What happens when a user accesses to an ASP.NET MVC website during FTP publishing?

Question

I have an ASP.NET MVC website that needs to be regularly updated. The publishing method is FTP, and the publishing process takes around 6-7 minutes.

During this time interval , what happens for someone who tries to visit the website?

• Is the website (in its old version) still available ?
• May the user experience an unexpected behavior while navigating?
• Is there any danger for the website (eg compilation error ) if a user navigates during this time?
• If the user was logged in before the publishing, is the content of its session variables lost?

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Usually Visual Studio will create a file called app_offline.htm in the destination folder. That file stays there until the process is over.

If a user tries to access the page via browser during that period, he may see a message like this:

The app_offline.htm will disappear as soon as the publishing is done.