Access to project directory thwarted when trying to build a Web App in .NET

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Richard Lionheart - 28 Aug 2005 05:31 GMT

Hi All,

[I mistakenly posted this to microsoft.public.inetserver.iis first.]

Is there on-line documentation for the permissions available in IIS for a
Virtual Directory's Local Path? Specifically I want documentation in
relation to developing Web Forms using Visual Studio .Net.

I'm developing my first (small) .Net WebForm app by following Jeff Prosise's
"Programming Microsoft .Net" (2002 edition) guidance on page 220. I created
a virtual directory without incident. But when I took the next step to
create
a Web App Proj, I ran into an access problem. I got a "Web Access Failed"
dialog saying:

=======================
The default Web access mode for this project is set to file share, but the
project folder at http://localhost/MyVirtualProj cannot be opened with the
path "K:\_Projects\WebForms\MyWebProj". The error returned was:

Unable to created Web project "MyVirtualProj". The UNC share
"K:\_Projects\WebForms\MyWebProj" does not exist or you do not have access.
========================

I got around it by accessing my virtual directory's properties in IIS and
gave the Local Path all the permissions I could. That did the job. But I'd
like to know what the most appropriate permissions are for various contexts.

Thanks in advance,
Richard

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Tim_Mac - 29 Aug 2005 14:18 GMT

hi Richard,
you're ASP.Net web application runs with a limited account, usually
called ASPNET.
this is typically the only account that needs permissions on a virtual
directory folder (along with System and Administrator). to run ASPX
pages, this account should have Read + Execute permissions. write
permissions are needed in the case where files are written to, or MS
access databases are used.
there are situations where you can get the account to run with the
local user permissions (called impersonation)

if you want to verify the account used, if you're on windows server
2003, you can check the identity for the DefaultAppPool in IIS manager.

or, you can create a text file called 'identity.aspx' and insert the
following code:
<%@ Page language="c#" %>
<%= System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name %>
then browse to it through your localhost. it will say something like
YourServer\ASPNET

this article:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnbda/html/auth
aspdotnet.asp
explains the relationship between IIS and ASP.Net from the
authentication perspective.

more info here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpguide/html/cp
conaspnetplatformrequirements.asp

hope this helps
tim

Reply to this Message

Richard Lionheart - 29 Aug 2005 23:49 GMT

Hi Tim,

Thank you very much for your response. I'm running WindowsXP-Pro, SP2 with
.Net 1.1 and miscellaneous patches from WindowsUpdate. Also, I've got IIS
and FrontPage installed on this machine, so it serves as both Client and
Server.

In an effort to implement your solution, I went to Start | Control Panel |
User Accounts.
I saw only three accounts: Mine (System Admin), SQLDebugger (Limited,
Password protected, [I wonder what the pswd is "-)]) and Guest (off).

I looked at "IIS vs ASP.Net" link, but wonder if it's relevant to my
situation of developing Web Forms on a workstation.

I looked at the "ASP.NET Platform Requirements" link briefly, but again that
seems more server oriented. I did notice it said MDAC 2.7 should be
installed, and I'll do that when I start some database stuff, but it
doesn't strike me as relevant to my problem.

David in news:uE0onb5qFHA.248@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl offered some good advice
which I'm going to check out further as soon as I get a chance. (I'm pushing
forward on my webform project because I jury-rigged some permissions to get
around that problem, but I'll get back to it to solve it correctly.)

Again, thanks for responding,
Richard

> hi Richard,
> you're ASP.Net web application runs with a limited account, usually
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> hope this helps
> tim

Reply to this Message

Richard Lionheart - 29 Aug 2005 21:47 GMT

This question was answered beautifully in the newsgroup
microsoft.public.inetserver.iis.

> Hi All,
>
[quoted text clipped - 33 lines]
> Thanks in advance,
> Richard

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Access to project directory thwarted when trying to build a Web App in .NET

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