Question

I am trying to deploy what is currently a very simple web app based on ServiceStack.Razor to AppHarbor, but it is failing on the asp.net precompile step:

Microsoft (R) ASP.NET Compilation Tool version 4.0.30319.17929
Utility to precompile an ASP.NET application
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

d:\temp\ueggj0qu.hf5\temp\root\61980531\2c38de0c\App_Web_431dglyw.0.cs(15): error CS0146: Circular base class dependency involving 'RazorOutput.ViewPage' and 'RazorOutput.ViewPage'

[HttpCompileException]: d:\temp\ueggj0qu.hf5\temp\root\61980531\2c38de0c\App_Web_431dglyw.0.cs(15): error CS0146: Circular base class dependency involving 'RazorOutput.ViewPage' and 'RazorOutput.ViewPage'
   at System.Web.Compilation.AssemblyBuilder.Compile()
   at System.Web.Compilation.WebDirectoryBatchCompiler.CompileAssemblyBuilder(AssemblyBuilder builder)
   at System.Web.Compilation.WebDirectoryBatchCompiler.<CompileNonDependentBuildProviders>b__0(AssemblyBuilder assemblyBuilder)
   at System.Web.Compilation.CompilationUtil.CompileParallel(ICollection assemblyBuilders, Action`1 action)
   at System.Web.Compilation.WebDirectoryBatchCompiler.CompileNonDependentBuildProviders(ICollection buildProviders)
   at System.Web.Compilation.WebDirectoryBatchCompiler.Process()
   at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.BatchCompileWebDirectoryInternal(VirtualDirectory vdir, Boolean ignoreErrors)
   at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.BatchCompileWebDirectory(VirtualDirectory vdir, VirtualPath virtualDir, Boolean ignoreErrors)
   at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.PrecompileWebDirectoriesRecursive(VirtualDirectory vdir, Boolean topLevel)
   at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.PrecompileWebDirectoriesRecursive(VirtualDirectory vdir, Boolean topLevel)
   at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.PrecompileAppInternal(VirtualPath startingVirtualDir, IEnumerable`1 excludedVirtualPaths)
   at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.PrecompileApp(VirtualPath startingVirtualDir, IEnumerable`1 excludedVirtualPaths)
   at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.PrecompileApp(ClientBuildManagerCallback callback, IEnumerable`1 excludedVirtualPaths)
   at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManagerHost.PrecompileApp(ClientBuildManagerCallback callback, List`1 excludedVirtualPaths)
   at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManagerHost.PrecompileApp(ClientBuildManagerCallback callback, List`1 excludedVirtualPaths)
   at System.Web.Compilation.ClientBuildManager.PrecompileApplication(ClientBuildManagerCallback callback, Boolean forceCleanBuild)
   at System.Web.Compilation.ClientBuildManager.PrecompileApplication(ClientBuildManagerCallback callback)
   at System.Web.Compilation.Precompiler.Main(String[] args)

I do know I can turn off precompilation, but I would rather get to the bottom of this now before I add more complexity to the project.

The project currently consists of very basic versions of:

• Views/_Layout.cshtml
• Views/SomeServiceResponseView.cshtml
• content/SomeStaticView.cshtml

The static view isn’t 100% static (its still a Razor generated view), its just not based on a service DTO model.

Both the _Layout and StaticView derive from ViewPage ( e.g. @inherits ViewPage ).
The ServiceResponseView derives from the generic model version of ViewPage ( e.g. @inherits ViewPage<SomeDtoResponse> ).

I have ran the aspnet_compiler.exe tool locally, but only managed to get the same output as above (AppHarbor FAQ suggests to run it locally to help debug precompile issues, but I haven’t managed to find any way for it to give me any more information…?).

Has anyone seen a similar error message before?
Anyone with more knowledge of what Razor does under the covers got any clues on what could be causing this?
Is this an issue due to differences between ServiceStack.Razor and normal ASP.NET MVC Razor, in which case turning off precompilation is the correct solution?.

Answer 1

I had to disable View Pre-compilation on AppHarbor, too.

I’m fairly certain it’s not possible to have enabled, as ServiceStack Razor pages have their own build process and they also don’t rely on System.Web.Mvc.

I think the AppHarbor process expects System.Web.Mvc Razor views.