Web Deployment Projects global.asax problem

[Ron]

I have a web project compiled with the new "Web Deployment Projects" plugin
for VS2005.
I'm deploying the web project to one assembly and with updateable option set
to ON.
When I'm running the generated code on a W2K3 server the application_start
and any other event on the global.asax file won't fire. I added tracing and
logging to make sure and I can see the code is just not execution. When
running the same exact (deployed etc.) code on an XP Pro machine everything
just works and the events are firing.
If I test the original project (non compiled with source .vb files and
everything) on the W2K3 machine, it also works fine. So it seems to be
something that is changing in the compilation that affects the W2K3 server
but not the XP platform.

Please help.

Thanks,
Ron

[Steven Cheng[MSFT]]

Hello Ron,

Thank you for posting here.

From your description, I understand that you're using the vs 2005 web
deployment project to precompile and deploy your ASP.NET 2.0 Web
application. However, you found that on one target windows 2003 server, the
application's global.asax code never get executed, correct?

Based on my experience, the problem is likely caused by the global.asax
component class is never loaded (and used) on that problem server machine.
When we use webdeployment project to precompile the web application( and
normal project setting configured as "updatable"), the output precompiled
application will not copy the "global.asax" file to the target
application's directory. You can verify this in your appilcation's deployed
directory to see whether the global.asax file is there.
Also, you can use the following code in page to verify whether the
application has loaded the "global.asax" class as the Application Intstance
class:

==========
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Response.Write("<br/>ApplicationInstance: " +
Context.ApplicationInstance.GetType().FullName);
}
==========

It wil out put something like:

"ApplicationInstance: ASP.global_asax" if the global.asax is loaded,

else if the global.asax is not loaded, it will output

"ApplicationInstance: System.Web.HttpApplication"

I assume it will output the latter. If so, you can check the precompiled
assemblies of that global.asax component. Generally , the global.asax class
will be compiled into the main precompiled assembly(if you use
webdeployment project and choose single output assembly). And in the
private "bin" dir, you can find some "* .compiled" files. These files
are used to map the original file based resource(such as code, page ...) to
their precompiled assemblies. For global.asax, you should be able to find
a file named "App_global.asax.compiled", this class will contains the
information about in which assembly is the "global.asax" class located.
The file's content is as below:

=============App_global.asax.compiled==========

<preserve resultType="8" virtualPath="/IISTestSite/global.asax"
hash="79af1631" filehash="2eea5b7b48d6" flags="150000"
assembly="IISTestSite_deploy" type="ASP.global_asax">
<filedeps>
<filedep name="/IISTestSite/global.asax" />
</filedeps>
</preserve>
==============

this tell the runtime , when it is looking for the "global.asax" file for
the class, it should change to find the class in the
"IISTestSite_deploy.dll" assembly.

So if you didn't find this file or this file's content is corrupted, the
ASP.NET application will faild to load the correct global.asax class.

Hope this helps. If you have anything unclear on this or if there is any
other things I didn't quite get, please feel free to post here.

Regards,

Steven Cheng
Microsoft MSDN Online Support Lead

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[Ron]

Hi Steven,

Thanks for the info. I still have a problem.
The global.asax file is not copied to the target directory. Copying it
manually did not solve the problem.
I checked the "App_global.asax.compiled" file and it looked good and pointed
to the right assembly.

Again I would like to stress that the deployed web application works
perfectly on an XP Pro system. Copying the same set of files to the 2003
server gives us the errors I mentioned on the previous message.

Is there anything else we can check? Should there be a difference if the
compilation is done on an XP machine or on the target 2003 server?

Thanks,
Ron

"Steven Cheng[MSFT]" <stc...@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:gn3oz2Qk...@TK2MSFTNGXA01.phx.gbl...

[Luke Zhang [MSFT]]

Hello Ron,

Have you tried the code Steven suggested:

==========
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Response.Write("<br/>ApplicationInstance: " +
Context.ApplicationInstance.GetType().FullName);
}
==========

And, what is the result you got on the server?

Regards,

Luke Zhang
Microsoft Online Community Lead

==================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
==================================================

(This posting is provided "AS IS", with no warranties, and confers no
rights.)

