Similar steps could be taken in Visual Studio 2008 to create an installer for an ASP.NET 3.x or 2.0 application.

The process of creating a setup project for an ASP.NET 1.1 application is slightly different and is described in the corresponding article.

Conceptually, creating a redistributable package for an ASP.NET 2.0 application including UltiDev Cassini consists of the following steps:
- Create a regular, non-web, setup project and add it to the solution that has ASP.NET application;
- Add UltiDev Cassini Web Server as a Pre-Requisite to the setup project - to include the reference to UltiDev Cassini components into the Setup.exe bootstrapper generated by Visual Studio 2005.
- Add custom actions to the setup project that register the ASP.NET application with Cassini after installation and unregister during uninstallation;

This will create a distribution package that will ensure that the latest version of UltiDev Cassini Web server is deployed and started on the target machine before your application is installed.

This walkthrough assumes that UltiDev Cassini Web Server for Visual Studio 2005 Developers installed and that you have an existing solution with an ASP.NET application opened in a non-Express edition of the Visual Studio 2005 IDE. In the end you will have a project closely resembling the sample project we provided for Visual Studio 2005.

- Add UltiDev Cassini Web Server 2.0 Pre-Requisite to the setup project. To do that right-click setup project item in the solution tree and select Properties menu item. In the popped-up dialog click Prerequisites button:

Check ".NET Framework 2.0" (3.5 for ASP.NET 3.x projects), "Windows installer 3.1" and "UltiDev Cassini Web Server for ASP.NET 2.0" prerequisites:

Depending on whether you are going to distribute your application via web or ship it on a CD, select an appropriate radio-button in the "Specify the install location for prerequisites" section. This will generate Setup.exe bootstrapper with the built-in knowledge of where to find Cassini in case it's not present on customer's box.

- Next, Add your application files to the setup project.




- Add UltiDevCassiniServerConfiguration.dll file to the Setup project. UltiDevCassiniServerConfiguration.dll assembly is a part of UltiDev Cassini package and contains custom installer class that can be invoked from a Setup project to register or un-register an ASP.NET application with UltiDev Cassini. To add UltiDevCassiniServerConfiguration.dll to your Setup project, using Setup project's File System View, create Bin folder under the Application Folder:


Then right-click on Bin folder and select Add | Assembly... In the Open File dialog navigate to UltiDev Cassini folder, which is usually "C:\Program Files\UltiDev\Cassini Web Server for Visual Studio 2005 Developers" (in older versions it could be "C:\Program Files\UltiDev\Cassini Web Server for ASP.NET 2.0")

... and pick UltiDevCassiniServerConfiguration.dll.

UltiDevCassiniServerConfiguration.dll contains routines that register and unregister ASP.NET applications with UltiDev Cassini. After you have added UltiDevCassiniServerConfiguration.dll, your Setup project will look like this:

Start with creating Install, Rollback and Uninstall custom actions in the Setup project, pointing to the UltiDevCassiniServerConfiguration.dll you've just added. To do that switch to the Custom Actions View of the Setup project and right-click on Install, Rollback and Uninstall actions and select Add Custom Action menu.  In the Select Item dialog navigate to the Application Folder\Bin folder and select UltiDevCassiniServerConfiguration.dll for each custom action:


The result will look like this:

At this point you hooked up Cassini's installer class to setup project's custom installer actions. Now you just need to pass application's registration information to the Cassini Configuration module. "Install" action requires several parameters, while Rollback and Uninstall steps require only one parameter - application ID. Application ID should be a unique GUID. You can either generate a new GUID using MS Guidegen.exe utility, or better, just reuse an UpgradeCode of your setup project. To get UpgradeCode value of your setup project, bring up Setup project's properties:

... and copy & paste the GUID value in the Notepad for the use further in this walkthrough.

To specify application ID for Rollback action, select UltiDevCassiniServerConfiguration.dll under Rollback bin and set CustomActionData property value to /AppID="<your application ID>":

Then repeat the same for the Uninstall action. CustomActionData values for Rollback and Uninstall steps should be identical.

"Install" action has following parameters passed via CustomActionData property:

Parameter		Meaning	Example
/AppID	Required	Application ID	/AppID="{61526CD1-BBBE-4511-902D-EFE4A1E2845F}"
/AppLocation	Required	Physical location of the application. Should always be set to "[TARGETDIR]\".	/AppLocation="[TARGETDIR]\"
/AppName	Optional	Application Name	/AppName="Test Cassini 2.0 Setup App"
/AppDescription	Optional	Application Description	/AppDescription="some useful text"
/AppPort	Optional	Application Port	/AppPort="80"
Don't specify the port explicitly if possible! Cassini Explorer can redirect user's browser to the correct application URL by application ID if you point the browser to http://<macchinename>:7756/GoToApplication.aspx?AppID=<your application ID>. Web service clients can too call Cassini Explorer web service at http://<machinename>:7756/CassiniConfigurationService.asmx to get your application's URL.
/AppDefaultDoc	Optional if default document is Default.aspx or Index.htm	Default application document	/AppDefaultDoc="WebForm1.aspx"
/AppKeepRunning	Optional	Flag telling if application should always be kept in memory for quick first-page response. Default value is true.	/AppKeepRunning="false"

Here's the example of the Install action's CustomActionData value:


At this point you can test the installation by running Setup.exe.
 

From this point forward the information in this document is not really related to application + Cassini installation, but rather just a general helpful tip for your non-IIS web application setup...

- If you want to add a Programs menu shortcut to your application, please do the following.
Add an text file to your ASP.NET application project and save with the ".url" extension. The name of the file will be the text displayed by Programs menu, it should reflect the name of your application.


Open the file in text editor and replace its content with the following:
[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://localhost:7756/GoToApplication.aspx?AppID=87C97D89-B993-411D-A0EF-782191F1DBDD

Replace highlighted GUID with your application's actual ID.
 
The URL in the "My Great Web Application.url" file takes browser to GoToApplication.aspx page of the UltiDev Cassini Explorer, and passes your application ID as a parameter. Cassini Explorer will find port assigned to your application and will redirect the browser to it. This will always correctly invoke your application even though the application will get different ports assigned to it on different machines at the registration time.

Now to work around some kinks of the setup project, add the "My Great Web Application.url" file to your setup project’s User's Programs Menu folder:



Build the solution and install your application. After the installation you should see the shortcut in the Programs menu.



If you need additional information, please visit our support forum, where most common questions have been asked and answered.