Knowledge Base

Creating an assembly for an ASP .NET 2.0 web application (version 1)

Category: How do I?
Date: 27 Aug 2009
Product: Exception Hunter
ASP .NET applications do not produce assemblies (DLLs) as part of the build process since ASP .NET 2.0. How is it possible to create an assembly from my web application so that it can be analyzed by Exception Hunter?

By default, ASP .NET 2.0 compiles a web application at the first request and creates an assembly DLL in the Temporary ASP .NET files folder of the .NET Framework installation. The name and location of this cached file will vary, however, making it difficult to locate. It is possible to pre-compile an ASP .NET web application manually, using a stand-alone utility distributed with the .NET Framework. In order to convert an ASP .NET web application into a DLL assembly that can be loaded by Exception Hunter, use %systemroot%\microsoft.net\framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_compiler.exe

aspnet_compiler -v /MyVirtualDir -p "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\MyApp" -d -c "c:\MyExceptionHunterAssemblies"

The command above will work regardless of the website that the web application is configured to run on, will completely rebuild the assembly, include the inline ASP .NET code, and output any assemblies into the 'MyExceptionHunterAssemblies' folder for a web application accessible via the /MyVirtualDir virtual directory in IIS which resides on the local hard disk in the 'c:\inetpub\wwwroot\MyApp' folder.

For more information on the usage of the ASP .NET Compiler, please see http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229863(VS.80).aspx