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ASP.NET 4.0 Hosting :: Questions on .NET 4 New GAC Locations/GacUtil

clock March 25, 2011 09:22 by author Administrator

This is what I know, let me know if you know otherwise.  There are now 2 distinct GAC locations that you have to manage as of the .NET 4 Framework release.

The GAC was split into two, one for each CLR (2.0, 3.5 AND 4.0).  The CLR version used for both .NET Framework 2.0 and .NET Framework 3.5 is CLR 2.0. To avoid issues between CLR 2.0 and CLR 4.0 , the GAC is now split into private GAC’s for each runtime.  The main change is that CLR v2.0 applications now cannot see CLR v4.0 assemblies in the GAC.

In previous .NET versions, when I installed a .NET assembly into the GAC (using gacutil.exe or even drag and drop to the c:\windows\assembly directory), I could find it in the ‘C:\Windows\assembly’ path.

With .NET 4.0, GAC is now located in the 'C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly’ path.

In order to install a dll to the .NET 4 GAC it is necessary to use the gacutil found C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\GacUtil.exe  In addition, you can no longer use the drag n' drop (in reality the drag n' drop really executed the gacutil via a windows explorer extension).

After you use the gacutil.exe -i {path to dll} you can view that it is indeed in the gac via gacutil -l (which will list all dlls in the gac).  I used this command and piped the results to a text file via > out.txt which made it easier to find the recently added component.

I was not able to see my gac object in the directory for .net 4 (i.e. c:\windows\microsoft.net\assembly path).  I am not sure why just yet.  Ideas?

At this point, the object is in the local gac however if you are using vs.net 2010 it will still not show up in the list of references. To get the component to show up in the VS.NET list of references can add a registry entry to HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v4.0.30319\AssemblyFoldersEx  At this point, the component is in the local GAC and is in the list of references to be used by vs.net.

Note, I did find that if I just added the path to the registry without adding it to the gac it was available to vs.net.  So, because the component is listed via vs.net add references it does not necessarily mean it is in the gac.

What still confuses me is that I am still unable to view my recently added component in the .NET 4 directories above.  Ideas?



ASP.NET 4.0 Hosting :: Working with Error Logging and Error Handling in ASP.NET 4.0

clock October 22, 2010 10:01 by author Administrator

Logging exceptions is important for controlling your application when they are deployed. You can opt for using one of the available libraries on the market or your own way of storing this information. Both sides have their own pros and cons. Using a third-party code lets you implement the task in less time.

Writing your own code is probably a win situation if you do not want to include reference to gigantic libraries in order to only use a small part of their features. Handling errors the right way is crucial from the security point of view: the less your attacker sees, the more secure your application. In this article, you will learn how to protect your error from others and, at the same time, log it for tracking purposes

Error logging with Enterprise Library and log4Net

If you decide to use custom libraries to handle logs, you will probably choose between Microsoft Enterprise Library and Apache Foundation log4net. Microsoft Enterprise Library, at the time of writing, is available in version 4.1 at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc467894.aspx. This library is free and contains a lot of functionalities; logging is only a small part of it. It is diffused among enterprise applications because even though it is not part of the .NET Framework BCL, developers tend to trust external class libraries coming from Microsoft.log4net is a project from Apache Software Foundation and it is available under the Apache License at http://logging.apache.org/log4net/index.html.   

Both libraries provide great flexibility; you can log information (and errors) to a file, a database, a message queue, or the event log or just generate an e-mail.

If you are trying to choose one over the other, you have to consider these points:

- Enterprise Library has a GUI tool to configure its Logging Application Block
- log4net supports hierarchical log maintenance

The choice is based mainly on the features you need to address because, from the performance point of view, they are very similar.

Enterprise Library is often considered because of its capabilities so, if you are already using it in your project (for example, because of the Cache Application Block), you may find it very similar, and using it is the right move because you already have a dependency on the main library

On the other hand, log4net is preferred by developers searching.

only for a simple and very complete library to perform this task and nothing more

If you prefer to write code, however, and your logging needs are only related to exceptions, you'll probably find easier to just handle and store this information with your custom code


Intercepting and handling errors with a custom module


Exposing errors to end users is not a good idea from both the usability and the security point of view. Error handling implemented the right way will help the administrators to inspect the complete error and provide a courtesy page to the users.

