asp.net mvc without pre-compiling

Question

When I make changes to controllers in MVC I have to re-compile and upload my binaries for the changes to be noticed on my website. This makes sense, but I was wondering is there a way (or some settings) that will allow me to make changes to code/controllers and simply upload the changes without having to compile locally and upload the binaries.

I know with standard asp.net the app will compile automatically with first page load on the server after changes to code-behind files are made. Can something similar be setup for MVC3?

Answer 1

You could use a Web Site project type instead of a Web Application (which is the default for an ASP.NET MVC 3 project). In this case you will have to manually create the project structure (Web Site) and place your controllers inside the App_Code folder which is automatically compiled at runtime. Then you ship your controllers source code to the server.

Definitely not something I would recommend you doing. Simply stick to the standard way of building an ASP.NET MVC 3 application which consists in using a precompiled Web Application project type in which all code behind is compiled in assemblies that you ship in the bin folder.