What is UseCustomServer and UseCustomServerUrl in a ASP.NET Web Application Project?

Question

What is UseCustomServer and UseCustomServerUrl in a ASP.NET Web Application Project?

Some background: I got the latest version of a Solution from a vendor. I added a few files to the WebSite project file. When I built the solution, the following tags were added to the WebSite.csproj file.

<UseCustomServer>False</UseCustomServer>
<CustomServerUrl>
</CustomServerUrl>  

I am hesitent to check the project file back in with these added tags. But I don't want to have to meddle with the project file with a text editor to remove the tags each time I add files to the project. Could these tags hurt the vendor's build in some way? Why is my build adding the tags? I am using ASP.NET 3.5 SP1. Thanks.

Answer 1

I'm setup to use IIS; these tags are in my project. Because they are blank, it should be OK. The UseIIS tag has a true value, so that's how it knows to use this option. The Custom Server URL is a project setting (web project settings > web tab) that you can set.

HTH.

Answer 2

To expand on Brian's answer - when you Run / Start Debugging (F5) an ASP.NET project, there are three options for which server to use to host your code -

1. Visual Studio's Development Server
2. IIS
3. Your own custom server, that you run and set up yourself.

These tags relate to the 3rd option. Having UseCustomServer=False is the default, so checking that in wouldn't have made a difference either way.