Re: Friday Rant (today!)

[Greg Keogh]

>
> >Is it just me or is WIX just just a complete utter PITA?
>

You are not alone. "PITA" is putting it politely. I gave it a good try
about 3 years ago but was disgusted by the lack of clarity,
documentation and guidance about how to construct the potentially huge slab
of XML. The format of the XML was ambiguous and you basically did it all by
hand, with the possible help of a handful of childish tools. The whole
thing is like some kid's hobby project that was never completed. I gave up
WiX in disgust and I'm still using vdproj projects in VS with C# CA code
when needed.

I know the format of the MSI database is quite complicated, but it's all
well documented and there is no excuse for WiX to be such an amateurish
wrapper over it.

*GK*

Re: Portable Web Server?

[Preet Sangha]

Scott,

I don't think WF is available on .net Core yet. So in that case I'd
recommend IIS Express as your host. All the WF stuff I did was years ago
and it was all IIS based. It's grown considerably easier I hear.

Preet


regards,
Preet, in Auckland NZ


On 19 January 2017 at 19:46, Scott Barnes  wrote:

> I have a need to create a local mini web server which sole job is to act
> as a WCF host for local area network clients to feed off. The web server's
> main role is to act as a Windows Workflow host that will process inbound
> data into various whacky workflow(s).
>
> The web server is headless in that i don't ever plan on providing a HTML
> UI to it, as its really just in place to run long running procs, react to
> new inbound data and then answer any local clients requests back with data
> (in fact i'd ideally like to keep it locally "swagger"`fied).
>
> Where are we at with this kind of pattern, any new toys to play with that
> makes this easier or should i keep it circa 2009 and below - .NET wise.
>
> I'm at the moment leaning towards .NET Core mix but still not sure how to
> make Windows Workflow fit into that still (i have to use WWF).
>
>
> ---
> Regards,
> Scott Barnes
> http://www.riagenic.com
>

Re: Friday Rant (today!)

[Preet Sangha]

Wallace,

I've just been off on a reading spree following your link. One thing that
keeps coming up is that MSI offers features galore to aid all parts of the
application deployment management process. The list is very very
impressive. However the the thing that comes across is "*if written
correctly* MSI provides.". My biggest issue as you've found, is that
it's so damn hard to write them correctly. I would put money on something
like 80% of installers being the same - put some files on a disk, modify
some permissions/registry keys/windows settings and possible install some
prereqs like the C++/.net, and together with UI functions likes collect
confirm and apply This should be an absolutely solved problem by now, and I
don't see why we have to jump through a nightmare of hoops to do this.






regards,
Preet, in Auckland NZ


On 19 January 2017 at 18:59, Wallace Turner 
wrote:

> >Is it just me or is WIX just just a complete utter PITA?
> Yes its garbage. Yes this is just my opinion and apologies if you have
> built the worlds best installer on WIX but for me it is the most
> un-intiative piece of crap in the world. I have been waiting for someone
> else to rant so i myself can rant.
>
> after 3 days of banging my head against the wall going nowhere i switched
> to innosetup which i had absoultely no bias to prior (or had heard of) and
> acheived a good result in a short amount of time.
>
> I am not the only punter who thinks like this [1]
>
>
> [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6245260/installers-
> wix-or-inno-setup
>
> On Thu, Jan 19, 2017 at 1:49 PM, Preet Sangha 
> wrote:
>
>> Is it just me or is WIX just just a complete utter PITA?
>>
>> The documentation is appalling. It's basically incomplete and what's
>> there is spread out all over the web.
>>
>> I know the issue is that the underlying MSI infrstructure is the real
>> problem but I'm just going to rant about WIX.
>>
>> Preet
>>
>
>

Portable Web Server?

[Scott Barnes]

I have a need to create a local mini web server which sole job is to act as
a WCF host for local area network clients to feed off. The web server's
main role is to act as a Windows Workflow host that will process inbound
data into various whacky workflow(s).

The web server is headless in that i don't ever plan on providing a HTML UI
to it, as its really just in place to run long running procs, react to new
inbound data and then answer any local clients requests back with data (in
fact i'd ideally like to keep it locally "swagger"`fied).

