Are you ready to upgrade to VS 2008?

There is no compelling technical reason why you can not upgrade to VS 2008 if you have projects that you are developing in VS 2005 and .Net 2.0.
Even better, you can run VS 2005 and 2008 side by side without any issues. If you already have products that target 2.0 platform you can easily build your existing project in VS 2008 to target 2.0 platform and run it in production. The new IDE gives you the ability to open old/new projects targetting either 2.0/3.0/3.5 platforms. The IDE automatically adjusts the environment backwards or forwards based on the target platform you have chosen. So, it's better to stay ahead of the game a little bit and get that head start into the newer platforms by upgrading to VS 2008-

This site itself is being developed on VS 2008 with .Net 2.0 as the target platform. A simple 'Open Website' in VS 2008 opened the web project being developed on VS 2005. However, the solution files that get created between VS 2005 and VS 2008 are slightly different. Although you can switch IDE's if you are just modifying source code, however opening each other's solution files needs some adjustments to be made to the solution file itself.

Here is a solution file created by VS 2008 that targets a website project for .Net 2.0:

Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 10.00
# Visual Studio 2008
Project("{E24C65DC-7377-472B-9ABA-BC803B73C61A}") = "TESTWEBSITE", "http://localhost/TESTWEBSITE", "{538A1815-94B7-4DBD-8F76-792C1969804E}"
ProjectSection(WebsiteProperties) = preProject
TargetFramework = "2.0"
Debug.AspNetCompiler.VirtualPath = "/TESTWEBSITE"
Debug.AspNetCompiler.PhysicalPath = "..\..\..\..\..\..\testSITE_CODE\"
Debug.AspNetCompiler.TargetPath = "PrecompiledWeb\TESTWEBSITE\"
Debug.AspNetCompiler.Updateable = "true"
Debug.AspNetCompiler.ForceOverwrite = "true"
Debug.AspNetCompiler.FixedNames = "false"
Debug.AspNetCompiler.Debug = "True"
Release.AspNetCompiler.VirtualPath = "/TESTWEBSITE"
Release.AspNetCompiler.PhysicalPath = "..\..\..\..\..\..\testSITE_CODE\"
Release.AspNetCompiler.TargetPath = "PrecompiledWeb\TESTWEBSITE\"
Release.AspNetCompiler.Updateable = "true"
Release.AspNetCompiler.ForceOverwrite = "true"
Release.AspNetCompiler.FixedNames = "false"
Release.AspNetCompiler.Debug = "False"
SlnRelativePath = "..\..\..\..\..\..\testSITE_CODE\"
EndProjectSection
EndProject
Global
GlobalSection(SolutionConfigurationPlatforms) = preSolution
Debug|.NET = Debug|.NET
EndGlobalSection
GlobalSection(ProjectConfigurationPlatforms) = postSolution
{538A1815-94B7-4DBD-8F76-792C1969804E}.Debug|.NET.ActiveCfg = Debug|.NET
{538A1815-94B7-4DBD-8F76-792C1969804E}.Debug|.NET.Build.0 = Debug|.NET
EndGlobalSection
GlobalSection(SolutionProperties) = preSolution
HideSolutionNode = FALSE
EndGlobalSection
EndGlobal

Here is the same solution in VS 2005:

Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 9.00
# Visual Studio 2005
Project("{E24C65DC-7377-472B-9ABA-BC803B73C61A}") = "http://localhost/TESTWEBSITE/", "http://localhost/TESTWEBSITE", "{00D282FB-3C6F-46F4-BA00-24E475DC6EAD}"
ProjectSection(WebsiteProperties) = preProject
Debug.AspNetCompiler.VirtualPath = "/TESTWEBSITE"
Debug.AspNetCompiler.PhysicalPath = "..\..\..\..\..\..\testSITE_CODE\"
Debug.AspNetCompiler.TargetPath = "PrecompiledWeb\TESTWEBSITE\"
Debug.AspNetCompiler.Updateable = "true"
Debug.AspNetCompiler.ForceOverwrite = "true"
Debug.AspNetCompiler.FixedNames = "false"
Debug.AspNetCompiler.Debug = "True"
Release.AspNetCompiler.VirtualPath = "/TESTWEBSITE"
Release.AspNetCompiler.PhysicalPath = "..\..\..\..\..\..\testSITE_CODE\"
Release.AspNetCompiler.TargetPath = "PrecompiledWeb\TESTWEBSITE\"
Release.AspNetCompiler.Updateable = "true"
Release.AspNetCompiler.ForceOverwrite = "true"
Release.AspNetCompiler.FixedNames = "false"
Release.AspNetCompiler.Debug = "False"
SlnRelativePath = "..\..\..\..\..\..\testSITE_CODE\"
EndProjectSection
EndProject
Global
GlobalSection(SolutionConfigurationPlatforms) = preSolution
Debug|.NET = Debug|.NET
EndGlobalSection
GlobalSection(ProjectConfigurationPlatforms) = postSolution
{00D282FB-3C6F-46F4-BA00-24E475DC6EAD}.Debug|.NET.ActiveCfg = Debug|.NET
{00D282FB-3C6F-46F4-BA00-24E475DC6EAD}.Debug|.NET.Build.0 = Debug|.NET
EndGlobalSection
GlobalSection(SolutionProperties) = preSolution
HideSolutionNode = FALSE
EndGlobalSection
EndGlobal

Note the subtle differences between the two. A few modifications should enable switching of IDEs too. There are a few other things that need attention: the crystal reports for .net seems to be installed as part of Visual studio and tigthtly integrated with it. The versions of crystal reports for VS 2005 and VS 2008 are different. That is, the VS 2008 crystal reports version is higher. The same goes for Microsoft reporting services. If you already have a asp.net 2.0 production site with crystal reports for VS 2005 in production , it might be possible that you are not yet ready to upgrade your crystal reports in production. However, downgrading the crystal reports version in VS 2008 is just a matter of making changes to the web.config file with the vesion in production . The toolbox shows the higher version controls- you can add/modify them to your version by 'Choose items' option from the tool box. The same goes for Microsoft reporting services.

The Split View for Designer and Source comes in handy in VS 2008. The switch between designer and source indeed seems to have improved. Also the new Test menu items makes it relatively easy to create Unit tests for your functions. All these features are available to you even if you are targeting only .Net 2.0 platform. The 'Manage Styles' option for CSS is definitely handy which gives you a user interface to add styles to your css file and preview them instantly. However, it works only if a web form is open and you manage the stylesheet with reference to that. If you opened a stylesheet on it's own in the project, the 'Manage Styles' View option does not even show up. It's still a useful feature however , makes it easier to use styles and add them. Microsoft has released Web Deployment Projects for Visual 2008. This gives you the complete pckage to develop and deploy a ASP.Net 2.0 project with VS 2008.

All in all, it's definitely a win-win decision to upgrade to VS 2008-

Madhuri Mittal
Webmaster and Creator of this site.

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