Deployment of ASP.Net MVC 3 RC 2 Application on a Shared Hosting Environment Without Begging The Hosting Company

After the release of ASP.Net MVC RC 2, we are now waiting for the RTM release but some of us wanna use RC 2 already... But how to deploy it on a shared hosting acount is the mind-exploding problem...

12/18/2010 2:41:29 PM 15 comments 26473 times

UPDATE on 2011, 02.26

I have wrote another blog post on ASP.NET MVC Deployment problems you might have related to your server. If you are still having problems (especially, if you are getting 404 exceptions for extensionless URLs), you might want to have a look at on "Running ASP.NET MVC Under IIS 6.0 and IIS 7.0 Classic Mode : Solution to Routing Problem"

On the 10^th of December in 2010, Microsoft ASP.Net MVC team has released the MVC 3 RC 2 and it has some good stuff inside which RC 1 didn't have. It is not so much different but there are some breaking changes, especially ViewBag thing.

You could find more information about ASP.Net MVC RC 3 goodies on ScootGu's blog post or Phil Haacked blog post.

The MVC 3 RC 2 has come from go-live-license so you can use this in production if you wish. But the main problem rises here if you are in a shared hosting environment. As you know, shared hosting providers are not willing to install the new releases unless it is for sure that there is no detected bug in the package.

I thought that would be a big problem for me [because I am still in shared hosting environment :)] but deploying the necessary assemblies as manually is the solution. Scott Hanselman has a great post on how to deploy an MVC 3 application into a shared hosting environment. The article covers all the necessary steps. One problem is that if you do exactly as it is there, you will sure have a problem if you are deploying the RC 2 of the MVC 3.

The yellow screen of death will give you the following error;

Could not load file or assembly 'System.Web.WebPages.Deployment, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

The error will be thrown by the system because it needs System.Web.WebPages.Deployment.dll as well. The solution of this little problem is simple;

Navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET Web Pages\v1.0\Assemblies (this could be C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET Web Pages\v1.0\Assemblies on Windows 7) inside the windows explorer and you will see some files inside the folder;

asp.net-mvc-3-rc-2-bin-deployment-shared-hosting-environment-full.PNG

You need those 6 dll files. In addition to that you will also need System.Web.Mvc.dll (version 3.0.11209.0). You will be able to find that dll file by navigating to C:\Program Files\Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET MVC 3\Assemblies (that should be C:\Program Files (86x)\Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET MVC 3\Assemblies in Windows 7 [I'm not sure though])

asp.net-mvc-3-rc-2-bin-deployment-shared-hosting-environment-mvc-folder.PNG

Finally you should all have the following dlls in hand;

Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure
System.Web.Razor
System.Web.WebPages
System.Web.WebPages.Razor
System.Web.Helpers
System.Web.WebPages.Deployment (If you are deploying MVC RC 2, this assembly is necessary to deploy)
System.Web.Mvc

I made a copy of those dlls and put them together inside a folder so that I could reach them easily whenever I need them;

We have all the necessary files in our hands and so what now !

There are some conventions here that you could choose. The way I follow is that;

I used built in Visual Studio Publish tool to publish my application to the production side.
After publishing was complated, I simply copied those 7 dll files into the bin folder inside the root directory of my application.

Visual Studio 2010 Publish Tool

That was it ! [Of cource I didn't put the System.Web.WebPages.Dployment.dll into the production side and I got the error firstly :)]

Finally, my bin folder has the necessary assembly files to run the application;

Conclusion

Shared hostigs suck ! I know but it is the easiest way of setting up a web site. Thanks to the dll files and bin folder, we could deploy whatever we need into a shared hosting environment without begging the hosting company. The other smilar issue like that was Chart Contols. Refer : www.tugberkugurlu.com/archive/asp-net-chart-control-on-shared-hosting-environment-chartimagehandler-parser-error-problem-solution

Comments

#142

re: Deployment of ASP.Net MVC 3 RC 2 Application on a Shared Hosting Environment Without Begging The Hosting Company

by Kevin on 12/28/10 13:42:52 Tuesday (UTC +00:00)

I have a running mvc website inside a shared hosting environment thanks to this post.

