ASP.NET core and in-place IIS web application - iis

One of the comfort benefits of hosting a development version of a web application on the developer's client machine is the ease of which a change can be verified.
In a traditional ASP.NET web application I'll usually have this setup: The IIS site or IIS web application has its physical path pointing to the ASP.NET web application's project path.
This enables me to do a change, recompile if necessary, and hit refresh in the browser to instantly see the effects of my change.
Now, if I wanted to I could have IIS point to a different path and publish the ASP.NET web application to that location with each change, a far more cumbersome process.
I prefer the in-place IIS setup for faster turn-around, and I would like the same setup for ASP.NET Core, but I've not figured out how. As far as I can tell, I can at least do the following:
Start the debugger in VS (IIS Express or dotnet.exe)
Run the web application from the console
Publish the changes to a different physical path that is mapped to by an IIS site/web application.
Both these options work, but circumstances conspire to make the result difficult to manage: I usually work on both the client and the service, and the client frequently involves multiple service web applications. So I will typically need to have multiple web applications running at the same time, and need to update these frequently.
While IIS provides this opportunity in my classic ASP.NET applications, I'm not dead set on continuing to use it. Any other method to achieve smooth turn-around would be acceptable :)
So, any tips?
-S

Ok, I'm calling it on this one: This does not seem to be a viable option.
I'll give this a try instead:
In my services I accept a run url as described in this post:
dotnet run web site with specific url
powershell script starts up a list of services in new console windows using dotnet watch run:
$services = Get-Content .\services.json -Raw | ConvertFrom-Json;
foreach($serviCe in $services)
{
$expression = "cmd /c start powershell -Command {"
$expression += "Write-Host $($service.name) -ForegroundColor Yellow;"
$expression += "Write-Host $($service.urls) -ForegroundColor Yellow;"
$expression += "Set-Location $($service.path);"
$expression += "Invoke-Expression `"dotnet watch run --server.urls=$($service.urls)`";"
$expression += "sleep(10);"
$expression += "}"
Invoke-Expression $expression
sleep(1);
}
And here is services.json with a list of services:
[
{
"name": "Products",
"path": "C:\\Services\\src\\Products",
"urls": "http://localhost:5000"
},
{
"name": "Customers",
"path": "C:\\Services\\src\\Customers",
"urls": "http://localhost:5001"
},
{
"name": "Statistics",
"path": "C:\\Services\\src\\Statistics",
"urls": "http://localhost:5002"
}
]

Related

Use NetOffice.PowerPointApi on azure app service

I have written a code to save all the slides in a presentation as jpeg. It works well in visual studio locally on my system, but when I deploy it on Azure app service, I get 500 internal server error.
IIS received the request; however, an internal error occurred during the processing of the request. The root cause of this error depends on which module handles the request and what was happening in the worker process when this error occurred. IIS was not able to access the web.config file for the Web site or application. This can occur if the NTFS permissions are set incorrectly. IIS was not able to process configuration for the Web site or application. The authenticated user does not have permission to use this DLL. The request is mapped to a managed handler but the .NET Extensibility Feature is not installed.
The code:
using pptd = NetOffice.PowerPointApi;
using NetOffice.PowerPointApi.Enums;
using NetOffice.OfficeApi.Enums;
public void genThumbnails(string originalfileName,string renamedFilename, string dirPath)
{
pptd.Application pptApplication = new pptd.Application();
pptd.Presentation pptPresentation = pptApplication.Presentations.Open(dirPath + renamedFilename, MsoTriState.msoFalse, MsoTriState.msoFalse, MsoTriState.msoFalse);
int i = 0;
foreach (pptd.Slide pptSlide in pptPresentation.Slides)
{
pptSlide.Export(dirPath + originalfileName + "_slide" + i + ".jpg", "jpg", 1280, 720);
i++;
}
pptPresentation.Close();
}
What is the mistake that I am doing? Does NetOffice package also need MS Office installed on the server like Office.Interop?
The standard windows and Linux web apps used blessed operating system images. As part of the PaaS design, customers are limited as to what they can run as there is no MS Office inter-op present and also because Azure Web Apps is a sandbox.
My suggestion would be to create a container image that has the necessary dependencies that you need and then deploy your custom container to an Azure Web App Container.

