ASP.NET

A Better Script Map Registration Script

Colin Bowern — Thu, 11 May 2006 14:19:00 GMT

Looking to deploy the Atlas Framework to our production environment and I realized their registration script for the http handler only registers the script on the first site (site ID 1). Since we have multiple sites I thought I'd through together a more robust registration script based on my previous blog entry that I thought I'd share:

    1 Option Explicit
    2 Dim WMIService, ApplicationPool, ApplicationPools, Applications, index, VirtualDirectorySettings
    3 Dim ApplicationName, ScriptMap, FoundMapping, ScriptMapCollection, LastPosition
    4 Const ComputerName = "localhost"
    5 Const ScriptMapExtension = ".asbx"
    6 Const ScriptMapEntry = ".asbx,C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_isapi.dll,1,GET,HEAD,POST"
    7 
    8 Set WMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:{authenticationLevel=pktPrivacy}\\" + ComputerName + "\root\microsoftiisv2")
    9 Set ApplicationPools = WMIService.ExecQuery("Select * From IIsApplicationPool Where Name LIKE 'W3SVC/AppPools/%'")
   10 
   11 For Each ApplicationPool in ApplicationPools
   12     WScript.Echo "Inspecting Application Pool " + ApplicationPool.Name
   13     ApplicationPool.EnumAppsInPool Applications
   14     For index = 0 to UBound(Applications)
   15         ApplicationName = CleanApplicationName(Applications(index))
   16         Set VirtualDirectorySettings = GetObject( "IIS://" + ComputerName + "/" + ApplicationName)
   17         If Err.number = 0 Then
   18             ScriptMapCollection = VirtualDirectorySettings.ScriptMaps
   19             FoundMapping = False
   20             For Each ScriptMap in ScriptMapCollection
   21                 If LCase(Left(ScriptMap, Len(ScriptMapExtension))) = ScriptMapExtension then
   22                     WScript.Echo ApplicationName + " - Updating (Previous: " + ScriptMap + ")"
   23                     ScriptMap = ScriptMapEntry
   24                     FoundMapping = True
   25                     Exit For
   26                 End IF
   27             Next
   28 
   29             If FoundMapping = False Then
   30                 LastPosition = UBound(ScriptMapCollection) + 1
   31                 Redim Preserve ScriptMapCollection(LastPosition)
   32                 WScript.Echo ApplicationName + " - Adding " + ScriptMapExtension
   33                 ScriptMapCollection(LastPosition) = ScriptMapEntry
   34             End If
   35 
   36             VirtualDirectorySettings.ScriptMaps = ScriptMapCollection
   37             VirtualDirectorySettings.SetInfo
   38         Else
   39             WScript.Echo ApplicationName & " - Unable to locate application virtual directory."
   40         End If
   41     Next
   42     WScript.Echo 
   43 Next
   44 
   45 ' Trims the leading /LM/ and trailing /
   46 Function CleanApplicationName(applicationName)
   47     Dim ReturnValue
   48 
   49     If Len(applicationName) < 5 Then
   50         WScript.Echo "applicationName should be greater than 5 characters: " + applicationName
   51         Exit Function
   52     End If
   53 
   54     ReturnValue = Mid(applicationName, 5)
   55     ReturnValue = Mid(ReturnValue, 1, Len(ReturnValue) - 1)
   56 
   57     CleanApplicationName = ReturnValue
   58 End Function

Finding the source of "It is not possible to run two different versions of ASP.NET in the same IIS process"

Colin Bowern — Mon, 08 May 2006 15:12:00 GMT

Ever get the following error?

“It is not possible to run two different versions of ASP.NET in the same IIS process. Please use the IIS Administration Tool to reconfigure your server to run the application in a separate process.”

And of course you don't want to spend all day going through the IIS MMC dialog boxes on a web server with a large number of applications. I put together a script to dump the script mappings which will tell you what the site is configured to run by looking at the ISAPI filter path for your script maps:

