Publish and deploy a C# Web Service API to IIS

After developing a Web Service API application in Visual Studio, the next step may be to publish and deploy the application to an Internet Information Server (IIS). Applications can be published as a package zip file, written straight to the file system, or uploaded to the Cloud provider Azure. In this example, I will publish to a package zip file, then deploy the package to IIS.

1. In Visual Studio's Solution Explorer pane, right click on the Web Service API project e.g. ProductsAPP.
   
   
2. In the pop up menu, choose Publish.
   
   The Publish Web dialog box appears.
   
   Note: if a profile has been created, the following screen will appear.
   
3. In the Target list, choose Custom. Click Next.
   
   The New Custom Profile prompt appears.
   
   
4. Type in a profile name, e.g. ProductsAppProfile. Click OK.
   
   
   
5. In the Publish method field, choose Web Deploy Package. In the Package location, type in or browse to select a destination folder, e.g. D:\Temp\.
   
6. Optional: Type in a Site name e.g. ProductsApp. Click Next.
   
   
7. Click Publish.
   
   The package zip file is created.

Once the package zip file is created, it can then be deployed onto a supported IIS platform.

1. On the web server, start the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager by clicking Start | Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
   
   
   
2. In the Connection pane, expand the node.
   
3. Optional. Select Application Pools to check the pools whether they are running on .NET Framework 4+.
   
   
   
   If the pool is running on Framework 2+, Framework 4+ must be installed. Then for each pool, select Basic Settings on the right and change to Framework 4+, as shown below.
   
   
4. In the Connection pane, select a web site node e.g. Default web site.
   
   
   
5.  In the Deploy section on the right, click Import Application.
   
   Note: if there is no Import Application, then the Web Deployment Tool has to be installed. On my IIS 7+ system, I had to use version 2.1 to get the deploy commands. Versions 3.5 and Version 3.6 did not come with the Deploy commands.
   
   The Import Application Package dialog box appears.
   
   
6. Optional. If your application uses a SQL Server Database connection string, then the string can be edited here to change the server name, username, password.
   
7. Click Next.
   
   The package is deployed.