How add permissions to web.config in installer - c#

I am creating a .exe to install my MVC application on to client's servers. It downloads zip file from the internet, extracts all files into the correct places, updates the web.config file to include all the correct app keys.
The problem that I am having is that IIS doesn't have permissions to read web.config so I get a HTTP Error 500.19.
I know that I can just give instructions to the installer that tell them to add the permissions manually, but that looks a bit cheap.
So, in C#, what can I do at the end of my installer to allow IIS to read my web.config file and really everything else in my site.

I know that I can just give instructions to the installer that tell them to add the permissions manually, but that looks a bit cheap.
I dont really think that this is a bad idea. All webfiles must be accessable from the user IIS_IUSRS of the local server/computer. If they dont have this permission, you get access problems like you state it above.
I suggest you to take a look on the FileSecurity class of C#. You will be able to set file permissions, even if it´s only for the web.config.

Related

How to host a local file for external http access from a C# Windows application

I've a .Net/C# Windows application which can create text/pdf files. My requirement is to make these files accessible via http links for another internal application inside my organization. The internal application only accepts http links (ftp and others are not supported).
I know this can be done manually by placing these files in an IIS server. I would like to know whether there is any easy way to do this programmatically? Once the file is created locally in my application, I should have a http link to access the file.
I'm not sure if I understand your need correctly. You can point it out when anything wrong.
Assuming that the application create pdf files in a folder named PDFile. On IIS, you can add a site and set it physical path to PDFile folder. If you enable Directory Browsing, you can see all files when enter the url of this site in browser like this:
When you want to access these file from an external machine, just enter the url http://serverIP:port/PDF file name for example http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80/mycustomefile.pdf. No need to set anything programmatically.

How to make file references to local disk work in Azure Web Site?

In my Azure Web Site I have in my AppSettings section in Web.Config some references to files on my disk. When deployed to Azure those references doesn't count any more. I know that you can overwrite AppSettings in Web.Config in the Azure environtment. But what is the file structure there?
A couple of examples from my web.config that I have to solve:
<add key="DataMapPath" value="d:\inetpub\MyWebApp\App_Data\map.xml"/>
<add key="CuteWebUI.AjaxUploader.TempDirectory" value="C:\Temp\WebApp\Attachments\UploaderTemp"/>
The first file tells our code to look for the map.xml-file in the App_Data-directory.
The last one tells our upload-controll where to upload files. I maybe should have used Azure Blob Storage here instead but that would need some major refactoring of our code.
Is there som best practices on this topic?
Our WebApp is running in production today, but I want to try out MS Azure. But I doesn't want to do to many code changes to make it work in Azure.
I have also read you can spin up an Virtual Machine (Windows Server) but that is overkill for my needs right now. We may go that way in the end, but for this testing-purpose it should be made simple.
Any suggestions on how this could be solved? Someone done this before? I guess someone has. Indeed.
If I do have read and write access to the file system for my Web Site I maybe could use this:
Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, "TheFolder");
This would be appropriate for both on-premise and Azure deployment. But then I have to do some changes in our code.
You have multiple options:
Option 1: Use the App Settings of your web app to set custom settings for your website.
Option 2: Create multiple versions of your web.config (Visual Studio supports this) and deploy different versions to Azure and your local machine
Option 3: Make your path's relative to the paths of Azure Web App's environment variables
There's a HOME environment variable in your Azure Web App that resolves to the equivalent of inetpub for your site. Your app data folder is located at %HOME%\site\wwwroot\AppData.
There's also a TEMP environment both on Azure Web Apps and on your local machine. You can make your second setting relative to the TEMP environment variable value.
Actually you won't have this kind of "control" using azure web sites. To keep your app as it is, use Azure Virtual Machines.

error on creating folder in AppHarbor

i am trying to create a folder using
Directory.CreateDirectory(Server.MapPath(pathToCreate));
i get Access is Denied error.
no problem in localhost.
Do you have file system write access enabled in your AppHarbor application?
I think you also need to do a re-deploy of your application after enabling it, but not 100% sure.
UPDATE: Based on the poster's response, yes you do have to do a re-deploy after enabling this option.

Control Caching in IIS7 from C#

I have situation described bellow:
In CMS was implemented two presentation server which aren't on same machine. Client want to enable IIS caching only on one machine, but changing manually web.config isn't suggested. So I am planning to make some C# code which will make changes in web.config in order to ensure proper cache settings. Is it possible or exist any other solution ( change other settings, edit other files...) for the problem?
"You can configure the element at the server level in the ApplicationHost.config file or at the site, application, or at the directory level in a Web.config file."
If you have physical access to the server you can run from the console appcmd.exe:
appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/caching /+"profiles.[extension='asp',policy='CacheUntilChange',kernelCachePolicy='CacheUntilChange']" /commit:apphost
Check this link: http://www.iis.net/ConfigReference/system.webServer/caching
EDITED
The first answer to this question says how to configure caching at folder level, the 2nd answer for file level:
How to configure static content cache per folder and extension in IIS7?
If you didn't specify any caching rules at file or folder level, disabling global caching should do it.

How can I hyperlink to a file that is not in my Web Application?

Ok, my web application is at C:\inetpub\wwwroot\website
The files I want to link to are in S:\someFolder
Can I make a link in the webapp that will direct to the file in someFolder?
If its on a different drive on the server, you will need to make a virtual directory in IIS. You would then link to "/virtdirect/somefolder/"
You would have to specifically map it to some URL through your web server. Otherwise, all your files would be accessible to anyone who guessed their URL and you don't want that...
Do you have another virtual directory/application pointing to s:\someFolder? If so, it's just a simple link.
Are you trying to stream files back? If so, take a look at Response.TransmitFile and Response.WriteFile.
Otherwise, maybe you could create a handler (.ashx) to grab a specified file and stream its contents back?
i think there are only two ways
1) make a virtual path wich points to download directory
2) call a your aspx/ashx handler wich load file locally and send it to client.
A solution which works at the OS level rather than the webserver level is to make a symbolic link.
Links to files are supported on Vista and links to folders ("junctions") are supported on Win2000 onwards.
That depends on the configuration of your web server. Probably not. You don't want the web server to be able to access any file on the hard drive (ie your passwords file), so only those files configured to be accessible in the web server's configuration files are accessible and can be linked to. Usually these are all kept under one directory. You could, of course, copy someFolder and place it under your web directory, then it would be accesible, or if you are sure it is safe, change the configuraton of your web server to allow access to that folder.

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