Problem


We want to avoid full error disclosure to normal users and display the full error to the administrators. This will preserve security and help the administrators to inspect errors without accessing the error logging tool while they’re running the page causing the error. We want to provide also an entry point to add more powerful exception logging capabilities in the future

Solution


ASP.NET gives you control over errors, letting you choose from among three options:

- Always show the errors
- Never show the errors.
- Show the error only when the request is coming from the same machine running the application

The following code comes from a typical web.config and lists the options:



These settings are flexible enough to cover your needs while developing the application; the reality is that, when you put your application in production, you will probably not make requests from the same machine running the page and you need to be the only one accessing error details


It is very important to not show sensitive information to users: errors are considered very dangerous. HttpApplication has a useful Error event, used to intercept exceptions not blocked at a higher level, such as in a try/catch block. This event can be handled to combine authorization and authentication from ASP.NET so you can show the error only to a specific group of people, thanks to Roles API available on ASP.NET

The code is really simple: you just have to handle the event, verify user permissions given the current roles, and then show a personalized error page or just let ASP.NET do the magic, using the values specified in web.config

We need to configure web.config to register our module as in listing 1

Listing 1: The custom authorization module to modify the response flow



When an error occurs, the exception is handled by our event handler, and we will display an error message similar to the one in figure 1

Figure 1: Using our custom error system we can add further information to the error page or simply decide to show the error to given clients.



To implement such a personalized view, we need to write a custom HttpModule like the one in listing 2



This code can be easily adapted to integrate further logging instrumentations, like form variables or application status. To register the module, you have to place this configuration in your web.config:

Error event handler is the right place to add your code. You can use MailMessage class from System.Net.Mail to compose a notification email
and send it to your address. If you want to use something that’s readily available, take a look at Health Monitoring in the MSDN documentation.

It is important to remark that TrySkipIisCustomErrors property from HttpResponse class is used to modify the default behavior of IIS 7.x when dealing with custom errors. By default, in fact, IIS 7 will bypass the local error handling and, instead, use the configuration applied in the system.webServer section. By setting this property, you can control IIS 7.x behavior too; the behavior of IIS 6.0 is not affected by this change

Discussion

HttpModules enable global event handling and are very useful in such a situation. This approach is very simple, centralized, and open to further improvements. It is also showing you how easy it is to tweak ASP.NET behavior and to avoid security concerns: the less an attacker sees the better it is for your application security. Error logging can be done with many different approaches. What we showed in these examples is a starting point. To meet your more complex needs, you can use the libraries we mentioned

Summary

Remember that ASP.NET is built with flexibility. This characteristic reflects how many incredible things you can do using extreme techniques. ASP.NET offers the right entry points to add your own custom mechanisms to implement simple things like logging errors. ASP.NET is so powerful that you can literally do anything you may need; you just have to write code and unleash your imagination!



ASP.NET 4.0 Hosting :: How to Upgrade an ASP.NET Web Application to ASP.NET 4 by using Visual Studio tool

clock July 13, 2010 10:52 by author Administrator

If you use Visual Studio to open a Web project that was developed for the .NET Framework 2.0, the .NET Framework 3.0, or the .NET Framework 3.5, Visual Studio can automatically perform all the changes to Web.config files that are required to be able to run using .NET Framework version 4. If the project is a local IIS project and you are using IIS 7.0, Visual Studio can also reassign the application to an application pool that is associated with the .NET Framework version 4

It is recommended that you use Visual Studio to perform the tasks that are required in order to upgrade. If you do not use Visual Studio to perform the upgrade automatically, you must manually edit the Web.config file and must manually associate the application in IIS with the .NET Framework version 4

Typically the procedures covered in this topic are sufficient for upgrading a Web application, because later versions of the .NET Framework are designed to be backward compatible with earlier versions. However, you should also look in the readme documentation for breaking changes. The behavior of a component that was developed for an earlier version of the .NET Framework might have changed in the newer version of the .NET Framework

Note:
Do not upgrade an IIS application if it has nested applications within it that target earlier versions of the .NET Framework. If an IIS application that targets the .NET Framework 3.5 or earlier is nested within an IIS application that targets the .NET Framework 4, the compiler might report errors when it compiles the nested application. This is because Web.config files inherit settings from files that are higher in the configuration file hierarchy. The .NET Framework 4 is backward compatible; therefore, a nested Web application that targets the .NET Framework 4 can inherit settings from Web.config files that are for earlier versions. But earlier versions of the .NET Framework are not forward compatible; therefore, they cannot inherit settings from a .NET Framework 4 Web.config file.


