Working on a .NET project in VMware Fusion – good way to edit files in OS X?

Question

I'm working in a client's .NET-based web project right now – I have it running well in IIS with SQL Server in my VMware Fusion VM. The .mdf/.ldf files are in the project directory as well. I'm a frontend developer, so I'll only be touching views and CSS/JavaScript files, and so I'd rather use my regular editor in OS X (Vim) than Visual Studio inside Windows.

What's a good way to achieve this – having the files accessible by IIS/SQL Server while still being available to OS X for editing?

I seem to remember having, a long time ago, mounted a VMware Fusion "shared folder" inside the NTFS filesystem of the Windows machine once (so IIS and SQL Server would read it as a local folder, but it was actually being shared from OS X). When I've tried to look it up now I can't for the life of me find anything that says it's even possible though, so I don't know…

I'd really appreciate any help.

Answer 1

I solved it by moving the project directory to the OS X host, and symlinking it to its original location in Windows, by running the following in cmd:

mklink /d C:\project\location "//vmware-host/Shared Folders/Project"

(Where C:\project\location is the folder that IIS serves from.)

Answer 2

For editing views and CSS and Javascript you don't need VS I guess. You can install openssh-server on the Windows guest, and then login using ssh with your osx-editor. You can probably do the same using shared folders on Windows and using the SMB/Samba protocol on the mac. You can install Filezilla server on the windows guest, and use FTP, then Cyberduck on the Mac, and edit from there. Or maybe your editor supports FTP? Filezilla is probably the easiest solution.