Question

I added a global.asax file, and later decided I didn’t need it, so I excluded it from the project, but now I get a parser error when I attempt to run my project.

The following is the error displayed on the view:

Line 1:  <%@ Application Codebehind="Global.asax.cs" Inherits="[assembly].WebApiApplication" Language="C#" %>

What happened and how do I fix it (besides the obvious of adding it back to the project)?

Answer 1

In an ASP.NET Web Application project, excluding Global.asax merely removes it from the .csproj file. It appears as a “hidden” file if you enable the “Show All Files” option on your project.

At any rate, your project ignores it and does not compile it, which is expected, but the web server recognizes the .asax file and attempts to load the class referenced in the <%@ Application @> directive. The class does not exist because it was omitted from the project.

To fool Visual Studio and the web server, consider also appending the extension .exclude to the Global.asax. Doing so keeps your file around (which I assume you intended), but ensures that the web server does not try to treat it as a global application class.

Of course, if you really don’t want it around, simply delete the .asax file and, if applicable, the code behind.