Convert a single file aspx to code behind

Question

I'm working on a web site (not a web application) in VS 2008 .Net 3.5 and it uses the single file .aspx model where the server code is included in the head portion of the html instead of using a .aspx.cs code behind page.

I'd like to quickly convert the files to use the code-behind model, but so far the only way I can do this is by removing the file, creating a new, code-behind aspx page of the same name, then manually copying in the aspx related code to the .aspx page and the server code to the .aspx.cs page.

Is there a faster way to do this?

I have seen two article that seem to answer this question, but unfortunately don't: Working with Single-File Web Forms Pages in Visual Studio .NET and How do you convert an aspx or master page file to page and code behind?

Both offer a simple solution whereby VS does the leg work, you just point it to a file and shoot. For whatever reason, they aren't working. The first article seems to refer to VS 2002 and the second seems to refer to a web application.

Is there any hope for a web site?

Also, maybe I'm seeing this the wrong way, is there an advantage to the single page model? I do plan on converting the whole web site to a web application soon, does the single page model work well in web applications?

Monogamist

Answer 1

If manual conversion is too time-intensive, and the automatic conversion isn't working, I think your only other option would be to build your own converter. You could write a simple console app which takes a directory path on the command line and processes every file in that directory. This isn't too hard - here, I'll get you started:

using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    const string ScriptStartTag = "<script language=\"CS\" runat=\"server\">";
    const string ScriptEndTag = "</script>";

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        DirectoryInfo inPath = new DirectoryInfo(args[0]);
        DirectoryInfo outPath = new DirectoryInfo(args[0] + "\\codebehind");
        if (!outPath.Exists) inPath.CreateSubdirectory("codebehind");
        foreach (FileInfo f in inPath.GetFiles())
        {
            if (f.FullName.EndsWith(".aspx"))
            {
                //  READ SOURCE FILE
                string fileContents;
                using (TextReader tr = new StreamReader(f.FullName))
                {
                    fileContents = tr.ReadToEnd();
                }
                int scriptStart = fileContents.IndexOf(ScriptStartTag);
                int scriptEnd = fileContents.IndexOf(ScriptEndTag, scriptStart);
                string className = f.FullName.Remove(f.FullName.Length-5).Replace("\\", "_").Replace(":", "_");
                //  GENERATE NEW SCRIPT FILE
                string scriptContents = fileContents.Substring(
                    scriptStart + ScriptStartTag.Length,
                    scriptEnd-(scriptStart + ScriptStartTag.Length)-1);
                scriptContents =
                    "using System;\n\n" +
                    "public partial class " + className + " : System.Web.UI.Page\n" +
                    "{\n" +
                    "    " + scriptContents.Trim() +
                    "\n}";
                using (TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(outPath.FullName + "\\" + f.Name + ".cs"))
                {
                    tw.Write(scriptContents);
                    tw.Flush();
                }
                //  GENERATE NEW MARKUP FILE
                fileContents = fileContents.Remove(
                    scriptStart,
                    scriptEnd - scriptStart + ScriptEndTag.Length);
                int pageTagEnd = fileContents.IndexOf("%>");
                fileContents = fileContents.Insert(PageTagEnd,
                    "AutoEventWireup=\"true\" CodeBehind=\"" + f.Name + ".cs\" Inherits=\"" + className + "\" ");
                using (TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(outPath.FullName + "\\" + f.Name))
                {
                    tw.Write(fileContents);
                    tw.Flush();
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

30 minutes coding, 30 minutes debugging. There are some obvious bugs - like, if your code contains a closing script tag anywhere inside, then it won't get exported correctly. The results won't be pretty, but this should take care of 90% of your code, and you should be able to clean up any problem results manually. There, does that help?

Outfox

Thanks for taking the time to provide such an awesome code sample! – Monogamist

Very nice! But what about declarations of controls? They are normally declared globally in the designer generated file. In my case I have about ~1000 aspx files that needs to be converted to code behind so I would really like to don't do any manual editing. – Phellem

the converter would break if there are no script tags yet in the pages. – Johnsson

Answer 2

Basically you need to create a class file. Inherit the class from System.Web.UI.Page and then change the page directive of the page to point to the code behind.

