Create a compact, non-SOAP web service in ASP.Net

Question

I want to create a simple web service to distribute to ASP.Net developers. I found an application (SvnBridge) which has the layout I'm after - a single web.config file and a single .dll file.

The interesting part is in the web.config file:

<httpHandlers>
    <clear/>
    <add verb="*" path="*" type="SvnBridgeServer.SvnBridgeHttpHandler, SvnBridgeServer" />
</httpHandlers>

Ooooo that looks perfect. I can throw anything I like at this and have it handled by what I presume is an IHttpHandler implementation.

So I ripped off the spirit of the afore-linked config file, bundled my library into a DLL and hit build in VS. I immediately get this in IE:

Source Error:

[No relevant source lines]

I mainly work with PHP - ASP.Net is quite new to me. Clearly I'm doing something wrong, but I haven't a clue where even to start.

At the moment, I use a Python script to bundle all the C# source into a single .ashx file, which is kinda cool for distribution, but makes debugging a nightmare. It looks a bit like this:

<%@ WebHandler Language="C#" Class="MyApp.MyClass" debug="true" %>
using System.Data;
...
namespace MyApp
{
    public class MyClass : IHttpHandler
    {
        public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext Http)
        {
            ...
        }
    }
}

There's obviously a lot more to it (user config area etc), but you get the gist.

Can someone point me in the right direction? I'm comfortable with the C# language, it's just the arrangement and configuration that has me a bit stumped.

I realise this question may seem somewhat ambiguous - please post comments and I'll try to clarify where necessary.

Thanks,

Neil.

Answer 1

This is fixed. I had to turn the folder into an application in IIS, and move the source to a trusted (non-network) location.

My gratitude for those who took the time to review this question.

Answer 2

What does the EventLog say ? There probably should be a record (of type "Warning" with the source which looks like "ASP.NET x.x.xxxxx.x").

Anyway, you mentioned in the beginning of your post that you'd like to have a single DLL-file (among with the web.config) to be distributed. Later you point to the .ashx file.

I'd rather create a single class (.cs file within your project) and put the implementation of my HTTP handler in that class.

Also, double-check that the type of your HTTP handler is specified correctly in a web.config:

<add verb="*" path="*" type="[namespace].[type], [assembly]" />

If you're using IIS6 then you need to manually add a wildcard script mapping in order for your HTTP handler to "catch" the requests. This forum post might help.

-- Pavel