Its been far too long since we've updated the blog, so we thought we'd at least wish everyone a Happy Cinco De Mayo!

Here is a nice YouTube link for your entertainment.

We prefer the Visual Studio " Web Site Project" model since its easier for designers and non .NET developers come in and get work done. Since some formatting of strings (such as dates) are done in the code behind on some widgets, just about any of our developers can simply go in and make a quick fix without having to download the source and re-compile. Don't get me wrong, we still use traditional projects to compile many of our reusable components, classes, and web services; but for many of our CMS driven sites that change weekly - especially for marketing purposes, its just easier to not have to compile and update binaries each time. Also, since there was no versioning up until this point, we couldn't guarantee that the binary being created was actually the same version that the site was using.

Lately I've been very interested in migrating all of our projects to Subversion for this very reason. We're a very small shop, and there are times when the workload just gets too big. In these cases we call on a few local contractors to help us out. Until recently, there was no efficient way to get things done. We would allow FTP access to our development server, and each developer would have their own copy on their local machine. We did setup a VPN, but found that working over the net was just too slow. It was also still prone to issues such as file overwrites and total downtime for everyone if anything in the App_Code directory had errors. As with our compiled code, I would simply be the one to touch it since I didn't want 30 different versions of something floating around out there.

We purchased a new server recently, and decided it was time to install some sort of versioning. I tried VisualSVN, Git, and Mercurial and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. In the end we choose VisualSVN since it was free on the server side and it had an inexpensive plugin for Visual Studio 2010. We also got it working much faster/easier than the others. I must say that I had a nightmare trying to get Mercurial to host repositories through IIS 7.5, and I came across a few different tutorials that would differ from the minor versions.

Now it was time to come up with a decent workflow. With "Web Application Projects" things are easy. These projects are simply added to a repository, and you can easily update and commit changes with the VisualSVN plugin in Visual Studio. With "Web Site Projects" it was a little more difficult. We would create a blank solution, add the current files and then commit to a new repository. However, we found that many of our projects didn't work as they would on our development server since the built in VS web server didn't support many of the new features of IIS7 that we have been used to. We were unable to support URL rewrites, couldn't change the default document type (which has always been an issue), and couldn't test on other machines (especially for our Macintosh friends). Our temporary workaround was to install IIS7 on our development machine (Vista or Windows 7 required), set the website root within the project, and extend permissions so that IIS could serve the documents. It worked fine, but the extra steps were a nuisance and always prone to further setup problems. That is until we found out about IIS Express.

With IIS Express, we found that our workflow was going to be much like they are with "Web Application Projects." I started out by installing Visual Studio SP1 and then installing IIS Express. Once all that was completed, I started out on my first base project. A blank project is still created, and I dropped in our basic site framework. With a refresh of VS, my files appeared. Now to use the new IIS Express, I simply had to go to "Website" and select "Use IIS Express." This allows us to run setup and have our working copy without the problems that we had with Cassini. From here I can preview the site in a browser, which is hosted off of IIS Express.

So far its been working well. We're going to continue to move forward and migrate most of our legacy sites into repositories. As we get deeper and deeper, there are bound to be issues, but so far having IIS Express has really made our lives easier.

There are some exciting things going on recently at Arerra. A few weeks ago we moved from our first location off Parkcenter to our new home in the Eagle building in downtown Boise. Not only are most of our clients located downtown, but we grew tired of not having any sunlight as with our previous office. We're sharing our space with local Interactive Developer Paul Terhaar, who is launching his new brand soon, and we couldn't be happier. As we move forward this year, we're looking at expanding our services, and we're confident that this new location will help us acheive that.

Along with our new location, we've also finally launched our new website that has been in development for about 6 months. Its always been our philosophy that we should use the same products and services that we sell to our clients. The new site is built upon Umbraco, and we're also finalizing a mobile version that will showcase new work. Our goal is to evolve the website into a showcase of technologies that we can offer our clients; as well as to be a playground for us to experiment with new technologies and services.

In addition, we've also hired on Michelle Caster as a project manager. Michelle comes from Valice, and will be a wonderful addition to our family. As we move forward, she will be responsible for handing the day to day client requests so that we can more efficiently operate and better respond to our clients needs.