Can I change an Azure application type from "Web app / API" to "Native"?

I have configured an Azure application as type "Web app / API", but would like to switch it to "Native". According to https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/aaddevsup/2018/04/11/changing-an-existing-native-application-to-a-web-appapi-to-get-existing-keys/, the reverse seems possible. It says that I should edit the manifest's 'publicClient' field, which is, "the field that determines whether an application is a web app/api or native application. When it is true, it is a native application otherwise it is a web app." However, both editing the app manifest on the web UI and uploading a newly edited copy of the manifest will return the message, "Failed to update application xxx. Error details: GenericError".
Is there a way to do this at all, or should I start from scratch?
To fix the issue, before you set the publicClient to true, you need to set the "identifierUris": [xxxxxx] to "identifierUris": [] in the Manifest
, then it will work fine.
According to the link you provided, there are 2 important notes
The goal of the steps provided in the article is changing Native app to Web App, which does not necessarily mean it will work the other way around.
This is a work around and is not recommended
Note : This is not recommended practice, and this is solely meant for
customers who have keys on their native application but can't get to
them anymore; so they need a workaround to get access to the native
application Keys
So, my recommendation is to start from scratch because even if it worked, it will not be supported
However, below are the main differences between native app manifest and web app manifest. Check if this works for you.
Key/Value pairs in Native App Manifest
"availableToOtherTenants": true
"homepage": null,
"identifierUris": [],
"oauth2Permissions": [],
"publicClient": true,

Azure does not see Index.cshtml

I'm trying to publish my ASP.NET Core application on Azure service. This works, but when I try to use the application functionality, I get the message
Your App Service app is up and running.
Moreover, in my wwwroot folder I don't have any .html files. I only have an Index.cshtml file, which is located in the Views/Home-folder in my application, all another files are .css, .js, etc.
When I run the application in Visual Studio in Debug mode, immediately opens the page in browser that was generated from Index.cshtml. But after the application is published in Azure, this does not happen.
What can I do to make Azure see Index.cshtml?
AFAIK, a default route would be added to Configure method of your Startup.cs file as follows:
app.UseMvc(routes =>
{
routes.MapRoute(
name: "default",
template: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
});
I also created my .Net Core 2.0 MVC application to check this issue, it could work as expected on local side and my azure web app.
Moreover, in my wwwroot folder I don't have any .html files.
Views under Web Application and Web Apllication MVC would be compiled into {your-webapplication-assemblyname}.PrecompiledViews.dll, you could leverage ILSpy to check your DLLs.
For your issue, I would recommend you clear the web content in your web app via KUDU, or modify the publish settings and choose Remove additional files at destination under File Publish Options, then redeploy your application to Azure Web App to narrow this issue.
Are you finding index.cshtml in your web package? In case if you get index.cshtml in your final web package, you may need to add index.cshtml file type to the following in..
..YourAzureWebApp --> Application Settings --> Default Documents
I found out what the problem was. There are two types of applications, as presented below in the picture: Web Application and Web Apllication MVC. I worked with the second type of application. When I selected the first type and published the application, Azure immediately found the required index.html. I just had to choose Web Application.
But why does not it work with the second type of application (Web Apllication MVC)? I still do not know the answer to this question.
2 cents from my side as I just stuck for a while with this.
The problem was that yesterday I'd been playing around with deploying to Ubunut / Ngnix and today I decided to try Azure.
BUT I forgot to comment (disable) the following lines in my Startup:
//for nginx server
app.UseForwardedHeaders(new ForwardedHeadersOptions
{
ForwardedHeaders = ForwardedHeaders.XForwardedFor | ForwardedHeaders.XForwardedProto
});
and that costed me almost half of the day to find the issue.
I also put the routing in the following way
app.UseStatusCodePages();
app.UseAuthentication();
app.UseMvc(routes => {
routes.MapRoute(
name: "default",
template: "{controller=Pages}/{action=Index}");
});
Now looks like it works on Azure :)

