Existing umbraco site from ftp to get it to work locally via visual studio

Question

I have a working existing umbraco project that i have taken down from a ftp and saved it to my desktop. There was another developer that created this project. Iam just gonna develop some things in a already functional site. So i want to be able to get the site to work locally.

As i said i have taken down the files from the ftp and also i have the bak file for the database and i have restored it in my local server and changed the connectionstring so it points to the new local db. There is no solution file in the ftp (i dont know why. I have tried getting hold of the previous developer but he is unavailable right know. It could be maybe because he didnt use visual studio, maybe he used another tool, i don't know. Or is you even supposed have the solution file in the live ftp?? isn't that just for us developers? )

So i googled some things and i tried to open the new project i just took down from the ftp. I tried to do it via vs toolbar->file-->open-->website-->file system--> and then navigating to my project in my desktop.

It seems to work but i get 2 error i cant fix. Both error navigates to the same file here is the error

I also tried creating a new visual studio asp.net web empty project and downloading umbracocms and then copy-> paste-> include files. But then i get this error

Which way is the right/best way and i would appreciate any help aim a beginner in umbraco

Answer 1

First of all, it's right that there is no solution file in the site folder, solution file is only for visual studio and it's not need on the server at all.

Second thing - open web site as Web site type of project in Visual Studio, File->Open->Web Site...

Then, press right click in Solution Explorer -> go to "Property Pages" -> "Build" section -> set "No Build" in "Before running startup page" -> Press F5