Where are we at with this kind of pattern, any new toys to play with that
makes this easier or should i keep it circa 2009 and below - .NET wise.

I'm at the moment leaning towards .NET Core mix but still not sure how to
make Windows Workflow fit into that still (i have to use WWF).


---
Regards,
Scott Barnes
http://www.riagenic.com

Re: Friday Rant (today!)

[Wallace Turner]

>Is it just me or is WIX just just a complete utter PITA?
Yes its garbage. Yes this is just my opinion and apologies if you have
built the worlds best installer on WIX but for me it is the most
un-intiative piece of crap in the world. I have been waiting for someone
else to rant so i myself can rant.

after 3 days of banging my head against the wall going nowhere i switched
to innosetup which i had absoultely no bias to prior (or had heard of) and
acheived a good result in a short amount of time.

I am not the only punter who thinks like this [1]


[1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6245260/installers-wix-or-inno-setup

On Thu, Jan 19, 2017 at 1:49 PM, Preet Sangha  wrote:

> Is it just me or is WIX just just a complete utter PITA?
>
> The documentation is appalling. It's basically incomplete and what's there
> is spread out all over the web.
>
> I know the issue is that the underlying MSI infrstructure is the real
> problem but I'm just going to rant about WIX.
>
> Preet
>

Friday Rant (today!)

[Preet Sangha]

Is it just me or is WIX just just a complete utter PITA?

The documentation is appalling. It's basically incomplete and what's there
is spread out all over the web.

I know the issue is that the underlying MSI infrstructure is the real
problem but I'm just going to rant about WIX.

Preet

RE: WebApi all 404

[Ken Schaefer]

You can upgrade from 2008 to 2008 R2, but it’s a whole new OS

Windows Server 2008 == Windows Vista
Windows Server 2008 R2 == Windows 7

Some pretty big differences between the two


From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com [mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com] On 
Behalf Of Greg Keogh
Sent: Wednesday, 18 January 2017 7:53 PM
To: ozDotNet 
Subject: Re: WebApi all 404

Rick also points out that you can't upgrade from 2008 to R2, or update IIS.

Re: WebApi all 404

[Greg Keogh]

>
> Did you come across this article?
>
> https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/kb/2023146
>

I think so, or very similar ones. Sadly the role changes didn't work.

The Rick Strahl article hints that my older server is running IIS 7.0
whereas all the other ones are 7.5, and he reckons I MUST use
runAllManagedModulesForAllRequest="true" for 7.0.

So be it. All of the jumbled clues and arguments eventually lead to this
conclusion. It was only a fluke that after a couple of hours I realised
that this server was older than the others, and combined with the Static
handler error hint that I was led to look at versions (use systeminfo.exe).
All of the servers are GoDaddy hosted, and I vaguely recall that the bad
one was one of the first provisioned a few years ago.

Rick also points out that you can't upgrade from 2008 to R2, or update IIS.
I found this when I tried to install SP1 which was offered in the Windows
Update list. You get some error x2e which will lead you down idiotic
suggestions to get around it. I also tried to install the specific KB to
fix the routing, but it rejects install.

*GK*

RE: WebApi all 404

[Adrian Halid]

In the past I have also had to get MVC working under IIS6.

 

I think I followed this article 
http://czetsuya-tech.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-deploy-mvc3-powered-website-to.html.

 

But for IIS7 I can’t remember what I did.

 

Have a read of this post and all the comments. Seems like a lot of people have 
run into this issue and they go into detail all the things MS did and why it is 
in this state.

https://weblog.west-wind.com/posts/2011/Mar/27/ASPNET-Routing-not-working-on-IIS-70

 

 

Regards

 

Adrian Halid 

 

From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com [mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com] On 
Behalf Of Greg Keogh
Sent: Wednesday, 18 January 2017 3:19 PM
To: ozDotNet 
Subject: Re: WebApi all 404

 

It turns out the server with the problem is 2008 6.1.7600 whereas all the other 
trouble-free ones are 6.1.7601 SP1. I'm not sure if this means they have 
different IIS versions.

