ASP.NET Ajax: 'PageMethods is undefined' script error on production server (works on localhost)

Question

In a javascript file I'm calling an ASP.NET Ajax PageMethod (ASP.NET 3.5), correctly defined in the page class a static method using the WebMethod attribute. This works on my development machine, but on the production server the PageMethod object is undefined when my javascript function is called (clicking a button).

Some debugging info:

• Error on Firefox and Internet Explorer
• According to Firebug's network tab all external resources are correctly loaded
• I'm using jQuery on the same page
• The application is deployed using a Web Deployment project

Any idea what's causing the problem?

Answer 1

I found the solution to the problem after having written the question. I'm doing a dirty trick in order to avoid copying the aspx placeholder files (Web Deployment Project) to the server: in IIS I've unchecked the .aspx ISAPI extension option "Verify that file exists".

That seems to be a problem for ASP.NET Ajax. So I created an empty aspx placeholder file and ... now it's working on the production server too. I'll put a warning sign on the question/answer I linked above.