For my CMS to work properly it needs to be deployed to a virtual directory underneath the www root so it can access (via reflection) the website to manage (note: CMS = N2CMS). When using Visual Studio 'Publish To Web' all is fine. But when I generate the package via msbuild commandline and publish that version my virtual directory is converted to a virtual application.
I configured my remote server to have a virtual directory '/n2' underneath my IIS web application ('exampleapp') and configured this path in the Package/Publish Web settings (IIS Website/Application name to use on the destination server) within my project in Visual Studio.
To generate the deploy package:
msbuild.exe myproject.csproj /T:Package
This generates the zipped package of my code together with MsDeploy commandline batch files to execute (standard msbuild/msdeploy target).
The generated SetParameters.xml contains the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<parameters>
<setParameter name="IIS Web Application Name" value="exampleapp/n2" />
</parameters>
The generated SourceManifest.xml contains the following
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<sitemanifest>
<IisApp path="C:\...shortened-path...\PackageTmp" managedRuntimeVersion="v4.0" />
<setAcl path="C:\...shortened-path...\PackageTmp" setAclResourceType="Directory" />
<setAcl path="C:\...shortened-path...\PackageTmp" setAclUser="anonymousAuthenticationUser" setAclResourceType="Directory" />
</sitemanifest>
Anybody got a clue why the virtual directory gets converted to virtual application?
In the Microsoft.Web.Publishing.targets file, DeployAsIisApp defaults to true:
<DeployAsIisApp Condition="'$(DeployAsIisApp)'==''">true</DeployAsIisApp>
You should be able to override it to false by adding it to the appropriate PropertyGroup element in the project file or in a .wpp.targets file in the project folder; on editing the project file, see