#366

re: Deployment of ASP.Net MVC 3 RC 2 Application on a Shared Hosting Environment Without Begging The Hosting Company

by C++ Source Code Directory on 01/17/11 9:47:45 Monday (UTC +00:00)

Appreciate the research.

#1058

re: Deployment of ASP.Net MVC 3 RC 2 Application on a Shared Hosting Environment Without Begging The Hosting Company

by Haris on 01/26/11 22:37:52 Wednesday (UTC +00:00)

really solved m problem thanks ! do you know how we could make it possible to publish the neccessary all 7 dll filles while we are publishing the site with VS 2010 publish tool ??

Thanks

Haris

#2063

re: Deployment of ASP.Net MVC 3 RC 2 Application on a Shared Hosting Environment Without Begging The Hosting Company

by CCNA training on 02/08/11 14:41:47 Tuesday (UTC +00:00)

Nice article, I am a big time fan of your site, keep up the nice work, and I will be a frequent visitor for a very long time.

#2064

re: Deployment of ASP.Net MVC 3 RC 2 Application on a Shared Hosting Environment Without Begging The Hosting Company

by Tugberk on 02/09/11 22:11:23 Wednesday (UTC +00:00)

CCNA training

Nice article, I am a big time fan of your site, keep up the nice work, and I will be a frequent visitor for a very long time.

Thanks. glad that it helped. hope to see your comments often.

#2066

re: Deployment of ASP.Net MVC 3 RC 2 Application on a Shared Hosting Environment Without Begging The Hosting Company

by nihan on 02/15/11 22:22:59 Tuesday (UTC +00:00)

Thanks...

#2074

re:

by link building services on 02/24/11 8:57:24 Thursday (UTC +00:00)

Its very interesting.keep it up.I found many interesting points it contains a lot of information.

#2084

re: Deployment of ASP.Net MVC 3 RC 2 Application on a Shared Hosting Environment Without Begging The Hosting Company

by Stuart on 03/15/11 7:21:03 Tuesday (UTC +00:00)

thanks a LOT for sharing this valuable discussion!

#2122

re: Deployment of ASP.Net MVC 3 RC 2 Application on a Shared Hosting Environment Without Begging The Hosting Company

by Gideon on 05/18/11 16:55:33 Wednesday (UTC +00:00)

thanks man really saved me some hair

#2123

re: Deployment of ASP.Net MVC 3 RC 2 Application on a Shared Hosting Environment Without Begging The Hosting Company

by Gideon on 05/18/11 16:56:25 Wednesday (UTC +00:00)

thanks man really saved me some hair

#2124

re: Deployment of ASP.Net MVC 3 RC 2 Application on a Shared Hosting Environment Without Begging The Hosting Company

by tugberk on 05/18/11 17:53:58 Wednesday (UTC +00:00)

@Gideon

:) glad that it helped. consider looking at the following one as well for possible future complications;

http://tugberkugurlu.com/archive/running-asp-net-mvc-under-iis-6-0-and-iis-7-0-classic-mode---solution-to-routing-problem

#2239

re: Deployment of ASP.Net MVC 3 RC 2 Application on a Shared Hosting Environment Without Begging The Hosting Company

by jual emping on 11/14/11 6:24:22 Monday (UTC +00:00)

I am glad to read your post and to be part of it. I will be back to check more of your post.

#2344

re: Deployment of ASP.Net MVC 3 RC 2 Application on a Shared Hosting Environment Without Begging The Hosting Company

by Matt on 02/14/12 1:37:34 Tuesday (UTC +00:00)

I'm getting this deployment excpt its asking for version 2.0 and im running it on my local machine. any thoughts ? Thanks

#2523

re: Deployment of ASP.Net MVC 3 RC 2 Application on a Shared Hosting Environment Without Begging The Hosting Company

by jannat fizza on 06/03/12 15:54:11 Sunday (UTC +00:00)

anyone here help to make harris point detection implementation in . NET

#2611

GSM Mobiles

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