Where are project settings in a Visual Studio webs

Question

Working with a website (as opposed to a web application) in VS2010 so there is no csproj file. Right-clicking on the "Site" node in Solution Explorer and choosing "Property Pages" brings up a dialog with References, Build, Accessibility, Start Options, MSBuild Options and Silverlight Applications. You can make changes in these pages, close Visual Studio, turn off the computer, go home, spend quality time with your family, get a good night's sleep, return to work the next morning, turn your computer on, make a coffee, shoot the breeze about last night's episode of Fringe, log in, start up Visual Studio, open that website, and PRESTO! Most of those settings are still there.

This, despite the fact that there is no trace of those settings anywhere outside the hallowed pixels of the dialog box itself. Certainly not in any files in the website folder. Not in the solution file, for solution file there is none. A slightly desperate search of the Registry found nothing. Where are these settings being persisted? Are they stored in the cloud? Written into the gaps between bytes in the NTFS file system? Perhaps sent over TCP port 666 into the far-flung reaches of Hell itself, to be scratched with hot, rusty nails into the tortured flesh of the eternally-damned by impassive demons with dead, black eyes.

Any advice much appreciated.

Answer 1

There is an SLN file, just not where you expected it. For Web Site projects they are created in your default Projects location e.g. C:\Users\username\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects\YourWebSite\YourWebSite.sln (or wherever you have your default Projects location set up in Tools/Options/Projects and Solutions).

Great aren't they these website projects? What an awesome idea they were.

Answer 2

They're stored in the solution file.

The references are stored in Web.config and the Bin\ folder.

Answer 3

The settings get saved to the the solution and project files (.sln, .csproj). If you open the file(s) in Notepad, you'll see the various settings listed in XML format. Some settings might be stored in the user settings file (.csproj.user), like certain debugging options, etc.

EDIT

In your case, since this is a web site project, disregard the parts of my answer referring to the project file. I'm going to leave it in there though, just in case it can be useful to someone else in the future.

Answer 4

I just ran into this and found none of the answers given here were correct for references. These were stored using .dll.refresh files - which we can add to source control.

Ref. question here: What is a dll.refresh file in ASP.Net?