I have built a few custom applications that run on WSS 3 using the Visual Studio 2010 Web application template. When I compile the application, Visual Studio creates the assembly file in the bin directory which I copy over later to the production server (another machine) with WSS 3. The compiled application dll file is copied into the bin folder inside the virtual directory of WSS and runs fine in there.
As the project requirements / applications grew over time I now face the problem that the first hit on the assembly triggers dynamic compilation which I would like to avoid.
Even if applications are running fine I would like to use the asp precompiler on my development machine in order to reduce the delay when the page is first requested.
I have used the following command to precompile the entire Web Application:
aspnet_precompile -v / -p PATH_TO_WEB_APPLICATION C:\WebApp -errorstack
The compilation runs fine without any errors and I end up with a couple of .compiled files and also a Web_App_xxxxx.dll file inside the C:\WebApp\bin folder.
From here onwards I am a bit lost on how to proceed.
Could you please give me some advise to which folder I need to copy the compiled files on the production server ?
Do they need to go into the bin folder on the server or better into the folder where the aspx pages are located?
Additionally I would like to know if I can precompile the Web application on a development machine without the IIS metabase using the -v and -p switch and later use it inside WSS?
I copied all files from the C:\WebApp\bin folder to the server bin folder but unfortunately the csc compilation process still kicks in when looking with process monitor at the server events.
Cheers,
Mathias
The files just need to be dropped into the bin folder and everything will work fine. As for the -v switch you do need to have it if you're using the -p flag, but I think it depends how you're compiling the app too. Check this link out for more. I don't believe its a big deal if its wrong / incorrect though.
This kind of scenario sounds like a job for Cruise Control .NET environment.
I found an answer to this precompilation question:
I thought the first hit on the application page takes a long time because asp.net needs to compile it and I can save some time by precompiling. The application runs inside the WSS context and enables the user to go to a web form and update through the form his/her Active Directory profile. The Exchange global address list is also updated on the Exchange forest so the changes are visible through the Outlook address list and also on Communicator.
The complete solution code with reports etc is around 6000 lines of C# code.
My assumption regarding slow compilation due to the amount of lines was wrong.
I downloaded the following hotfix for asp.net:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961884
and set optimizeCompilations="true" in the web.config as explained here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/davidebb/archive/2009/04/15/a-new-flag-to-optimize-asp-net-compilation-behavior.aspx
http://www.paulliebrand.com/2009/09/18/sharepoint-development-to-bin-folder-and-extremely-slow-render-initial-render-times-solution/
Now the first hit on the application is much faster.
Many thanks,
Mathias
Related
Environment: ASP.NET Core 2.1, Ubuntu.
In old style ASP.NET, when I did a bin deploy (uploaded some dll files for example), the webapp would detect that and reload itself - very useful.
With Core it doesn't do that. I need to stop and restart the dotnet MyApp.dll process.
How do I make it detect changes to binaries and reload?
There are file watchers in Ubuntu that can issue restart commands whenever files are changed like systemd or inotify, but I would strongly advise against that. Uploads can pause or be slow and when uploading 50 files imagine restart after every single one every couple seconds. Server has no way to know when you have finished uploading last DLL. IIS has same problem, it's reliable in development because you refresh the page after the full DLL rebuild. But when in production you don't want random visitors to boot your site midway while it's still uploading. Errors, file locks, all kinds of weirds things can happen.
As pointed by Chris Pratt you want to script your deployment workflow. Idk what environment you are developing on, but if you have Visual Studio and WinSCP it's as easy as writing couple lines of code with Scripting and Task Automation.
Then your publish workflow can be for example as following:
Hit publish in Visual Studio
VS will execute winscp script after publish is finished
Authenticate on remote server
Upload publish folder to a remote folder
Remove old files
Prune logs
After all done issue systemctl restart kestrel-myapp command
Then your site is deployed, cleaned and restarted in the most reliable fashion with a single click.
There's nothing I'm aware of that will do this for you. IIS watches things like the bin directory, web.config, etc. and recycles the App Pool when it detects changes, but that's because it knows to. It's also a full-featured web server, and App Pool recycling on file changes is one of those features. Kestrel, which I assume your using is not. It's a very simple web server that does just what it needs to do as strictly a web server. That's why a more traditional web server like IIS, Apache, Nginx, etc. is normally used as a reverse proxy in front of Kestrel - to provide more advanced functionalities.
