How can I add a static data file to my web project? It doesn't work in debug mode with IIS Express, and I don't have a web site to deploy to yet.
Details
I have a data file that I want to expose on my web site. I have added that file to my ASP.NET project. When I run the project and attempt to view the file, I get a 404. In other words, I debug the project and type the file url into the browser. That url looks like 'https://localhost:44378/Data/widgetConfigMap.json'.
Rationale:
I need the data file to feed a javascript method. That method has an input parameter for a url with data, i.e. my file. The API in question is Bing Maps. The method name is 'createFromConfig'.
Unsatisfactory Alternative
I can generate the file 'on-the-fly' (via a method in my controller), but that method is slow. Slow enough that it timed-out once.
What I have tried
I tried updating the file properties. Initially, the file Build Action was 'Content', I changed that to 'Page', then to 'Resource' → neither worked. The other property choices look wrong.
Summary
I feel like there should be some way to configure my project, or IIS Express to serve-up the data file, but I can't find it.
It sounds like you just add the json file to your project folder instead of importing the json item into your project.
You can access json file directly when you have imported either new json item or existing json file to your /Data folder under your application.
Besides, please ensure you have let your route ignore the URL so static file handler will handle this.
Of course, you can try to publish it to local IIS not IIS express. Then import the data file and it shouldn't be limited.
Related
I've written an ASP.net web application. In the interest of following the advice in "The Pragmatic Programmer" to put application logic in configuration, I wrote a large XML file that describes various business rules.
When I test the application on my local development workstation, I copy the file to c:\xxxxx\myfile.xml and then write the code to read the file from this location.
What is the correct way to deploy this xml file as part of my web application so that it gets read from the directory in which the web application is deployed?
Update: The XML file in question is for server-side configuration and should never be available for download to the end-user.
If you're not embedding this as a resource, you should:
Create a directory under which this file will reside.
Create the file and set its Build Action to Content.
Create a web.config file in that directory which forbids access to the directory so you don't expose your business rules to the Internet.
Add a setting in your application's main web.config that gives the path to this file relative to the root of the application, i.e. "~/MySecureFolder/MyBusinessRules.Xml".
Have some code that calls HttpServerUtility.MapPath Method to convert the value from the setting in web.config to a virtual path.
I don't know if this is what you want - Click on the XML file, then open the Property Window and find the "Build Action" property. Set the value to "Embedded Resources"
I think what you need to do is:
Add the XML file to your web application project in Visual Studio
Right click on the file and select 'Properties...'
Set the Build Action to 'Content' and Copy to Output Directory to 'Do not copy'
this will ensure that your XML file is deployed along with the rest of your web app.
If you want to make available your XML file from http requests to your server, you should
place it in your web publication folder.
This ASP instruction should help you to find your publication path:
Request.ServerVariables("APPL_PHYSICAL_PATH")
I currently have a local resource file in an ASP.NET MVC project. The goal of this file is to let a non-programmer edit the text on the webpage. The problem is that the resource file is an embedded resource and compiled on ASP.NET MVC Deployment. This means they would have visual studio to change site copy. This is non-optimal :)
Is there a way to make use of resource files in ASP.NET MVC that would result in a .resx file on the server for an admin-type person to be able to edit?
The other option is to put this in a database and have some front end to edit it, but I would really like to avoid this option as its overly complex for just a few text fields on a small site.
Thanks!
Once way of doing so, is to make sure the resources aren't compiled.
When you add a resource file (e.g. TextResource.resx) you can access the resources in a type safe manner.
For example:
ViewBag.Message = Resources.TextResource.MyMessage;
After you add a resource file (*.resx), select it in the solution explorer and view its properties. Clear the "Custom Tool" property. By default it contains the value "GlobalResourceProxyGenerator". Just delete this value.
This has a downside, however as you can no longer access the resources in a type-safe manner. You'll have to load them using the GetGlobalResourceObject and GetLocalResourceObject methods of the current HttpContext.
For example:
ViewBag.Message = this.HttpContext.GetGlobalResourceObject("TextResource",
"Hello", CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture);
This way you'll be able to manually alter the resource files (*.resx). You could then opt to build an application which can read and modify the contents of the resource files, which are just XML files.
For example:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/Editing_a_ResourceFile.aspx
I have an ASP.NET web site, let's call it MySite, and at the same level as the web site, a virtual folder - Data. And in that folder I have the xml file needed in an AdRotator control.
I put "http://localhost/Data/Ads.xml" in AdvertisementFile and I get this error:
'http://localhost/Data/Ads.xml' is not a valid virtual path.
Is there a way to get this working?
The xml file must be on the same website for security reasons, using the control out of the box.
You could write your own methods to read a file from an external server, with an HttpWebRequest for example, then create a server side XML file from that stream and use it with the AdControl.
There is also the AdCreated event to look at, too.
I'm working on an ASP.NET web application for our corporate intranet users. I have a form where a user should provide a path to the file on the local network (something like "\localServer\someFolder\someFile.ext") without uploading the actual file. The issue is that users don't want to type the whole file path and want to use some kind of visual browse dialog.
The standard HTML <input type=file> element allows to browse for a file, but most of the browsers (except for IE) don't allow to access file's full path, so I think it should be done by some external component like Silverlight, Flash, Java applet etc.
I tried to do it with Silverlight, but I'm getting a SecurityException when trying to access file's full path using Silverlight's OpenFileDialog class.
This java applet http://jumploader.com/demo_images.html seems to do something similar to what I'm looking for, but it's focused on uploading files - I only need to be able to get file's full path and pass it to the server as a string.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Telerik ASP.NET AJAX RadFileExplorer has the functionality you're looking for:
http://www.telerik.com/products/aspnet-ajax/fileexplorer.aspx
You can use their Custom File Content Provider to hook the GUI to your server's file system.
http://demos.telerik.com/aspnet-ajax/fileexplorer/examples/server-sideapi/dbfilebrowsercontentprovider/defaultcs.aspx
This should be possible with Flash's uploading capabilities. SWFUpload has an API that you may be able to access from JavaScript to extract the selected file name without actually uploading anything. See docs here, for example getFile():
getFile is used to retrieve a File Object from the queue. The file retrieved by passing in a file id (the id property from a file object) or a file index (the index property from a file object).
So, I've created my wonderful winforms app that I want to unleash upon the world, and now I am trying to create a simple website to host some basic information and link to the setup file (msi installer file )....
I have a button on the asp.net page and the setup file setupApp.msi in same folder as the asp.net page. I am currently trying the following:
Response.Redirect("http://./SetupApp.msi");
But this best guess at what to do is not working. Is there something wrong with Mime types here? What do I need to put in the click event to allow users to download this file?
The path you are passing in to the method is not valid (there's no server name called ".").
You can pass in a relative path and it should work fine because ASP.NET will resolve the path:
Response.Redirect("SetupApp.msi")
Or if it's not in the same folder, try one of these:
Response.Redirect("../Downloads/SetupApp.msi")
Response.Redirect("~/SomeFolder/SetupApp.msi")
Keep in mind that you don't necessarily have to do the whole redirect at all. Instead of writing code in an ASPX file you could just have a link to your MSI:
Download my app!