"Steven Cheng[MSFT]" wrote:

> Hello Lance,
>
> As for the  "create a local server during runtime" question you mentioned,
> do you mean you want programmtically start a local test webserver to run an
> ASP.NET 2.0 web appliation from a specified file system path(directory)?
>
> Based on my understanding, the Visual Studio 2005 use the
> "WebDev.TestServer.exe" application(installed with .net framework 2.0) in
> the framework directory (C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727). 
> When Visual Studio load and host a ASP.NET 2.0 web project in IDE, it
> actually start this "WebDev.TestServer.exe" program and define the
> application settings (such as physical directory path, virtual path , port
> ....) through commandline arguments.  For example:
>
> the following command (suppose the current directory is the .net 2.0
> framework directory) will start an ASP.NET 2.0 web project hosted in the
> local webserver, the application's physical directory is at
> "d:\workspace\webprojects\WebApp1",  the web app will be hosted as the
> "/WebApp/" virtual path, and listening on local port 8080:
>
> WebDev.WebServer  /port:8080  /path:"d:\workspace\webprojects\WebApp1"  
> /vpath:"/WebApp1"
>
> So we can visit the application's pages through the following local address
>
> http://localhost:8080/WebApp1/xxx.aspx
>
>
> Here is a good blog article describing the usage of the test webserver:
>
> http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2005/11/21/431138.aspx
>
> In addition, if you want to programmatically start such a web application
> in the test webserver, you can consider dynamically create a process
> pointing to the "WebDev.WebServer.exe" program and supply the paramters.
> For example, here is a test .net code fragment that start a local webserver
> session in a console application:
>
> ==================================
> class Program
>     {
>         static void Main(string[] args)
>         {
>             Run();
>         }
>
>         static void Run()
>         {
>             Process proc = new Process();
>
>
>             proc.StartInfo.FileName = HttpRuntime.ClrInstallDirectory +
> "\\WebDev.WebServer.exe";
>
>             proc.StartInfo.Arguments = " /port:8888
> /path:\"D:\\temp\\precompiled\\testsite1\\updatable\"
> /vpath:\"/testsite1\"";
>          
>             proc.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
>             proc.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
>
>             if(proc.Start())
>             {
>                 Console.WriteLine("local webserver started........");
>             }else{
>                 Console.WriteLine("local webserver failed to
> start........");
>             }
>
>         }
>     }
> ========================================
>
> BTW, since the "webdev.webserver.exe" is a winform application, I would
> suggest you not try programmtically launch it in any non-interactive
> service(such as ASP.NET application or windows service), because in such
> service application, we can not interactively manage the created
> "WebDev.WebServer" application and may cause problem.  
>
> Hope this helps you.  If you have anything unclear above, please feel free
> to post here.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Steven Cheng
>
> Microsoft MSDN Online Support Lead
>
> 
>
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"Steven Cheng[MSFT]" wrote:

> Hi Lance,
>
> Thanks for your reply.
>
> As I mentioned in the last reply, the WebDev.TestServer is designed as a
> GUI/winform application which is recommended to host in an interactive
> logon user session and hard to automate in a non-interactive service
> session. For the new questions you mentioned, here are some of my
> understanding and suggestions:
>
> 1. Is there any way to hide the icon that appears in the notification area
> of the task bar?
> =======================
> I'm afraid this is limited by the webserver.exe since by default the
> windows is not displayed and it is only the icon on taskbar that let the
> user to interactive with the Webserver program. And I've lookup the
> disassembly code of the webserver.exe, the icon is forced to display and
> there is no configuration options.
>
>
> 2. Is there any way to programically stop the ASP.NET Development Server on
> a given port (e.g., 8888)?
> ======================
> Since the webserver.exe is a winform application which has a main window,
> when we manage it interactively, we could stop it by clicking the "Stop"
> button on the winform. If you want to programmatically stop it, so far what
> I've got is using WIN32 API to programmatically find the webserver.exe
> application's main window and send some messages to the "Stop" button to
> end it.  This also require we're doing this in an interactive environment
> (in a console or winform application that running under interactive logon
> session).
>
>
> 3. Is there any way to determine whether the ASP.NET Development Server is
> already running on a given port?
> ========================
> I think this is possible, since the port number is always append in the
> webserver.exe applicaion main windows's  Caption, we can capture the
> caption of the window and pick the port number from the caption string. Of
> course, we need to programmatically find all the existing webserver
> application windows first. 
>
> For your convenience, I've created a complete demo project which contains
> the necessary code to do the work for #2 and #3 above. Most of them require
> calling win32 API through PINVOKE.  I've attached this project in this
> thread, you can get it if you're using Outlook Express to visit the NNTP
> newsgroup.  If you have problems accessing it, please feel free to let me
> know.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Steven Cheng
>
> Microsoft MSDN Online Support Lead
>
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights