.Net Newbie Needs Expert Advice (Help?!)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Seth Guard
  • Start date Start date
S

Seth Guard

I'm confused and I need help, please!

I'm trying to create an online photo album component in VB.Net for use
with ASP.Net within multiple websites. I'd like to build a component
which can be referenced from multiple ASPX pages. (It would know how
to build the album based on the server control's "path" property
within the ASPX page.)

However, I'd like this to be a simple updating process. (e.g. Open
FrontPage, dump new photos into a directory, copy & paste older album
page, change path code within page, save, and... voila! It works.)
My goal is to eliminate the need for Visual Studio (except for when I
need to make updates to the component.)

I've tried creating a Web Class Library, but that forces each
application to create a local copy of the component's DLL in every
application folder. This doesn't help me, because it forces me to use
Visual Studio every time I want to create a new website with a photo
album in it. Plus, it litters my websites with multiple copies of a
DLL which would need to be updated every time the component's DLL was.
(Not very practical.)

I've also toyed with the concept of a Web Service, but felt that it
would take WAY too much time to transfer all of the image files to the
Web Service, resize them, build them into an album and output the
code. Plus, I'm not even sure if it's possible for a remote server
(Web Service) to perform I/O on the local machine calling the service.
(??)

What I'd like to do is to somehow place the "master" (component) DLL
in a set location (e.g. "c:\inetpub\scripts") and have all of my pages
reference it somehow -- very similar to how the EXEC CGI calls used to
work. But how do I do this?!

Forgive me if my .Net understanding is shaky. This is the first "real
life" application I'm trying to write in the new environment.

Thanks in advance for any responses!
 
The best way to share .NET component across applications (projects) is to
place the component (.DLL) in GAC, you can even put the same dll files with
different version number. Since your are talking Web app, the web host may
has its policy reagarding whether it is allowed to put someone's .NET dll
into the server's GAC.
 
Hi Seth,

In my idea is one of the most difficult things on a webpage is creating
dynamicly pictures.
That is because an image needs forever an URL's themselves and you need a
lot of bandwide for them when you are not working with thumbnails.

(Or you would have an ActiveX or Java Component for that)

So when you as you said be a Newbie, I would take that for the next project.

(Even on professional WYSIWYG tools is working with images not always what
it has to be, they are often rearanged etc.)

Just my thought,

Cor
 
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