Working Offline

You might want to take your laptop to a meeting to demonstrate your current version of the application. You can incorporate suggestions and changes right at the meeting without a connection to your master Web server. With your project offline, you can open a project, edit local (working) copies of files, preview changes, etc., without a connection to the Web server.

To work offline

1. Open or create a project for the Web application. For more information, see Creating a Web Project.
   
   
2. Make sure you have a local copy of the files you want to work on. For more information about getting the latest version or a local copy of a file, see Getting Master Copies Locally or Updating the Local Web Application.
   
   
3. Set your project to work offline. For more information, see the procedure below.

   When your project is offline, you work in the project just as you would for local mode, except that commands that update, restructure, or need information from the master Web application are not available. For example, you can't get the latest versions, release working copies, or move files in the project.

4. Open files, edit your files, and save your changes.

   Since you are working offline, the changes are saved to your local Web application only. For more information, see the procedures for editing and saving your changes in Web Basics.

5. Preview the local version of the Web application in the Web browser.

   If you don't have a Web server on your computer, the file is loaded with a file URL and server-script won't work. If you do have a Web server, your .asp files use the local Web server to process the server script. A virtual root is automatically created and the page is loaded into the Web browser. For more information about previewing, see Previewing Pages.

   If you have a database server, you can also perform database-related functions. For more information, see Working Offline in the Integrating Databases section.

6. Set your project to work online.

   If your project is in local mode when you switch to offline, you might want to update the master Web application after you return online.

   If your project is in master mode, the master Web is automatically updated when you return online. For more information, see Updating the Master Web Application.

To set your project to offline

1. In the Project Explorer, select the Web project you want to take offline.
   
   
2. Make sure you have a local copy of the files you want to work on and related files you need for testing in your local Web application. For more information about getting the latest version or a write-enabled copy of a file, see the procedures in Getting Master Copies Locally.
   
   
3. From the Project menu, choose Web Project, choose Working Mode, and then choose Work Offline.

Note   If you want to make changes to the site structure, rename files, or move files, you need to be online.