SSL based webserver on Windows IoT

I am working on a project which involves gathering some sensor data and build a GUI on it, with controlling of sensors. It has following two basic requirements.
Should be a web based solution (Although it will only be used on LAN or even same PC)
It should be executable on both windows IoT core and standard windows PC (Windows 7 and above)
I have decided to use Embedded webserver for Windows IoT, which seems to be a good embedded server based on PCL targeting .NET 4.5 and UWP. So I can execute it on both environments. That is great! But the problem is this web server doesn't support SSL, I have tried to search other servers and have come up with Restup for UWP, which is also a good REST based web server, but it also doesn't support SSL.
I needs an expert opinion, that if there is any possibility I can use SSL protocol in these web servers. Is it possible that it can be implemented using some libraries like OpenSSL etc? (Although I think that it would be too complex and much time taking to implement it correctly)
Edit
I would even like to know about ASP.NET core on Windows 10 IoT Core, if I can build an application for both windows. I found one example but it is DNXbased, and I don't want to follow this way, as DNX is deprecated.
Any help is highly appreciated.
Late answer, but .NET Core 2.0 looks promising with Kestrel. I successfully created a .Net Core 2.0 app on the PI 3 this morning. Pretty nifty and If you already have an Apache web server, you’re almost done. I’m actually going to embed (might not be the right term) my .Net Core 2.0 web application into a UWP app, rather than create multiple unique apps for the touchscreens around the house.
.Net Core 2.0 is still in preview though.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/servers/kestrel?tabs=aspnetcore2x
I know this post is pretty old, but I have built the solution which you are asking bout. I’m currently running .Net 5.0 on a Raspberry pi. When you build the .net core web project, select the correct target framework and the target runtime to win-arm. Copy the output some directory on the pi and you will have to access the device using powershell to create a scheduled task to start the web project. Something like this:
schtasks /create /tn "Startup Web" /tr c:\startup.bat /sc onstart /ru SYSTEM
That starts a bat file which runs a powershell command which has the following command:
Set-Location C:\apps\vradWebServer\ .\VradTrackerWeb.exe (the .\VradTrackerWeb.exe is on a second line in the file) - the name of the webapp.
That starts the server. If you have any web or apps posting to the webserver you will need an ssl cert. I used no-ip and let’s encrypt for this. For let’s encrypt to work, you will need an external facing web server and have the domain name point to it. Run let’s encrypt on the external server and then copy out the cert and place it in your web directory on the pi. I then have a uwp program that runs on the pi and when it starts, it gets it’s local address and then updates no-ip with the local address, so the local devices communicating will be correctly routed and have the ssl cert. Side note, my uwp app is the startup app on the device. The scheduled task is important because it allows you to run you app and the web server. The following snip is how I get the ip address and then update no-ip.
private string GetLocalIP()
{
string localIP = "";
using (Socket socket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Dgram, 0))
{
socket.Connect("8.8.8.8", 65530);
IPEndPoint endPoint = socket.LocalEndPoint as IPEndPoint;
localIP = endPoint.Address.ToString();
}
return localIP;
}//GetLocalIP
private async void UpdateIP()
{
string localIP = "";
string msg = "";
var client = new HttpClient(new HttpClientHandler { Credentials = new NetworkCredential("YourUserName", "YourPassword") });
try
{
localIP = GetLocalIP();
string noipuri = "http://dynupdate.no-ip.com/nic/update?hostname=YourDoman.hopto.org&myip=" + localIP;
using (var response = await client.GetAsync(noipuri))
using (var content = response.Content)
{
msg= await content.ReadAsStringAsync();
}
if (msg.Contains("good") == true || msg.Contains("nochg")==true)
{
SentDynamicIP = true;
LastIPAddress = localIP;
}
else
{
SentDynamicIP = false;
}
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
string x = ex.Message;
}
finally
{
client.Dispose();
}
}//UpdateIP

How to establish a continuous deployment of non-.NET project/solution to Azure?

