MVC + IIS7 = CSS Issue

Question

I have a web site running via IIS7 on Vista. The site is running on port 88, so http://localhost:88 should render the default /Home/Index view.

This works correctly, as

Answer 1

From Control Panel, go to Turn Windows features on or off, then check Static Content in sub-sub-sub node of IIS.

Answer 2

The problem was in the way I created the application. According to the forum thread located here, I needed to select the "Classic .NET AppPool" to fix my problem. Gotta love progress!

Answer 3

I hope the continuation of this thread conveys a willingness to make sure this problem doesn't drive anyone off the cliff. There's a lot of documentation in various forums about solving this issue on Vista but I couldn't find any likewise articles for 2K8. As indicated in this forum post I was able to fix the issue on a Vista machine. Alas, a like execution failed to resolve the matter on 2K8.

I had verified that the StaticFileHandler had been included in the web.config as suggested in this blog post at apijunkie.com. Still, no luck.

Clarifying no luck, here - My server-side functionality was perfect. All MVC routes work like a champ. Just all CSS and JS rendering failed. When browser pointed directly at CSS or JS files resulting page was an ASP.NET 404 and not the traditional 404 error page.

So I went into the IIS7 Manager and into the Handler Mappings dialog. I added a new handler that specified the System.Web.StaticFileHandler type and gave it an extension of *.CSS. Then I repeated that for *.JS, *.PNG, and *.GIF files. When I refreshed the site in the browser, everything rendered perectly. The screen shots below demonstrate this process.

The Handler Mappings Window:

_{(source: windows.net)}

Adding a new Managed Handler

_{(source: windows.net)}

This resolved the problem, and now I have a perfectly functioning MVC app hosted in W2K. Time for a Guinness.

Answer 4

The problem not lies precisely in the authorization/authentication but in the modules that now manages the IIS. Inside system.webServer you should have runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests set to false so you can display all images/css without problems with authentication.

In ASP.NET websites, the value of runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests previously had to be set to true to support routing. However, once IIS 7 has been updated with a Service Pack, the value of runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests can be set to false or omitted when working with ASP.NET routing.

Ref. http://www.iis.net/configreference/system.webserver/modules

P.S. Don't forget to add the following lines to the AppSettings section of my web.config file:

< add key="autoFormsAuthentication" value="false" />

< add key="enableSimpleMembership" value="false"/>

Answer 5

Turns out this isn't a fix on Windows 2008. Should anyone have any ideas on how to resolve this matter it'd be appreciated.

Detailed problem:

Windows 2K8 Server, IIS7. Have pipeline turned on and static file support installed. MVC works, but CSS doesn't render.

What the heck?