowly as this is very much a "background" task at the moment. And the PP1 beta just came out -- and I downloaded it -- so we'll see if I can resist that for a while!

Is there any easy way to save the final results without basically starting over (in the event I need to do a Factory Reset)?

ttoomm · **Posted:** Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:05 pm

JohnBick wrote:

OK, will do. I expect to be going slowly as this is very much a "background" task at the moment. And the PP1 beta just came out -- and I downloaded it -- so we'll see if I can resist that for a while!

Is there any easy way to save the final results without basically starting over (in the event I need to do a Factory Reset)?

John-

Interesting you should ask. I am looking at doing the same thing. My original (and current) WHS is an old ASUS that will only handle a 1.0 GHz processor. I have a new MSI MOBO and a dual core processor ... so Reinstall here we come.

The actual website files go in shared store (like D:\shares\websites\MyWebsite.) So a reinstall is not supposed to effect them. Nonetheless, I intend to copy them off to another PC on the network just in case something goes wrong. Full blown they are only about 25 MB so that should not be a big problem.

When you are done with the reinstall simply copy them back (or maybe just look and see the old ones are AOK.)

The issue/problem will be that a reinstall reformats the C: partition so what was there will need to be redone. Basically you will need to walk through the steps in Part 2 like reinstall SQL Express, run VWD, etc. and redo those that need redoing.

I don't know whether to really believe it or not but I had one guy write and say that after a reinstall his SQL connections (pipes) were still intact. I asked but he never replied. I sort of think he had SQL installed on an E: drive that had not been added to the pool.

So, if you know what you're doing 20 - 40 minutes. Second time thru like you'll be, maybe 1 hour.

Hope this helps,

ttoomm

forumdood007 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 07, 2009 12:43 pm

I'm trying to follow this stuff to a "T" but get stumped at the point where I need to install VWD on C drive of the WHS. I copied the install file right onto the C drive but it won't let me execute it, no permissions......I tried the Run command too. How is everyone else accomplishing this??

Build and Deploy an ASP.NET Website on WHS

Who is online