[Ron]

OK. I added the line

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
> {
> Response.Write("<br/>ApplicationInstance: " +
> Context.ApplicationInstance.GetType().FullName);
> }

when using the "Web Deployment Projects" plugin with "updateable" output on
Server 2003
I get: "ApplicationInstance: System.Web.HttpApplication"

When using the original project tree (with source .vb file and all) on
Server 2003
I get: "ApplicationInstance: ASP.global_asax"

As said before on XP Pro all versions run correctly. the problem only shows
on Server 2003

Thanks,
Ron

"Luke Zhang [MSFT]" <luke...@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:KdJ7s21k...@TK2MSFTNGXA01.phx.gbl...

[csmba]

Hi, I have the same problem.

I found this on a forum: http://forums.asp.net/thread/1253331.aspx
"Changing the name of the Application_Start method to Application_OnStart
fixed it for me."

any sense to that?

Also, after I add a virtual dircetory containing the vb files (not the
deploy version), and run it in IE, it runs well. Then, after that one "run",
if I try to ruin the deploy/merged version again, it works. It seems that
one good "run" loads that global or what ever the problematic file to memory
and it will work from now on.

My problem now is that I cannot find how to take it back to not working,
without ghosting the computer. Restarting IIS did not help (it still works).
After ghosting however, again it will not work.

"Luke Zhang [MSFT]" <luke...@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:KdJ7s21k...@TK2MSFTNGXA01.phx.gbl...

[Luke Zhang [MSFT]]

Hello Ron,

Since the deployment project works well on the windows XP computer, it make
us believe this is nothing with the deployment project. It is more like a
computer specified problem. (The difference between XP and 2003 won't make
such a problem). I suggest you try re-register ASP.NET 2.0 to see if it can
help, for example, First run following commands in VS 2005 Command Prompt
window:

aspnet_regiis -ua

to remove ASP.NET and then run:

aspnet_regiis -i

and reset IIS.

Will this help on the issue?

[csmba]

It doesn't help. I tried it.
I still think it is a 2003 issue. Did you try to build a web project on XP
and then copy the files and see it work on 2003? A CLEAN 2003, one that has
never had VS on and never executed different ASP projects.

One small possibility: The fact that once I run the vb version on 2003 and
it works, it will then also run the deploy version. So I guess that the
global file gets put in memory and is not needed to be re loaded to memory.
Maybe the only reason it works on XP computers is the fact that they all, in
the past, loaded a vb version of the web project...

"Luke Zhang [MSFT]" <luke...@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:fhQgD2Sl...@TK2MSFTNGXA01.phx.gbl...

[Luke Zhang [MSFT]]

Hello,

After you run the VB version, you may execute the command "iisreset" in a
command prompt windows and then test the deploy version again, will it also
work?

Also, did you test with only one partcular project or you have test
multiple projects? Is it possible for you to send me the project so that I
can test it on my side? In my test, it always worked on a windows 2003
server. (You may check the deploy version virtual folder's properties, in
IIS manager, Is it use same .NET framework versio?)

Thanks,

[Ron]

Nothing helps :(
It does not load the ASP.global_asax on the W2K3 server on my deployed app.
It does however load it on other new applications I create.
What can be wrong on my app that will make it skip loading the
ASP.global_asax?

Thanks,
Ron

[Luke****]

I don't know if you've tried this yet but I had the exactly the same
problem and I fixed it by including PrecompiledApp.config in the root
of the web app, then restarted the application. Fixed it straight
away. Not 100% sure what this file does but my guess is that it tells
asp.net to look at the .compiled files in the bin directory.

I'd love to know for sure so if anyone has anymore info post it up.

Contents of PrecompiledApp.config
<precompiledApp version="2"
updatable="true"/>

----------------------------------
http://community.ihostasp.net
ASP.NET Developer Community

[Jonathan Osifchin]

I just struggled with this issue for some time. I changed the deployment
to "Merge each individual folder output to its own assembly" and
everything worked.

I hope this helps for this very frustrating issue.

thanks,
Jon Osifchin

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