1. Open the Web site or project in Visual Studio.

2. If a Visual Studio Conversion Wizard welcome dialog box appears, click Next. This wizard appears when you open a Web Application Project or a solution. It does not appear when you open a Web Site project that is not in a solution

3. If you are converting a project, in the Visual Studio Conversion Wizard, select backup options and click Next in the Choose Whether to Create a Backup dialog box

Visual Studio upgrades your project file to the Visual Studio 2010 format. If you are upgrading a solution instead of an individual project, Visual Studio upgrades the solution file to the Visual Studio 2010 format

4. If you are converting a project, in the Visual Studio Conversion Wizard, click Next in the Ready to Convert dialog box

5. If you are opening the Web project on a computer that does not have the .NET Framework 3.5 installed, in the Project Target Framework Not Installed dialog box, select Retarget the project to .NET Framework 4 and click
OK

6.
If you are opening the Web project on a computer that does have the .NET Framework 3.5 installed, in the Web Site targeting older .NET Framework Found dialog box, clear the check box if you do not want to upgrade all Web sites or projects in a solution

7. In the dialog box, click
Yes

Visual Studio updates the Web.config file. The changes that are made to the Web.config file are listed in the procedure later in this topic that explains how to update the Web.config file manually. Visual Studio does not update comments. Therefore, after the conversion, the Web.config file might contain comments that reference earlier versions of the .NET Framework

Visual Studio automatically sets the controlRenderingCompatibilityVersion attribute of the pages element to 3.5. You can remove this setting in order to take advantage of XHTML and accessibility improvements in ASP.NET 4. For more information, see the procedure later in this topic that explains how to update the Web.config file manually

8. If you are converting a project, in the Visual Studio Conversion Wizard, click Close in the Conversion Complete dialog box.

9. If the project is not a local IIS project, associate its IIS application with the Visual Studio when it is deployed to IIS. For more information, see the procedure later in this topic that corresponds to the version of IIS that you are using

If the IIS application is associated with the .NET Framework 2.0, the site will not work. ASP.NET will generate errors that indicate that the targetFramework attribute is unrecognized.

10. If the project is a local IIS project and the IIS version is 6.0, associate its IIS application with the Visual Studio by following the procedure later in this topic for IIS 6.0

If the project is a local IIS project, Visual Studio automatically performs this association. It assigns the application to the first available application pool for the .NET Framework version 4. If no application pool exists, Visual Studio creates one

Note: By default, the IIS 6.0 Metabase API that Visual Studio uses to assign and create application pools is not available in Windows Vista or Windows 7. To make it available, enable IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility Layer in the Windows Control Panel by selecting Programs and Features and Turn Windows Features On or Off. The following illustration shows the Windows Features dialog box

11. If the project includes code that accesses the
HttpBrowserCapabilities object (in the HttpRequest.Browser property), test the code to make sure that it works as expected

The browser definition files that provide information to the
HttpBrowserCapabilities object were changed in ASP.NET 4, and the changes are not backward compatible with earlier versions of ASP.NET. If you discover a problem and prefer not to change your code to accommodate the ASP.NET 4 changes, you can copy the ASP.NET 3.5 browser definition files from the ASP.NET 3.5 Browsers folder of a computer that has ASP.NET 3.5 installed to the ASP.NET 4 Browsers folder. The Browsers folder for a version of ASP.NET can be found in the following location:

%SystemRoot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\versionNumber\Config\Browsers

After you copy the browser definition files, you must run the aspnet_regbrowsers.exe tool. For more information, see
ASP.NET Web Server Controls and Browser Capabilities.




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