The Location

The location specifies where the website files will be stored. Typically, you’ll choose File System and
then use a folder on the local computer or a network path. However, you can also edit a website directly
over HTTP or FTP (File Transfer Protocol). This is occasionally useful if you want to perform live website
edits on a remote web server. However, it also introduces additional overhead. Of course, you should
never edit a production web server directly because changes are automatic and irreversible. Instead,
limit your changes to test servers.
If you simply want to create your project in a folder on the file system, you may decide to type it into
the Location box by hand. But if you prefer to see all your options, and hunt for the right location, you
can click the Browse button, which shows the Choose Location dialog box (Figure 2-2).
Along the left side of Choose Location dialog box, you’ll see four buttons that let you connect to
different types of locations:
File System: This is the easiest choice—you simply need to browse through a tree of drives and
directories or through the shares provided by other computers on the network. If you want to create
a new directory for your application, just click the Create New Folder icon above the top-right
corner of the directory tree. (You can also coax Visual Studio into creating a directory by adding a
new directory name to the end of your path.)
Local IIS: This choice allows you to browse the virtual directories made available through the IIS
web hosting software, assuming it’s running on the current computer. Chapter 18 describes virtual
directories in detail and shows you how to create them with IIS Manager. Impressively, you can also
create them without leaving Visual Studio. Just select the Default Web Site node and then click the
Create New Web Application icon at the top-right corner of the virtual directory tree.

FTP Site: This option isn’t quite as convenient as browsing for a directory—instead, you’ll need to
enter all the connection information, including the FTP site, the port, the directory, a user name,
and a password before you can connect.
Remote Web Site: This option accesses a website at a specified URL (uniform resource locator)
using HTTP. For this to work, the web server must have the FrontPage Extensions installed. When
you connect, you’ll be prompted for a user name and password.