 

It looks like all REST service requests on the old server are being handled by 
the Static handler and giving a 404. The trick to discovering this was to 
browse to the app from within IIS manager.

 



 

If I put runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true" in the Web.config of the old 
server then the REST service starts working. This is ham-fisted and not 
recommended according to many search results, but I can't find an alternative 
and it will do for now.

 

I'm still doing detective work and I'll put the final results in a blog post, 
but at least I found the culprit is the old server/IIS version.

 

Greg K

 

On 18 January 2017 at 13:20, Paul Glavich  > wrote:

At a guess I’d say it is routing and perhaps virtual directories.

 

Things to try:

* Write a delegating handler that just returns a hardcoded response – 
see if it works. If yes, you know it is getting through and its probably 
routing?

* Change your routing entries :) 

* Add some logging to a global action filter – log lots of shit to see 
what it is trying to get through.

 

Really just guessing though as I haven’t seen this behaviour.

 

-  Glav

 

From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com   
[mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com  ] 
On Behalf Of Greg Keogh
Sent: Tuesday, 17 January 2017 1:31 PM
To: ozDotNet  >
Subject: WebApi all 404

 

Folks, I just installed a WebApi app on a GoDaddy server and every request 
produces 404. The same app on nearly identical servers all work okay. I've been 
searching and fiddling for over 2 hours now with no progress at all. Every 
sensible suggestion I've found in web searches is useless ... pool settings, 
IIS verbs, framework versions, regiis, etc. A static htm file in the app root 
is visible, so it's something about the app, not the dns, permissions, site, 
binding, etc.

 

Has anyone experienced this and can remember what the trick is?

 

What sh*ts me is that I'm sure this happened to me early last year, and it took 
me hours to get it working, but I can't remember what I did. This time I'll 
make a blog post.

 

Greg K

 

RE: WebApi all 404

[Adrian Halid]

Did you come across this article?

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/kb/2023146

 

 

Regards

 

Adrian Halid 

 

From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com [mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com] On 
Behalf Of Greg Keogh
Sent: Wednesday, 18 January 2017 3:19 PM
To: ozDotNet 
Subject: Re: WebApi all 404

 

It turns out the server with the problem is 2008 6.1.7600 whereas all the other 
trouble-free ones are 6.1.7601 SP1. I'm not sure if this means they have 
different IIS versions.

 

It looks like all REST service requests on the old server are being handled by 
the Static handler and giving a 404. The trick to discovering this was to 
browse to the app from within IIS manager.

 



 

If I put runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true" in the Web.config of the old 
server then the REST service starts working. This is ham-fisted and not 
recommended according to many search results, but I can't find an alternative 
and it will do for now.

 

I'm still doing detective work and I'll put the final results in a blog post, 
but at least I found the culprit is the old server/IIS version.

 

Greg K

 

On 18 January 2017 at 13:20, Paul Glavich  > wrote:

At a guess I’d say it is routing and perhaps virtual directories.

 

Things to try:

* Write a delegating handler that just returns a hardcoded response – 
see if it works. If yes, you know it is getting through and its probably 
routing?

* Change your routing entries :) 

* Add some logging to a global action filter – log lots of shit to see 
what it is trying to get through.

 

Really just guessing though as I haven’t seen this behaviour.

 

-  Glav

 

From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com   
[mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com  ] 
On Behalf Of Greg Keogh
Sent: Tuesday, 17 January 2017 1:31 PM
To: ozDotNet  >
Subject: WebApi all 404

 

Folks, I just installed a WebApi app on a GoDaddy server and every request 
produces 404. The same app on nearly identical servers all work okay. I've been 
searching and fiddling for over 2 hours now with no progress at all. Every 
sensible suggestion I've found in web searches is useless ... pool settings, 
IIS verbs, framework versions, regiis, etc. A static htm file in the app root 
is visible, so it's something about the app, not the dns, permissions, site, 
binding, etc.

 

Has anyone experienced this and can remember what the trick is?

 

What sh*ts me is that I'm sure this happened to me early last year, and it took 
me hours to get it working, but I can't remember what I did. This time I'll 
make a blog post.

 

Greg K