All that said, though, this is really just a matter of your release strategy. Personally, I'd encourage you to go with something far more robust that copy-pasting DLLs, but if you want to go that route, you can also script it. Create a shell script to copy the bin directory and restart your app. Your release should be one rails as much as possible. Every time human intervention is called for, you have a potential point of failure, because humans are inherently fallible. A script, however, once tested and ensured to work, will pretty much work every time, because it always does the same things in the same order.
My question may have already been asked but any of the answers match my case.
I need to do a website (ASP.NET MVC 4) with some features of a software. I have finished to developed my website and wanted to test it in a test environment (Windows server 2008 - 64bits).
It works perfectly fine with my dev computer(windows 7 - 64bits). But after I deployed it on IIS, one of my features doesn't work.
This feature is a bit particular. It need a 32 bits COM written in VB6 (this dll can't be change) that call an other dll. When I test the website deployed on IIS, the first ddl is called fine but the 2nd seemed to be not called at all.
This dll are in the installed file of the software. I have the same version of on both computer.
I authorize my app pool to use 32bits application. I tried to give some access to my dll (the COM and interop) like IUSR, IIS_IUSRS. But nothing seems to work.
I have checked both of my dll are registered properly.
I'm a bit lost. Can someone help me ?
PS: Sorry for my English, I can speak but I'm really weak with syntax.
Some suggestion here:
You need to figure out which managed dll, native dll and lib files are referenced by your application (directly or indirectly).
For managed dll, make sure they are in the web's bin folder.
For native dll and .lib files, check out whether those .dll and .lib files are in the PATH. If not, you can either copy them to there; or, you can put them into a folder and add that folder into the PATH. Then restart VS and IIS (command "iisreset") to make sure the setting is picked up.
By the way, putting all of the files in the web's bin folder won't help. The reason is CLR copies the files into a temporary folder under framework directory and run the web there, but CLR only copies away managed dll (not the native ones), so you still get "module not found" error.
I have reproduced this error using the following sample solution
Web1 references a managed c++ project say "MCpp1.dll". The project further references two unmanaged c++ projects with the output say "Lib1.lib" and "Lib2.lib"
If I copy all of those files into web's bin folder, I get the exception of "module not found error".
I create a folder say "C:\Lib" and copy "Lib1.lib" and "Lib2.lib" into it and add this folder into PATH. I restart VS, and also run "IISReset" since I have a IIS web
Open VS and request a page and it works now
I have also contacted the CLR/Fusion team for suggestion of how to get the related module name when this exception happens, which should be very helpful to make diagnosis.
Hope this helps ,
GODFATHER
As outlined in Tip/Trick: Optimizing ASP.NET 2.0 Web Project Build Performance with VS 2005, the "Build Page" command available within Visual Studio web site projects does the following:
the solution will compile all of the class library projects like before, then compile the /app_code directory and Global.asax file, and then instead of re-verifying all pages within the web-site it will only verify the current page you are working on, and any user controls that the page references.
Is there a way to access this functionality from msbuild and / or the command line?
I am setting up an automated build of a large Visual Studio web site project (based on Kentico CMS), which consists of:
a large number of CMS-related pages and user controls that we do not change
a small number of custom "web part" user controls that we are actively developing, all within a CMSWebParts/Custom directory within the web site
Pre-compiling the entire site using aspnet_compiler takes up to 10 minutes, which is too slow for a commit build. Ideally, I'd like to introduce a step that pre-compiles just our custom code. Note that we don't actually deploy the pre-compiled output (not recommended for Kentico sites), this step is intended only to validate the code in the .ascx files.
The best way I've found to reduce the pre-compile time for small changes to large web sites is to use the ASP.Net Compilation Tool (aspnet_compiler.exe) with in-place compilation.
Our build script runs the tool using the following command:
aspnet_compiler.exe -v / -p C:\path\to\MyWebSite
This command specifies the physical path to the web site but does not set the targetDir option, which results in the application being compiled in-place.
