ASP.Net ScriptManager globally setting ScriptMode in Machine.Config

Question

All of our applications have Debug="False" in the web.config and Release DLL's.

We have a number of Applications that use ScriptManagers now for .net Ajax implementations. The ScriptManager has a ScriptMode that is set for Release and Debug modes. The default for this is Auto and when it is set to Auto it's value is set based on the Deployment - Retail="True" setting in the Machine.Config.

I have never set this flag on any of our Live Production servers and therefore don't want to just do it!

My questions are:

• Does anyone have any information about setting this flag?
• Is this the only way to globally set the ScriptManagers ScriptMode to Release? I would happily just set it in a Web.Config instead.
• What problems might I encounter if I set this flag on a production server?

Answer 1

Setting <deployment retail="true" /> in machine.config is nearly always a good idea for production servers. It'll override certain web.config settings by disallowing:

• <compilation debug="true"/> switch
• page output tracing
• non-local access to detailed error messages

More good info here on ScottGu's blog: Don’t run production ASP.NET Applications with debug="true" enabled

It's unlikely you'll run into any problems by setting this on your production servers, but check in a QA environment first.