    1 Option Explicit
    2 Dim WMIService, ApplicationPool, ApplicationPools, Applications, index, VirtualDirectorySettings, ApplicationName, ScriptMap
    3 Const ComputerName = "."
    4 Set WMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:{authenticationLevel=pktPrivacy}\\" & ComputerName & "\root\microsoftiisv2")
    5 Set ApplicationPools = WMIService.ExecQuery("Select * From IIsApplicationPool Where Name LIKE 'W3SVC/AppPools/%'")
    6 
    7 WScript.Echo "Application Pool Name" & vbTab & _
    8             "Application Name" & vbTab & _
    9             "Extension"  & vbTab & _
   10             "Processor"
   11 
   12 For Each ApplicationPool in ApplicationPools
   13     ApplicationPool.EnumAppsInPool Applications
   14     For index = 0 to UBound(Applications)
   15         ApplicationName = CleanApplicationName(Applications(index))
   16 
   17         On Error Resume Next
   18         Set VirtualDirectorySettings = WMIService.Get("IIsWebVirtualDirSetting='" + ApplicationName + "'")
   19         If Err.number = 0 Then
   20             For Each ScriptMap in VirtualDirectorySettings.ScriptMaps
   21                 WScript.Echo ApplicationPool.Name & vbTab & _
   22                             ApplicationName & vbTab & _
   23                             ScriptMap.Extensions & vbTab & _
   24                             ScriptMap.ScriptProcessor
   25             Next
   26         Else
   27             WScript.Echo ApplicationPool.Name & vbTab & _
   28                         ApplicationName & vbTab & _
   29                         "--" & vbTab & _
   30                         "Unable to locate application virtual directory."
   31         End If
   32         On Error GoTo 0
   33     Next
   34 Next
   35 
   36 ' Trims the leading /LM/ and trailing /
   37 Function CleanApplicationName(applicationName)
   38     Dim ReturnValue
   39 
   40     If Len(applicationName) < 5 Then
   41         Err.Raise 0, "CleanApplicationName", "applicationName should be greater than 5 characters."
   42     End If
   43 
   44     ReturnValue = Mid(applicationName, 5)
   45     ReturnValue = Mid(ReturnValue, 1, Len(ReturnValue) - 1)
   46 
   47     CleanApplicationName = ReturnValue
   48 End Function

The results can be opened in Excel and with the use of the handy Auto Filter feature you can narrow your scope and spot the problem in a lot less time than manually sniffing through.

W3SVC/AppPools/DefaultAppPool W3SVC/1/ROOT .aspx C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET
\Framework\v1.1.4322\aspnet_isapi.dll

Exception Detail and Health Monitoring in ASP.NET 2.0

Colin Bowern — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 07:34:00 GMT

I really liked the original exception management block put out by Microsoft. The reason is because it included all the information relating to an exception - not just the Message property. It made production debugging a breeze. Now with ASP.NET 2.0 and Health Monitoring something similar has been created but it doesn't quite cover all the details. I first ran into this in an application where I had created a custom exception, ArgumentFormatException, and passed along two additional properties. After puttering through the underpinnings of the Health Monitoring feature I noticed that the exception information is captured using the Message property of the Exception by the EventLogWebProvider class. In order to beef up the data returned by my exception I put in a Message property which overrides the base version:

  127publicoverridestring Message
  128         {
  129             get
  130             {
  131                 StringBuilder messageText = new StringBuilder(base.Message);
  132 
  133                 if ((this.m_ExpectedFormat != null) && (this.m_ExpectedFormat.Length != 0))
  134                 {
  135                     messageText.Append(Environment.NewLine);
  136                     messageText.AppendFormat(CultureInfo.CurrentCulture, StringResources.ParameterExpectedFormat, m_ExpectedFormat);
  137                 }
  138 
  139                 if ((this.m_ActualValue != null) && (this.m_ActualValue.Length != 0))
  140                 {
  141                     messageText.Append(Environment.NewLine);
  142                     messageText.AppendFormat(CultureInfo.CurrentCulture, StringResources.ParameterActualValue, m_ActualValue);
  143                 }
  144 
  145                 return messageText.ToString();
  146             }
  147         }

After re-running the tests voila I now have more detailed exceptions.

Exception information:

Exception type: ArgumentFormatException

Exception message: The variable does not match the expected format.

Parameter name: emailAddress

Expected Format: ^([a-zA-Z0-9_\-\.']+)@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.)|(([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+\.)+))([a-zA-Z]{2,4}|[0-9]{1,3})(\]?)$

Actual Value: xxxx

Using a non-Express edition of SQL Server as your default ASP.NET database.

Colin Bowern — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT

I've always been puzzled as to why the Web Site Administration tool shipped with ASP.NET 2.0 didn't seem to function nor error out when I had a brand new application being developed on my workstation where SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition is installed.

The ASP.NET 2.0 machine configuration has a pre-defined connection string for providers which is tied to the default SQL Server 2005 Express Edition configuration that ships with Visual Studio 2005. I never installed the Express edition because the projects I work on typically require the more advanced SQL Server feature set. As a result I use the Developer Edition for most of my work. To get the 'out-of-the-box' functionality of the Web Site Administration Tool I made a few changes to the machine.config. Here's an excerpt of what I use on my C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\CONFIG\machine.config:

<connectionStrings>
    <add name="LocalSqlServer" 
         connectionString="data source=.\SQL2005DEV;Initial Catalog=aspnetdb;Integrated Security=SSPI"
         providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
connectionStrings>