Automating finding compile errors in ASP.NET pages

I have an ASP.NET website where the pages call a few components in DLLs. I need to change the signature of a method in the component, and short of doing a text search, don't know if this will break any pages or not. IMO, this is the weakness of web programming -- you don't get the benefit of a compiler telling you about syntax errors.

But it doesn't need to be so. Does anyone know if there is a way to run a spider over a website watching for compile e开发者_开发百科rrors, or perhaps some tool that would compile all the .aspx files in a folder structure looking for compile errors?

This is merely for syntax checking -- not to actually pre-compile the website.

EDIT It looks like aspnet_compiler is being recommended. I don't use Visual Studio projects for the website -- it's grown over time with my own templating system (back before Master Pages were available). So something that would run aspnet_compiler over all the files in a folder might work...

There is a flag that you can put on your project that tells it to compile all the aspx files when the project is compiled. It adds time to your build, but it can sometimes be worthwhile. See http://mikehadlow.blogspot.com/2008/05/compiling-aspx-templates-using.html

Also, Resharper is really good at finding references to methods, even in aspx files. So if you use Resharper to rename a method, as long as your solution includes the web project, it'll find and rename that method in the aspx files, too.

This is one of the many reasons we use development tools like Visual Studio in the first place. The single easiest way to do what you're asking is to develop with an IDE that DOES compile and check for errors, even ifyou choose to publish teh un-compiled code.

Since Microsoft offers Visual Web Developer for free, there's really no reason to NOT use it.

The compiler will automatically catch and any report any errors in your .cs source or code-behind pages. Your assumption that the compiler won't catch syntax errors (such as getting the arguments in the wrong order when calling a method, etc) is incorrect - that's one of the primary benefits of using a compiled language. If you're experiencing something that contradicts this, please post some code.

If you're concerned about errors in the ASPX files or in your views (if using MVC), you can have the IDE precompile ASPX files, as well.

See this article for more information.

I turn this off most of the time since it slows down compilation, but I use it before deploying a site as an extra verification step.