I have connected Visual Studio Online to my Azure website. This is not a .NET ASP.NET MVC project, just several static HTML files.
Now I want to get my files uploaded to Azure and available 'online' after my commits/pushes to the TFS.
When a build definition (based on GitContinuousDeploymentTemplate.12.xaml) is executed it fails with an obvious message:
Exception Message: The process parameter ProjectsToBuild is required but no value was set.
My question: how do I setup a build definition so that it automatically copies my static files to Azure on commits?
Or do I need to use a different tooling for this task (like WebMatrix).
update
I ended up with creating an empty website and deploying it manually from Visual Studio using webdeploy. Other possible options to consider to create local Git at Azure.
Alright, let me try to give you an answer:
I was having quite a similar issue. I had a static HTML, JS and CSS site which I needed to have in TFS due to the project and wanted to make my life easier using the continuous deployment. So what I did was following:
When you have a Git in TFS, you get an URL for the repository - something like:
https://yoursite.visualstudio.com/COLLECTION/PROJECT/_git/REPOSITORY
, however in order to access the repository itself, you need to authenticate, which is not currently possible, if you try to put the URL with authentication into Azure:
https://username:password#TFS_URL
It will not accept it. So what you do, in order to bind the deployment is that you just put the URL for repository there (the deployment will fail, however it will prepare the environment for us to proceed).
However, when you link it there, you can get DEPLOYMENT TRIGGER URL on the Configure tab of the Website. What it is for is that when you push a change to your repository (say to GitHub) what happens is that GitHub makes a HTTP POST request to that link and it tells Azure to deploy new code onto the site.
Now I went to Kudu which is the underlaying system of Azure Websites which handles the deployments. I figured that if you send correct contents in the HTTP POST (JSON format) to the DEPLOYMENT TRIGGER URL, you can have it deploy code from any repository and it even authenticates!
So the thing left to do is to generate the alternative authentication credentials on the TFS site and put the whole request together. I wrapped this entire process into the following PowerShell script:
# Windows Azure Website Configuration
#
# WAWS_username: The user account which has access to the website, can be obtained from https://manage.windowsazure.com portal on the Configure tab under DEPLOYMENT TRIGGER URL
# WAWS_password: The password for the account specified above
# WAWS: The Azure site name
$WAWS_username = ''
$WAWS_password = ''
$WAWS = ''
# Visual Studio Online Repository Configuration
#
# VSO_username: The user account used for basic authentication in VSO (has to be manually enabled)
# VSO_password: The password for the account specified above
# VSO_URL: The URL to the Git repository (branch is specified on the https://manage.windowsazure.com Configuration tab BRANCH TO DEPLOY
$VSO_username = ''
$VSO_password = ''
$VSO_URL = ''
# DO NOT EDIT ANY OF THE CODE BELOW
$WAWS_URL = 'https://' + $WAWS + '.scm.azurewebsites.net/deploy'
$BODY = '
{
"format": "basic",
"url": "https://' + $VSO_username + ':' + $VSO_password + '#' + $VSO_URL + '"
}'
$authorization = "Basic "+[System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes($WAWS_username+":"+$WAWS_password ))
$bytes = [System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes($BODY)
$webRequest = [System.Net.WebRequest]::Create($WAWS_URL)
$webRequest.Method = "POST"
$webRequest.Headers.Add("Authorization", $authorization)
$webRequest.ContentLength = $bytes.Length
$webRequestStream = $webRequest.GetRequestStream();
$webRequestStream.Write($bytes, 0, $bytes.Length);
$webRequest.GetResponse()
I hope that what I wrote here makes sense. The last thing you would need is to bind this script to a hook in Git, so when you perform a push the script gets automatically triggered after it and the site is deployed. I haven't figured this piece yet tho.
This should also work to deploy a PHP/Node.js and similar code.
The easiest way would be to add them to an empty ASP .NET project, set them to be copied to the output folder, and then "build" the project.
Failing that, you could modify the build process template, but that's a "last resort" option.

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