Web Connection
WC Config File Issue
Gravatar is a globally recognized avatar based on your email address. WC Config File Issue
  Alec Gagne
  All
  Jan 22, 2020 @ 11:35am

We are having an issue with an install at a customer site. The error that we are getting suggests that the problem is associated with the configuration data for the site. I'm unclear on if IIS can't find the web.config file of if the issue is the content of the file itself. We've not encountered this situation before. Below is a screen grab of the error page that IIS is throwing at us.

I'm not sure about the \?\ in front of the path to the web.config file. Seems strange to me.

Can anyone advise on what we should be looking for/at to try to resolve this error.

Thanks

Alec

Gravatar is a globally recognized avatar based on your email address. re: WC Config File Issue
  Rick Strahl
  Alec Gagne
  Jan 22, 2020 @ 05:56pm

Looks like the cwi folder is not configured as an Application. The site looks like it's configured at the root of the Web and <handlers> can only be defined where ever the base site is configured.

Check and make sure that cwi is configured as an Application in the IIS configuration manager - not just as a virtual directory or just as a folder.

Notice the little world icon on all those folders? Those are all Applications. The Tools folder is just a folder. Betting your cwi folder is either just a folder or marked as virtual, not an Application.

FWIW, for production sites I'd recommend you set up root sites (ie. west-wind.com vs. west-wind.com/wconnect) for an application. Not only is it cleaner from the URL perspective, but it also avoids any possible conflicts between multiple virtuals inheriting information from a parent Web site.

these days I tend to set up Web sites rather than virtuals, and then do a host header mapping to something like wconnect.west-wind.com with a matching entry in my system's hosts file to map that DNS name to localhost. Sites have to be an application so there's no ambiguity and it's cleaner for published sites in general.

+++ Rick ---

Gravatar is a globally recognized avatar based on your email address. re: WC Config File Issue
  Alec Gagne
  Rick Strahl
  Jan 23, 2020 @ 09:35pm

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the quick feedback and suggestions. The install does appear to configured as an application (as opposed to a folder). Here is a screen grab of the customer's machine.

We typically just run the cwi.exe CONFIG and have your embedded webconnect code handle the complexities of the IIS setup for us. That is what was done in this instance. 95% of the time that works like a charm. This one is a 5% er ...

Alec

Gravatar is a globally recognized avatar based on your email address. re: WC Config File Issue
  Rick Strahl
  Alec Gagne
  Jan 24, 2020 @ 11:53am

Hmmm... not sure then without taking a closer look. I guess I would go into the IIS manager and see what it shows for the handler mappings. It might give you more information on why you can't set the handler mapping.

THe other thing could be that it's declared at the root site. Check the root site and see if you have the same handler mappings. Root site will inherit into the current virtual and so setting the same name/handler will not work.

If you have mappings at the root that are the same, you can use:

  <remove name=".wc_wconnect-module" />
  <add name=".wc_wconnect-module" path="*.wc" verb="*" type="Westwind.WebConnection.WebConnectionHandler,WebConnectionModule" />

to override or rename or remove the ones at the root.

This is why I would recommend running as a root site rather than in a virutal folder. Guarantees there's no interference with something upstream.

+++ Rick ---

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