Publish website option fails

I'm trying to publish my site to the webserver using the Build >> Publish Website option in VS 2008. The publish is failing and I have no idea why. The message at the bottom only says Publish failed and offers no reason why. Is there some sore of error message that would tell why the site won't publish?

Also please note that I am purchasing the webspace so I don't have access to anything on the webserver side. Also I don't think there are any webserver issues because I was able to successfully publish another site I have to the same space. So this leads me to believe its something with my web app.

I'm using ASP.NET 2.0 ans VS 2008.

Thanks,

Strick

Does it build properly? Publish will fail if it can't build.

If your website failed to bulid properly, it should report the reason why.

I use VB 2005, not 2008. So not sure this will work. Go to the menu View > Error List.

A tabbed window should appear at bottom of screen. Now try republishing your website and when it failed, it may report the reason why in this Error List window.

Build > Publishing is more about compilling your site into DLL files in the way you specified not so much transferring it to a server. The transfer of files can be done with an ftp capable program.

Your web host may also have HTTP publish blocked or your FTP credentials are wrong.

Hi guys,

Thanks for you replies. No it won't build either. But I'll try the suggestion of View > Error list to see if I can find any error info.

Thanks,

Strick

Just ran a test. This is weird. I can run Build > Build Solution and it succeeds. But if I run Build > Publish Web Site it fails. There are no errors in error list. Also to answer one of the responses about publishing via http I can publish another site I have to the exact same space using this method.

Just can't publish this one.

Strick

What about the output window? Nothing in there? What's "special" about this site when compared to the one that does publish?

I think the only thing different between the two is the one that won't publish is using the ASP.NET membership stuff. But I can't see how that would cause the issue. I think that's why this is so frustrating. VS isn't giving me the reason why it won't publish so I can't even address whatever the issue is since I don't know it.

Strick

Did you check the output window like mendhak suggested? I find it hard to believe that it's failing and nothing is coming up in the error list or output window. You could try manually building it with MSBuild to see if that displays any error messages.

Thanks guys, didn;t think about checking the output window. I can see why it's failing. The message I see is:

Unable to add folder 'images/_vti_cnf' to the Web site. Server error: 'images/_vti_cnf' does not refer to a page or folder in this web. It may be a page or folder in a subweb, or it could be a badly formed URL.
Error: Unable to add folder 'images/_vti_cnf' to the Web site. Server error: 'images/_vti_cnf' does not refer to a page or folder in this web. It may be a page or folder in a subweb, or it could be a badly formed URL.

I do have an images folder. But what I don't get about this error message is there is no such file/directory as "_vti_cnf" in my images folder. The only files in my images folder are .jpg and .gif files.

Strick

Hmm... I have no idea about that one

Ugh, Front Page folders :sick:

OK, first, check to see if you're publishing to the correct folder. Go in via FTP and check to see if those folders are on the server. If they are, are they just outside or at the same level as the 'root' web directory or are they inside it?

You may find images/_vti_cnf on the server itself and Visual Studio is trying to add it to your website in Visual Studio.

You could try removing it or first checking to see if you can get Front Page extensions removed for your site.

Mendhak is right Front Page folders... It's possible they are on your local machine (not displayed in VS solution window) and or server. Browse to this folder (windows explorer not VS) and see if it's there .. delete it... then browse the server via ftp and do the same.

You may find more of them... in every folder.