In Continuing Education project in Visual Studio, when I tried to open the .aspx page in the Desing mode instead of Source, it took a long time to refresh because it needed to render all the controls. So, never open it in Design
stsadm.exe can be found here:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\BIN
Go to application Managment in 'Central Admin' While the selected web application is yours, then 'Create Site Collection' using any template and use 'mossAdmin' as the admin of the site. (Titles->MyApps, Url->/Sites/VNSuperAlert)
For deploying a solution again
Instead of retracting the solution, deletesolution from command line would work with -override option then deploy again (go to the .wsp file location, then -> stsadm -o deletesolution -name whatever.wsp -override)
Applying a change to the solution
Change something in the code (VS), then build the solution, drag and drop the created .dll file from the /bin to the GAC -> (C:\Windows\Assembly)
Restart IIS through admin
Replace the .aspx page in: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\CanTire.ContinuingEducation\ with the one in the project
When the changes are fine and need to deploy, create the .wsp file again and deploy it
To Deploy Continuing Education
Craete a web application -> use default
Create Site Collection -> name:Home, admin: mossAdmin
Run the new application -> Create -> Sites -> name:Continuing Education, url:/ContinuingEducation
Do the change in both .cs and .aspx pages -> e.g. ContinuingEducation.Layouts.ApplicationNew.aspx
Build the solutiom and drag the new .dll file to the GAC (Assembly)
Copy the aspx page from the project and paste it to the solution package in the Sharepoint -> e.g. C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\CanTire.ContinuingEducation\
Restart IIS
Click on Debug -> Attach to process -> w3wp.exe
Run the application on IE -> the breakpoints will be hit
All the fields are created from columns of the Sharepoint application into the field.xml.
To know what is inside a .wsp file and what is it supposed to do:
change the extension of .wsp to .cab and double click -> you will see the list of files in the .wsp file
In the project in Visual Studio, click on .ddf file and you can see the process and the mapped directories.
Also manifest.xml and feature.xml will give some information.