Web Deployment Installation Gotchas

Just a couple further quick notes about creating the "web setup project" for a web application.

1. Right click on the "web application folder" and choose "Add", "Project Output".
   
2. The standard choices are usually "Primary Output" and "Content Files"
   
3. Note the dropdown list for other projects in the current solution! Here you can select outputs from other projects to be included in the installation....
   
4. ...BUT...there's a property on each reference that's hard to remember.
   
   
   
   • Right click, properties on a reference for the main web application. The property is Copy Local, and describes whether the output (usually the DLL assembly) for this reference should be copied to the output directory of the project.
     
   • This way...the "Primary Output" group for the main web application will include all the supporting assemblies in your solution!
     
   
   
5. Right click on a folder in the right pane and choose "Outputs" to see what will be installed by that folder.
   

The virtual directory where the installation will put your application is sometimes hard to find. It's shown (along with port, DefaultDocument, Permissions, etc.) in the properties for the "web application folder".