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true"  CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="_Default" %>

Where Inherits is the name of your class file, and the CodeBehind is the code file you just created. You might need to reload the project to get the solution explorer to display the file nested, but even if you don't it should work.

You can also check out the accepted answer to for an alternative. How does IIS know if it's serving a Web Site or a Web Application project?

Presignify

Thanks for the thought. I'm still looking for a simpler way, as the site has dozens of pages. My method, is actually more similar to the one Serapth suggested, but I can see that yours works as well. These may be the only choices, but if you follow the two links I included, you'll see that at one point there was an automated way... – Monogamist

If ther are 'dozens' of pages, I would think this could be done in a matter of a few hours (albiet, painfully annoying hours), or if there are 'hundreds of dozens' of pages, perhaps writing a simple console app to parse the pages out for you using regular expressions and writing to the file system. – Wingspan

Answer 3

I don't know of a shortcut way to be honest.

Your probably best bet is to create a new page and copy paste across until everything works, then delete your source, rename your new file to the old name and rebuild.

Not ideal, but probably the quickest/cleanest/safest way to port over.

Bacciferous

Answer 4

Thanks alot! Here is a slighlty modified version if your code is written i VB.Net. Just compile and run the converter in every folder that contains aspx sites.

using System.IO;
namespace Converter
{
    class Program
    {
        const string ScriptStartTag = "<script runat=\"server\">";
        const string ScriptEndTag = "</script>";

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string currentDirectory = System.Environment.CurrentDirectory;

            var inPath = new DirectoryInfo(currentDirectory);
            var outPath = new DirectoryInfo(currentDirectory);
            if (!outPath.Exists) inPath.CreateSubdirectory("codebehind");
            foreach (FileInfo f in inPath.GetFiles())
            {
                if (f.FullName.EndsWith(".aspx"))
                {
                    //  READ SOURCE FILE
                    string fileContents;
                    using (TextReader tr = new StreamReader(f.FullName))
                    {
                        fileContents = tr.ReadToEnd();
                    }
                    int scriptStart = fileContents.IndexOf(ScriptStartTag);
                    int scriptEnd = fileContents.IndexOf(ScriptEndTag, scriptStart);
                    string className = f.FullName.Remove(f.FullName.Length - 5).Replace("\\", "_").Replace(":", "_");
                    //  GENERATE NEW SCRIPT FILE
                    string scriptContents = fileContents.Substring(
                        scriptStart + ScriptStartTag.Length,
                        scriptEnd - (scriptStart + ScriptStartTag.Length) - 1);
                    scriptContents =
                        "Imports System\n\n" +
                        "Partial Public Class " + className + " \n Inherits System.Web.UI.Page\n" +
                        "\n" +
                        "    " + scriptContents.Trim() +
                        "\nEnd Class\n";
                    using (TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(outPath.FullName + "\\" + f.Name + ".vb"))
                    {
                        tw.Write(scriptContents);
                        tw.Flush();
                    }
                    //  GENERATE NEW MARKUP FILE
                    fileContents = fileContents.Remove(
                        scriptStart,
                        scriptEnd - scriptStart + ScriptEndTag.Length);
                    int pageTagEnd = fileContents.IndexOf("%>");

                    fileContents = fileContents.Insert(pageTagEnd,
                        "AutoEventWireup=\"false\" CodeBehind=\"" + f.Name + ".vb\" Inherits=\"" + className + "\" ");
                    using (TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(outPath.FullName + "\\" + f.Name))
                    {
                        tw.Write(fileContents);
                        tw.Flush();
                    }
                }
            }
        }

    }
}

Nilgai

what if there are no script tags yet in the pages? then you converter would break. – Johnsson

Answer 5

if your aspx file has 2 sections and your are able to split it in a mechanical way why you don't write just a small parser to automate the work? Shouldn't be hard, it's just plain text manipulation and a recursive file find.

Haig