I'm seeking (probably basic) guidance on the right way to split a large site
that's supposed to represent one domain(mydomain.org) into many small VS.NET
projects, and how to avoid issues with multiple web.config files leading to
the error: "It is an error to use a section registered as allowDefinition =
'MachineToApplication'"...

I'm fairly new to VS.NET and my sloppy first solution was to make one huge
solution/project with just one web.config. My development got very slow due
to long compile times. It has become clear to me that this is not the right
way to work with VS.NET and compiled web applications. I need guidance for
how other professionals structure a large collection of related web
applications and deploy that properly on IIS.

One thing that led me to make the
huge-single-project-and-solution-with-just-one-web.config was issues I had
had in the past when I nested a web.config file past a root directory. It
led to errors such as ""It is an error to use a section registered as
allowDefinition = 'MachineToApplication'"..."

What I need is
a) To be able to develop and deploy many web applications that are nested
from the user's/URLs point of view, e.g.:
http://mydomain.org/FirstPublication
http://mydomain.org/FirstPublication/PhotoWebApplication
http://mydomain.org/FirstPublication/PhotoWebApplication/SpecializedImageApplication

b) To be able to develop those web applications as small projects so that
they compile very quickly.

c) To be able to have them reference my common ORM class framework. At the
just-concluded Tech Ed 2007 a very smart guy from Singapore named Boon
taught me how to compile my ORM as a seperate class library and reference it
from other projects. I think that's the solution right there, and I write it
here for the benefit of other folks using EntitySpaces and other ORMs and
who are wondering how to address slow compile times.

d) To avoid the dreaded error: ""It is an error to use a section registered
as allowDefinition = 'MachineToApplication'"..."

As I was drinking my morning coffee it occured to me that maybe the way out
of this problem was through IIS and IIS's use of virtual paths when I
deploy: a "flat" directory structure might be translatable into a directory
structure that apper as nested to the user (e.g.
http://mydomain.org/FirstPublication/PhotoWebApplication/SpecializedImageApplication
) . I am not altogether too familiar with IIS virtual paths, which may have
invited these problems in the first place.

I work in an development shop of one, and I maintain a MSFT server
infrastructure all by my onesome, so it is difficult to draw on peer
expertise. Be my peers. :)

Many thanks for any help you can offer.

-KF