Is it possible to modify (or just replace) web.config of existing site using MSDeploy?
It's possible to replace certain sections (specified with an xPath query or regular expression) of the web config file. Use the -declareParam en -setParam commandline switches for that.
Like so
msdeploy -verb:sync -source:apphostconfig="Default Web Site" -dest:package=ParameterPackage.zip -declareParam:name=param,kind=XmlFile,scope=web.config,match=//add/#value
or so:
msdeploy -verb:sync -source:package=ParameterPackage.zip -dest:auto -setParam:name=param,value=MyDefaultWebPage.htm
You can find more info here if you're using the command line.
If your working with importing and exporting packages in and from IIS you can create a parameters.xml file. Vishal Joshi has lots of good posts about how to use msdeploy (for example this)
Yes you can do this. I just posted a blog on this at http://sedodream.com/2012/02/14/HowToUpdateASingleFileUsingWebDeployMSDeploy.aspx but I'm also copying the content below for you.
The other day I saw a question posted on StackOverflow asking if it was possible to update web.config using MSDeploy. I actually used a technique where I updated a single file in one of my previous posts at How to take your web app offline during publishing but it wasn’t called out too much. In any case I’ll show you how you can update a single file (in this case web.config) using MSDeploy.
You can use the contentPath provider to facilitate updating a single file. Using contentPath you can sync either a single file or an entire folder. You can also use IIS app paths to resolve where the file/folder resides. For example if I have a web.config file in a local folder named “C:\Data\Personal\My Repo\sayed-samples\UpdateWebConfig” and I want to update my IIS site UpdateWebCfg running in the Default Web Site on my folder I would use the command shown below.
%msdeploy% -verb:sync -source:contentPath="C:\Data\Personal\My Repo\sayed-samples\UpdateWebConfig\web.config" -dest:contentPath="Default Web Site/UpdateWebCfg/web.config"
From the command above you can see that I set the source content path to the local file and the dest content path using the IIS path {SiteName}/{AppName}/{file-path}. In this case I am updating a site running in IIS on my local machine. In order to update one that is running on a remote machine you will have to add ComputerName and possibly some other values to the –dest argument.
You can view the latest sources for this sample at my github repo.
Related
I am using azure for deployment of my new Web API's, I am new with deployment on IIS and azure.
I have added my Web API's on azure as web application, and it's working fine, till I added documentation for each API's functions. After adding description I uncomment line below from HelpPageConfig.cs.
config.SetDocumentationProvider(new XmlDocumentationProvider(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/XmlDocument.xml")));
It's working finr locally, and I am able to see all descriptions, but when I published it on azure, I am getting error saying,
Could not find a part of the path 'D:\home\site\wwwroot\App_Data\XmlDocument.xml'.
site url : http://mejodo.azurewebsites.net/
Do I need to change path ?
File is already created in my system on D:\home\site\wwwroot\App_Data directory.
What changes I need to do to make it work ?
I had the same issue. For me the file was generated. Please follow the below steps.
Click on show all files in solution explorer.
Check whether you have a file in App_Data folder
If you have the file, right click and include the same in your project.
Now build and publish to Azure.
I hope this will work. Thanks
In my case XmlDocument.xml had to be added in Visual Studio to the App_Data folder within the solution using 'add existing item'.
Just add to your project new folder "App_Data" with XmlDocument.xml and publish
When you say that you have Web API's on azure as web application, do you mean that they are applications under the site ? If yes, then I think you are missing the application name in the path to the XML file.
Try going to mejodo.scm.azurewebsites.net > debug console > powershell to see the exact folder structure....
You must verify that the line in the HelpPageConfig.cs file in the Area>HelpPage>App_Start folder.
that is in the register method, this line is
config.SetDocumentationProvider(new XmlDocumentationProvider(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/XmlDocument.xml")));
this uncommented
then you must verify that in the project configuration, in the build XML documentation file, this is the same path as the above mentioned line.
When you publish the xml file goes in the bin folder, so change 'D:\home\site\wwwroot\App_Data\XmlDocument.xml'.
to
'D:\home\site\wwwroot\bin\XmlDocument.xml'.
and it should work.
I've had a very frustrating experience on putting an MVC 5 app on Azure. I have been reading the following page: http://www.asp.net/identity/overview/features-api/best-practices-for-deploying-passwords-and-other-sensitive-data-to-aspnet-and-azure
But what I haven't managed to put in my head is the following:
Security Warning: Do not add your secrets .config file to your project or check it into source control. By default, Visual Studio sets the Build Action to Content, which means the file is deployed. For more information see Why don't all of the files in my project folder get deployed? Although you can use any extension for the secrets .config file, it's best to keep it .config, as config files are not served by IIS. Notice also that the AppSettingsSecrets.config file is two directory levels up from the web.config file, so it's completely out of the solution directory. By moving the file out of the solution directory, "git add *" won't add it to your repository.
