Posted 19 years ago on 5/3/2006 and updated 1/20/2009
Take Away:
Some initial questions and answers we had as we first approached building ASP.NET applications using Delphi 2006
KB100368
Here are some questions:
Q1. What is needed to deploy a Delphi ASP.Net application? Just IIS and the DotNet framework? In other words, what above the normal stuff?
A. Delphi ASP.NET is just about identical to ASP.NET with C# (as far as deployment goes, except that it only supports code-behind deployment, not inline -- inline is often discouraged anyway):
You have HTML code in an .aspx file that defines the UI, and "business logic" code in a .DLL (.NET assembly); code that was originally written in pascal/Delphi (so there is a corresponding .pas file referenced as well).
This has a really nice symmetry to .DFM and .PAS files for Win32 apps; except that .aspx code is read at the text level; so you can change your UI (the .aspx file) without needing the compiler at all. As long as the business logic in the .DLL doesn't need to change, you have some control over changes in the UI without needing any business logic changes/recompiles. Very nice separation.
Q2. With MS, you can create a .ASPX page with code in it and FTP it to a server and it will run. Does Delphi do that? Or, is it always an EXE or DLL? What does a Delphi ASPX app consist of in terms of deployment?
Delphi always creates a .DLL to be used. It (currently?) only allows code-behind implementations, not inline.
Q3. Can you do a simple hello world proof and upload it to prestwood.com? Prestwood.com does have the DotNet framework installed so I'm curious if what you develop in Delphi works on a virtual hosting server.
The article I've been following has you use the Cassini web server; a small (but powerful) personal web browser written (and open sourced) by MS in C#. Normally, it's "locked" to only allow access on the local machine, but it was trivial to comment out a 4-line block of code and remove that restriction (search the web for instructions).
Working with IIS from Delphi for .NET is pretty much as simple as changing a setting in the project from "Cassini" to "IIS". Once you have defined a virtual directory for your deployment in IIS, it's as simple as setting your project settings to "deposit" the results there, and you can source-level debug in place.
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