Why can't I publish MVC project

Question

I'm having problems publishing my MVC project. When I do publish and upload everything to web server I get this:

[InvalidOperationException: The view 'Index' or its master could not be found. The following locations were searched:
~/Views/Home/Index.aspx
~/Views/Home/Index.ascx
~/Views/Shared/Index.aspx
~/Views/Shared/Index.ascx]

Weird thing is that Index.aspx exists in ~/Views/Home/, but IIS cannot find it there. If I copy entire project to web server and let asp.net compile it on the fly it works like a charm.

My routing code:

  routes.MapRoute( _
    "Default", _
    "{controller}/{action}/{id}", _
    New With {.controller = "Home", .action = "Index", .id = ""} _
  )

  routes.MapRoute("Root", "", New With {.controller = "Home", .action = "Index", .id =""})

I'm using IIS7 on Windows 2008 Web server. ASP.NET MVC 1.0, Visual Studio 2008. I've tried it local with IIS7 on Windows 7 - same error.

UPDATE - I've created a new MVC project, and added all my files to it. Referencing projects have been referenced as compiled binaries. After publishing "only files needed to run application" I get the same error.

Answer 1

Check if the masterpage of Index.aspx exists also.
If you are using "web site" project try to choose the "Allow this precompiled site to be updatable" option when publishing the site.
If you are using "web application" project try to choose the "Copy - All project files" option on publish.

Try also to copy only the views. I think that ASP.NET MVC projects when precompiled doesn't work well because of the marker files (the .aspx and ascx files are replaced with marker files on precompilation).

If you are using IIS 6 or below check the deployment guide for asp.net mvc - http://www.asp.net/learn/mvc/tutorial-08-cs.aspx.

Answer 2

1) Check if your Index.aspx included in the project. (exists in publish result folder) Locally at VS it may works, but on publish it will not be copied.

2) Check if Views/web.config file included in the project - it affects the was ASP.NET MVC compile the Views.

3) Check if Index.aspx has Build Action = Content (in properties window).

Answer 3

Check the rights on the server, make sure the asp.net worker process has the correct rights on the views folder, sub-folders, and files.

also, is your IIS instance running in Classic or Integrated Pipeline mode?

Answer 4

Try appending .aspx to the controller part of the URL, for example http://myserver/appname/Index.aspx/Home - if I remember rightly, IIS7 has issues with MVC apps displaying the control/action urls properly unless you a) refer to the controller part using the .aspx suffix b) tweak a setting on the server, but this affect all apps on that server c) load an addon I found a good article on this but I can't find it, search around and I'm sure you will find it yourself if the .aspx solution isn't good for you

Answer 5

Removed the previous link, this one explains it a bit better http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/243/aspnet-integration-with-iis7/.

If you're developing using the local asp.net webdev server, you must remove some of the HttpHandlers and HttpModules and then add them back to the section. This tells IIS7 to run those in integrated mode. This is needed when deploying your app to an IIS 7 server including for MVC. See below as a reference example:

<system.webServer>
    <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false" />
    <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true">
      <remove name="ScriptModule" />
      <remove name="UrlRoutingModule" />
<add name="FormsAuthenticationModule" type="System.Web.Security.FormsAuthenticationModule" />
      <add name="ScriptModule" preCondition="managedHandler" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptModule, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
      <add name="UrlRoutingModule" type="System.Web.Routing.UrlRoutingModule, System.Web.Routing, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    </modules>
<handlers>
  <remove name="WebServiceHandlerFactory-Integrated" />
  <remove name="ScriptHandlerFactory" />
  <remove name="ScriptHandlerFactoryAppServices" />
  <remove name="ScriptResource" />
  <remove name="MvcHttpHandler" />
  <remove name="UrlRoutingHandler" />
<add name="ScriptHandlerFactory" verb="*" path="*.asmx" preCondition="integratedMode" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
      <add name="ScriptHandlerFactoryAppServices" verb="*" path="*_AppService.axd" preCondition="integratedMode" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
      <add name="ScriptResource" preCondition="integratedMode" verb="GET,HEAD" path="ScriptResource.axd" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptResourceHandler, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
          <add name="MvcHttpHandler" preCondition="integratedMode" verb="*" path="*.mvc" type="System.Web.Mvc.MvcHttpHandler, System.Web.Mvc, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, processorArchitecture=MSIL" />
          <add name="UrlRoutingHandler" preCondition="integratedMode" verb="*" path="UrlRouting.axd" type="System.Web.HttpForbiddenHandler, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />
        </handlers>
      </system.webServer>

Hope that helps,

Eddy

PS. Old link http://www.asp.net/(S(ywiyuluxr3qb2dfva1z5lgeg))/learn/mvc/tutorial-08-cs.aspx

Answer 6

What is the exact call to View("Index", ...) you are using. Maybe the second parameter is a string - in this case another overload of the View- method is used, where the second parameter is the name of the master page.

Solution: Just cast the second parameter as object.

Answer 7

Since it works when copying the entire project, perhaps you aren't copying all the files that you need? Make sure any non-standard references are set to Copy Local and use the built-in Publish feature under the Build menu to get the files needed for the project to run.

Answer 8

Solution to this problem is as bizarre as it's manifestation.

My master code behind file was declared as Partial instead of Public and my master definition was

<%@ Master Language="VB" Inherits="SiteFrontPageMaster"  ClassName="SiteFrontPageMaster" CodeFile="SiteFrontPageMaster.Master.vb"  %>

and it should have been

<%@ Master Language="VB" Inherits="mymvcproject.SiteFrontPageMaster" CodeBehind="SiteFrontPageMaster.Master.vb" %>

Why was something acceptable for Cassini and not for IIS is beyond my ability to understand. I just hope that this answer saves someone else my amount of headache.