Compiling views when publishing an asp.net mvc project

Question

Is it possible to compile asp.net mvc views into one compilation when publishing a web project?

Answer 1

There is an ASP.NET Merge Tool (Aspnet_merge.exe) and web deployment projects ( UPDATED: Aspnet_merge.exe comes with Windows SDK components when installing Visual Studio 2008 - see "% Program Files% \ Microsoft SDKs \ Windows \ v6.0A \ bin " ) . These links may be of interest to you:

• How to do this: Use MSBuild to automate ASP.NET compiler and merge utilities
• Managing ASP.NET precompiled output for deployment using the aspnet_merge.exe command

UPDATED:

In ASP.NET MVC projects, there is the <MvcBuildViews>true/false</MvcBuildViews> , which allows you to compile views in the AfterBuild target environment. But it will not compile your project in one assembly. You must use the ASP.NET merge tool or web deployment projects.