I both love and hate this book. It covers so many pertinent topics on how to build a scaleable site using ASP.NET, but totally leaves you in the deep end of the pool when it comes to setting up the site in Visual Studio.NET. The coding examples are excellent, but the nuances of namespaces, directory structure, and how they all inter-relate with a VS.Net solution is totally left out.

For example, in chapter 2 they create hierarchical namespace schema, and then suggest creating a folder structure that mimics it. So, how do you implement that folder structure into VS.NET??

Later in chapter 2 they create the Core project, but never tell you how it is suppose to be integrated into the overall structure (i.e. in the sample code the project is located in C:\wrox\ThePhile\Modules\Core). I am confused on why some of the projects in the sample code are on the top level, and some are in folders, or even how they got projects to reside in folders. And come to think of it, they also never create the main “ThePile” ASP.NET Web App -Arrrrgh!

I cannot believe they just assumed everyone one would understand how to create this complex VS.Net solution without some guidance. They need to post a FAQ message that explains how to correctly get started creating the solution in VS.NET, and provide a couple of examples on how to add projects to the solution (like the Core for example), and give a better understanding how the namespace scheme relates to all of this. I know I am not the only one having trouble with this.

I don't have this book, but I have a lot of experience building complex VS.net solutions, so perhaps I can explain a little bit about them.

One of my current projects is a photobrowser that I am building under the namespace of my main website (geekdork.com). Its solution contains 4 projects that are scattered throughout my namespace hierarchy. The main solution file is GeekDork.PhotoBrowser.Website.sln and it contains the following projects:
- GeekDork.Core.csproj
- GeekDork.Core.Util.csproj
- GeekDork.PhotoBrowser.Website.csproj
- GeekDork.Web.Util.csproj

The projects are organized physically to match the namespace heirachry. Here is the storage and namespace organization underneath my main code directory. Directories are in bold and namespace hierarchy is in italics:

When you have these projects in a solution, all the project references are "back referenced" with the "..\" syntax so the whole source code tree is portable. You have to implement this structure manually when you create each project.

I took this structure from the Microsoft white paper on Team Development with Visual Studio .NET and Visual SourceSafe. It works pretty well. One of the problems I have is that when you create a solution VS will create a sub directory for the solution automatically. There is a checkbox to disable this but the checkbox is always disabled, still haven't cracked that one. Usually this isn't that big of a deal because you don't create that many solution files. So you have to just move it back one directory to get everything lined up. You could very easily just leave the solution where it is and let it live adjacent to a project file.

Peter
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Work smarter, not harder.

Thank you for taking the time to respond with such a detailed message, I really appreciate it. Just so I am clear, bold is for directories, and italic is for the namespace hierarchy, so bold-italic is where the directories and namespaces match? Also, thanks for the link to the MSoft technote, it was very informative.

For others who are having trouble running the examples, I googled and found an old post by one of the editors who said that you cannot run the examples by following the book. They purposely left out steps to make the book "Easier to carry around". Wish the would have been up front about this. Still would have bought the book, but would not have banged my head against the wall trying to run the examples.

Yes, bold-italics are where the namespace and directory structure match. The bolded directories just above the projects happen to also be the root namespace of the projects. That's really the important part of it all. You need to specify the right root namespace in the project to maintain the hierarchy.

Peter
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Work smarter, not harder.

Could you give the URL of the post or the string you used to search within google, please? I have banged my head against my desk for too long trying to get this app to run withe the 1.1 framework and vs.net

thanks

Here is how I was able to get the examples running (at least through chapter 5)

The authors created a sophisticated multi-project solution in VS.NET. This type of solution is not directly supported by VS.NET, and you need to take specific steps to create it properly. Here is a link to a microsoft tech note that accurately describes the process:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;Q307467

This, along with the errata notes dealing with problem on chapter 3 allowed me to work through the examples and create my own solution (with a lot of referring back to the sample app code).

I am still getting my arms around the whole namespace/assembly concept. I have to say that while these .Net features no doubt add power, I am not sure it is worth the confusion they cause. Java, with jars, and packages is a lot more straight forward.

Here is a short tutorial on namespaces that I found enlightening:
http://builder.com.com/5100-6373-1045329.html