Custom Virtual Path Provider in IIS

asp.netiis-7.5

What is the correct configuration to implement a custom virtual path provider in IIS 7.5? The following code works as expected when run from Visual Studio using the ASP.NET Development Server but does not load the image when run from IIS.

.NET 4.0 Project File

CustomVirtualPathProvider.zip – SkyDrive file

Web.config

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
  <system.web>
    <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0" />
  </system.web>
  <system.webServer>
     <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"/>
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Default.aspx

<%@ Page Title="Home Page" Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
    <head>
        <title>Virtual Path Provider</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <img src="Box.png" />
    </body>
</html>

Global.asax

public class Global : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
    void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.RegisterVirtualPathProvider(new WebApplication1.CustomVirtualPathProvider());
    }
}

CustomVirtualFile.cs

public class CustomVirtualFile : System.Web.Hosting.VirtualFile
{
    private string _VirtualPath;

    public CustomVirtualFile(string virtualPath) : base(virtualPath)
    {
        _VirtualPath = virtualPath.Replace("/", string.Empty);
    }

    public override Stream Open()
    {
        string ImageFile =
            System.IO.Path.Combine(HttpContext.Current.Request.PhysicalApplicationPath, @"Crazy\Image\Path", _VirtualPath);
        return System.IO.File.Open(ImageFile, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
    }
}

CustomVirtualPathProvider.cs

public class CustomVirtualPathProvider : System.Web.Hosting.VirtualPathProvider
{
    Collection<string> ImageTypes;

    public CustomVirtualPathProvider() : base()
    {
        ImageTypes = new Collection<string>();
        ImageTypes.Add(".PNG");
        ImageTypes.Add(".GIF");
    }

    public override bool FileExists(string virtualPath)
    {
        if (IsImage(virtualPath))
        {
            return true;
        }
        return base.FileExists(virtualPath);
    }

    public override System.Web.Hosting.VirtualFile GetFile(string virtualPath)
    {
        if (IsImage(virtualPath))
        {
            return new CustomVirtualFile(virtualPath);
        }
        return base.GetFile(virtualPath);
    }

    private bool IsImage(string file)
    {
        return ImageTypes.IndexOf(file.ToUpperInvariant().Substring(file.Length - 4, 4)) > -1;
    }
}

Filesystem

\Crazy\Image\Path\Box.png

IIS Configuration

Default site with no configuration changes.

Best Answer

Here is what I found to "fix" my issue.

http://sunali.com/2008/01/09/virtualpathprovider-in-precompiled-web-sites/

In brief:

HostingEnviornment explicitly ignores Virtual Path Providers in precompiled sites. You can circumvent this limitation by using reflection to call an internal version that omits this check. Thus, instead of calling

HostingEnviornment.RegisterVirtualPathProvider(new EmbeddedViewVirtualPathProvider();

call this instead:

typeof(HostingEnvironment).GetMethod("RegisterVirtualPathProviderInternal",
      BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.InvokeMethod | BindingFlags.NonPublic)
    .Invoke(null, new object[] {new EmbeddedViewPathProvider()});

Related Solutions

Asp.net-mvc – ASP.NET MVC – Set custom IIdentity or IPrincipal

Here's how I do it.

I decided to use IPrincipal instead of IIdentity because it means I don't have to implement both IIdentity and IPrincipal.

Create the interface

interface ICustomPrincipal : IPrincipal
{
    int Id { get; set; }
    string FirstName { get; set; }
    string LastName { get; set; }
}

CustomPrincipal

public class CustomPrincipal : ICustomPrincipal
{
    public IIdentity Identity { get; private set; }
    public bool IsInRole(string role) { return false; }

    public CustomPrincipal(string email)
    {
        this.Identity = new GenericIdentity(email);
    }

    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
}

CustomPrincipalSerializeModel - for serializing custom information into userdata field in FormsAuthenticationTicket object.

public class CustomPrincipalSerializeModel
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
}

if (Membership.ValidateUser(viewModel.Email, viewModel.Password))
{
    var user = userRepository.Users.Where(u => u.Email == viewModel.Email).First();

    CustomPrincipalSerializeModel serializeModel = new CustomPrincipalSerializeModel();
    serializeModel.Id = user.Id;
    serializeModel.FirstName = user.FirstName;
    serializeModel.LastName = user.LastName;

    JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();

    string userData = serializer.Serialize(serializeModel);

    FormsAuthenticationTicket authTicket = new FormsAuthenticationTicket(
             1,
             viewModel.Email,
             DateTime.Now,
             DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(15),
             false,
             userData);

    string encTicket = FormsAuthentication.Encrypt(authTicket);
    HttpCookie faCookie = new HttpCookie(FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName, encTicket);
    Response.Cookies.Add(faCookie);

    return RedirectToAction("Index", "Home");
}

Global.asax.cs - Reading cookie and replacing HttpContext.User object, this is done by overriding PostAuthenticateRequest

protected void Application_PostAuthenticateRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    HttpCookie authCookie = Request.Cookies[FormsAuthentication.FormsCookieName];

    if (authCookie != null)
    {
        FormsAuthenticationTicket authTicket = FormsAuthentication.Decrypt(authCookie.Value);

        JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();

        CustomPrincipalSerializeModel serializeModel = serializer.Deserialize<CustomPrincipalSerializeModel>(authTicket.UserData);

        CustomPrincipal newUser = new CustomPrincipal(authTicket.Name);
        newUser.Id = serializeModel.Id;
        newUser.FirstName = serializeModel.FirstName;
        newUser.LastName = serializeModel.LastName;

        HttpContext.Current.User = newUser;
    }
}

Access in Razor views

@((User as CustomPrincipal).Id)
@((User as CustomPrincipal).FirstName)
@((User as CustomPrincipal).LastName)

and in code:

    (User as CustomPrincipal).Id
    (User as CustomPrincipal).FirstName
    (User as CustomPrincipal).LastName

I think the code is self-explanatory. If it isn't, let me know.

Additionally to make the access even easier you can create a base controller and override the returned User object (HttpContext.User):

public class BaseController : Controller
{
    protected virtual new CustomPrincipal User
    {
        get { return HttpContext.User as CustomPrincipal; }
    }
}

and then, for each controller:

public class AccountController : BaseController
{
    // ...
}

which will allow you to access custom fields in code like this:

User.Id
User.FirstName
User.LastName

But this will not work inside views. For that you would need to create a custom WebViewPage implementation:

public abstract class BaseViewPage : WebViewPage
{
    public virtual new CustomPrincipal User
    {
        get { return base.User as CustomPrincipal; }
    }
}

public abstract class BaseViewPage<TModel> : WebViewPage<TModel>
{
    public virtual new CustomPrincipal User
    {
        get { return base.User as CustomPrincipal; }
    }
}

Make it a default page type in Views/web.config:

<pages pageBaseType="Your.Namespace.BaseViewPage">
  <namespaces>
    <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
    <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
    <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
    <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
  </namespaces>
</pages>

and in views, you can access it like this:

@User.FirstName
@User.LastName

ASP.NET MVC on IIS 7.5

ASP.NET 4 was not registered in IIS. Had to run the following command in the command line/run

32bit (x86) Windows

%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe -ir

64bit (x64) Windows

%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe -ir

Note from David Murdoch's comment:

That the .net version has changed since this Answer was posted. Check which version of the framework is in the %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64 directory and change the command accordingly before running (it is currently v4.0.30319)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Asp.net-mvc – ASP.NET MVC – Set custom IIdentity or IPrincipal

ASP.NET MVC on IIS 7.5

Related Topic