The benefit of in-place compilation is that aspnet_compiler will by default only compile files that have changed since the web site was last compiled (you can force it to recompile everything with the -c option). For example, when I run the above command against the web site for the first time, it takes about 10 mins to run. If I then change a single file and run it again, it only takes 30 seconds or so.
You may be curious as to how the compilation tool "knows" which files have changed. Compiling in-place doesn't modify the application being compiled, i.e., you won't end up with files like App_Web_xdqqvn5q.dll and default.aspx.cdcab7d2.compiled in the bin folder of your web application. The output is actually generated within the "Temporary ASP.NET Files" folder. When you specify a physical path (rather than an IIS metabase), a folder within your profile is used, e.g. C:\Users\your.name\AppData\Local\Temp\Temporary ASP.NET Files. Your web application source code is cross-referenced with data stored in Temporary ASP.NET Files to work out what has changed.
I think this might be of help for what you need to accomplish:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd293881.aspx
From what I read you can run the build from Visual Studio Command Prompt or from the windows command prompt.
Update:
I couldn't find anything on the internet relating to building only one page but using aspnet_compiler without -c parameter should speed up the compiling process since it will only recompile what has changed. If only thing that has changed since last build was the content of one .aspx page then running the compiler should act similar to Build Page.
-c
Specifies that the application to be compiled should be fully rebuilt.
Components that have already been compiled are compiled again. If this
option is omitted, the tool builds only those parts of the application
that have been modified since compilation was last performed.
aspnet_compiler usage is explained on this page:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229863.aspx
I have an ASP.net that I built in VS2010 running in iis7 however when I go back into VS and make updates to the code behind file and re-publish the application still acts as it has before I made the changes. I have tried deleting and republishing all the files and restarting the app pool but it still doesn't affect how the application behaves.
project-->Property's--> Package / product web--> Items to deploy --> All files in this project folders
now publish your project.
your new files also added in publish folder. . .
DO NOT publish your vb and cs file on there server unless you feel like having your source code potentially exposed. There have been multiple vulnerabilities that have allowed code download.
Publish the application to a folder via the visual studio publish menu.
On the server, go into your temporary aspnet folder for example:
c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files
and find your app and delete it. If you cannot delete the files stop the worker process (w3wp.exe) or restart iis.
Republish and all should be good. If you are in doubt if that version is getting executed then add some logging in the new version or trace information.
There are two options for publishing an ASP.NET site to a server:
Copy the .aspx AND aspx.vb (or .aspx.cs) files to the server. The first user to hit the server causes compilation so it takes a little bit of extra time for them. Once that's done, subsequent hits should not be impacted.
Copy just the .aspx files - and a compiled DLL to the server. The DLL contains the compiled code so it doesn't exist on the webserver. The first user does not have to wait for compilation and the VB or C# source code is not on the server, potentially accessible to hackers.
It sounds like you've compiled the site to a DLL but that DLL isn't getting published to the server when you re-publish. Have you recompiled the site before publishing?
I faced similar issue with WPF single file exe publish.
while debugging from VS my changes were visible.
But when I pasted the exe to deployment folder, the changes weren't there.
I had to change the version number to see my changes when I run the exe from the deployment folder.
I may have to do with how single file exes are handled. The extracted cache may not be getting updated.
I'm comparing it Java where you can start your application server in debug mode, then attach your IDE to the server. And you can change your code "on the fly" without restarting the server. As long as your changes don't affect any method signatures or fields you can just hit recompile for a class and the application server (servlet container) will reload the class.
I suppose this is impossible in ASP.NET since all classes are packed into assemblies and you cannot unload/reload assemblies, can you ?
So when you have an .aspx page and an assembly deployed to GAC and your codebehind changes you have to redeploy the assembly and reset IIS. I'm talking about Sharepoint applications in particular and I'm not sure whether you have to do iisreset for private assemblies but I guess you have too.
So the best way to debug aspx pages with code behind I guess would be to get rid of the codebehind for the time of active debugging and move into the page, then when it is more or less working move it back to codebehind. (This would be applicable only for application pages in Sharepoint, site pages don't allow inline code )
How do you approach debugging of your ASP.NET applications to make it less time consuming?