And:
Security Warning: Unlike the AppSettingsSecrets.config file, the external connection strings file must be in the same directory as the root web.config file, so you'll have to take precautions to ensure you don't check it into your source repository.
The problem is the following: When I upload the Web.config file with the external files without being included I get hit by "The System cannot find the file specified", so for it to go away I must include the .config files defeating the purpose of Microsoft's post.
I really really really do not understand. I have added the connectionStrings and appSetting's keys in Azure's portal. What is the correct and secured way of putting my passwords and secrets online? What am I missing? Is it because I'm running in Debug mode?
According to this:
How can I secure passwords stored inside web.config?
There is nothing to worry about accessing the Web.config file...
But that just defies Microsoft's post.
Thanks.
I find the following technique to be the easiest way to do this.
Instead of putting the deployment values of these settings into the web.config, I keep the test values in there instead. I then put the deployment values into the Application Settings section of the Azure Website via the Azure Portal:
When the website runs, these settings will take precedence over what is in the web.config. This helps me avoid externalized files, allows me to keep sane development configuration that the team can share, and makes deployment very easy.
The best way is to set your secrets in the Connection Strings section of the portal. Any values set there will override values you specify in your web.config file.
This way they are only exposed to people who have admin access over the site itself. Having full access to the source won't even be enough to get the secret values.
More details here
I want to create a startup cmd task in an Azure web role to copy a specific file into the inetpub\custerr\en-US directory before the role starts. Ideally, I'd like to be able to override the default error response html files. The overriding file will be stored inside the VS solution for the web role.
The following is a screenshot from IIS Manager's Error Pages window.
I'm not exactly sure how to do this. I suppose %SystemDrive%\inetpub\custerr\en-US should be the path to destination. How do I get the absolute/relative path to the file to be copied? I was thinking of adding it under the web role project and setting its Copy to Output Directory to Copy Always. What will the code in the startup cmd look like?
There is an alternative way of doing the same, thought it might help you.
Check this: Enable custom errors in Azure
I have very strange problem and I don't even know why it occurs. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.
So i have created new website in VB2012. Then i've created new folder and uploaded everything on my host. But this folder is missing on the server. Why is that and how to fix it? Do i need to create desired folders on my host manually?
Folder named "photos" added in my website project
Folder is missing on the server when I upload that project
Empty directories are not published when using Visual Studio.
The top answer to this question regarding a similar issue suggests a workaround:
You need to create a placeholder.txt file in each empty directory if you want the precompilation tool to generate these empty folders. Failing that you can create a command line app that will create the folders in your post build events (but only if you are using web application project not web site project).
From my experience VS won't publish an empty folder. As a workaround we always put a dummy file in the folder to ensure that it gets copied over. Something like "placeholder.txt"
I have an application with 2 directories (books and export).
If we create a book or a page of a book in the application a directory is added with the id of the page (this is for uploading resources).
If we delete a page, the page (and it's directory) is removed from the database and the filesystem.
However this resulted in a session loss (even an application restart). I've looked up some thing on google and found the following link.
It seems to be a problem in ASP.NET 2.0 (and 3.5).
We are now thinking about writing a service that will clean up the directories at night.
But there has got to be another solution for this no?
Oh and putting the directory outside the virtual directory is not an option.
Try disabling the monitoring of File System. This will prevent your session alive.
This article may be usefull for you.
Oh and putting the directory outside
the virtual directory is not an
option.
Putting the directory outside the virtual directory is the only solution I found (so far). What you can do, is to create a link (junction) in the file system so that the directory appears to be inside the virtual directory, e.g:
Our web site (virtual directory) is located at C:\projectX\website
the data directory (where we create/delete files and folders) is located at C:\projectX\data
then we create a link which makes the data folder available as C:\projectX\website\data
The link is created using the program Linkd.exe (available in the windows resource kit), with the following command:
linkd c:\projectX\website\data c:\projectX\data
Now c:\projectX\website\data is a link/junction which points to the real data directory. You can work with the link as if it were a physical directory.
E.g. in your web site you can access it using this code:
Server.MapPath("~/data")
And you can also used the windows file explorer and browse to C:\projectX\website\data. It appears just like a real directory.
There seems to be a supported hotfix which achieves the same as the article Sachin mentioned (turn off the file change notifications in a web site).
Check this article in the microsoft KB for more information.
But since you mentioned in a comment, that you do not have access to the server, I guess this will also not help in your case.
For storing data files that are frequently updated, created and deleted you need to use App_Data folder in the root of the web site. MSDN for App_Data folder states:
Contains application data files
including MDF files, XML files, as
well as other data store files. The
App_Data folder is used by ASP.NET 2.0
to store an application's local
database, which can be used for
maintaining membership and role
information.
Also check Q&A section for App_Data folder usage: App_Data folder question
I had the same problem. The solution is to externalize the session handling by using the ASP.Net State service. The only draw back is that every object you place in the session needs to be serializable, as it is transferred to the state service and back.
I currently do not have the possibility to provide further links, but google will help you, now that you know what to search for.