ASP.NET MVC2 on GoDaddy

Question

I've talked to GoDaddy several times but no one there knows what they're talking about. I'm creating a simple web site for a local company who uses GoDaddy Windows Shared hosting and I'd like to create the project using MVC version 2.

The first time the guy said he hadn't heard of MVC and that GoDaddy doesn't support it. The second time I called they said they only support MVC on dedicated hosting and he wasn't sure about MVC 2 specifically. The third time I called the guy said I could run MVC 2 on shared hosting.

Anyone that actually has experience know?

Answer 1

If you can modify IIS to run with MVC, then you can run MVC on their server.

If you can't modify IIS, then you can't.

They don't even need to know what MVC is, you can copy the System.Web.MVC.dll to your webserver and use a local reference to it.

Personally, I use Gearhost for webhosting, and they rock.

Answer 2

MVC out of the box must be run in IIS7. I am not sure what version of IIS GoDaddy is using but chances are it's IIS6. If that is the case, you can still do MVC but your routes must include the .aspx extension. So, if your URL looks like this:

mysite/widget/create

you must change the route so that the URL looks like this;

mysite/widget.aspx/create

There are some posts that suggest using an .MVC extension and adding that extension to IIS but you don't have to do that if you use an extesion that IIS already knows to map to ASP (like .aspx)

Answer 3

As a current GoDaddy customer I can tell you that they have IIS 7 servers on Windows 2008.

Also, ASP.NET MVC 2 will work. To make it work you must make sure you the following libraries are in the bin directory:

System.Web.Mvc
System.Web.Routing

Make sure you set the Copy Local to true on those 2 libraries and make sure you upload the BIN directory.

Here is a simple site I built for our local area Kub Kar Races (Pinewood Derby for the Americans). It is hosted on GoDaddy and was built using a Beta for MVC2 (not sure which one anymore).

Answer 4

I got it working yesterday.

The key things you need are:

1. make sure you do not have any code that breaches Medium Level security

2. your key MVC DLLs are setup as "Copy Local" = true in the properties pane

3. use Url.Content("~/") if required

4. your IIS settings must be integrated instead of classic

Good luck

(See my other post : ASP.NET MVC in a subfolder (only) on godaddy)