From Matt Smiths blog on how to get F5 debugging with sharepoint. A very cool trick.
Create a web application project in Visual Studio (File -> New -> Project -> ASP.Net Web Application, not File -> New -> Web Site).
Move the .csproj and .csproj.user files, along with the Properties folder, into C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\virtualdirectories\, where is the name or number of the web application corresponding to the SharePoint site you'd like to debug on.
Attach the project to an existing solution (e.g. STSDEV project).
Set as startup project (right-click project name, "Set as Startup Project").
Access project properties (right-click project name, "Properties") and click
Under the "Servers" setting, click "Use IIS web server", then enter the URL to the SharePoint web application you want to debug on, e.g. http://mymachine:99.
Yes private assemblies DO NOT require reset of the IIS. So you should just to xcopy new version to the application's Bin directory and refresh the page (e.g. by VS post build event as I did).
But there are some trade offs. You should decrease trust level in application web.config file:
<system.web>
...
<trust level="WSS_Medium" originUrl="" />
...
</system.web>
By the way. I do not suggest to deploy like this. It's just workaround for comfort write-test-debug cycle length.
If you are using the GAC, you can at least do iisapp.vbs /a "App Pool Name" /r instead of iisreset (it's quicker to recycle a single app pool than to restart IIS).
First, develop on a computer running SharePoint. Preferably, this means running Windows Server 2003 on Virtual PC or VMWare. This will let you deploy and debug SharePoint code directly, rather than having to copy files between servers and use the remote debugger.
Use a VS add-in to simplify the process of deployment and debugging. I've been using WSPBuilder but I think there are others out there. WSPBuilder has commands to deploy solutions, package them as WSPs, and attach your debugger to the local IIS process. It won't allow you to add/remove assemblies on the fly, but you can set breakpoints and run code through the Immediate window in VS.
Depending on how your production server is configured, it's usually a good idea to develop on a server with full/trust security settings, including disallowing code blocks in ASPX files. This makes debugging a little more difficult, but it reduces the number of nasty surprises you'll have when your code is finally deployed to production.
And you can change your code "on the fly" without restarting the server
You can accomplish this with ASP.net if you make a Web Site project (as opposed to a Web Application Project). Using a Web Site project, you can post changes to code-behinds without having to refresh anything on the server, and the server does the compile work for you on all code changes. See here for more info on this.
This should also solve your difficulties with deploying the assembly to the GAC. As the server handles all compilations for Web Site projects, you wont have to redeploy any assemblies when changing files.
Use an automated testing framework (NUnit) to write integration tests. This won't work for everything, but of course, it depends on what you're testing.
If you also have TestDriven.NET installed, you can run individual tests with the debugger. This has been helpful.
WSPBuilder Extensions has a "deploy to GAC" shortcut, unfortunately it never works for me. But it's a really quick way to code->compile->test.
If you're not using WSPBuilder Extensions, you can instead open a command prompt and run
gacutil /u yourassemblynamegoeshere
gacutil /i yourdllgoeshere.dll
If you do this often, you can put it in a post-build event or in a batch file. Also, I'm unclear whether the gacutil /u (to remove the DLL first) is necessary.
What it seems like you're trying to do is tell Sharepoint "When I start debugging in Visual Studio, use the version of the DLL that was compiled in the project's /bin/debug directory instead of the version of the DLL that is registered in the GAC." I haven't solved that problem, but here is how I debug Sharepoint.
A developer machine is Win2008, IIS 7, MOSS 2007, VisStudio 2008, and WSP Builder installed. Inside VS2008, a button is added to attach to w3p.exe process, Andrew's HOWTO attach to w3p
The solution file has two projects:
* First project is the .WSP that deploys all the app pages, including the DLL. Use WSPBuilder menu items for handling the .WSP creation and deployment.
* Second project is for the DLL behind the pages.
If you want the DLL to be copied to the GAC regularly, add a post-build event to the DLL's project that copies from /bin/Debug to the GAC. But, these days, I find I have just been recompiling the solution and then deploying the .WSP using the menu items, and then starting up the debugger using the button. It takes me an F-key and 3 clicks and about a minute for most of my projects, but I suppose it could be quicker.