Question

I’m currently playing around with the Microsoft.Web.Administration (MWA) namespace in order to adjust our application to configure IIS 7.5 with the new API.
I understood that all IIS level changes should be expressed in the following file (I’m on Win2K8-R2):

%WINDIR%\System32\inetsrv\config\applicationHost.config

So, when I use the ServerManager object to commit the configuration changes the file should be updated accordingly.

After adding a new MIME type (programmatic with MWA) I did not see any changes in the applicationHost.config file, but I do see the new MIME type in the IIS manager window and IIS recognizes this MIME type without problems. Even after restating the OS – The config file does not contain the newly added MIME type, but the IIS manager window does list it.

Because my application pools are forced to 32-bit (Enable32BitAppOnWin64 = true), I thought that the related config file should be located under %WINDIR%\SysWOW64\inetsrv\Config, but (if it exists…) – it also does not change after the code commits the updates.

Can someone please explain this? Am I missing something (looking at the wrong file maybe?)? Can someone please shed some light on the SysWOW64\inetsrv\config directory?

This is my code for adding the MIME type:

ServerManager manager = new ServerManager();
ConfigurationElementCollection staticContentCollection = manager
    .GetApplicationHostConfiguration()
    .GetSection("system.webServer/staticContent")
    .GetCollection();

//MIMETypes is a string[] array, each object is {FileExt},{MIMETypeStr}
foreach (string pair in MIMETypes)
{
    string[] mimeProps = pair.Split(',');

    ConfigurationElement mimeTypeEl = staticContentCollection
          .Where(a => 
                   (string)a.Attributes["fileExtension"].Value == mimeProps[0])
          .FirstOrDefault();


    if (mimeTypeEl != null)
    {
        staticContentCollection.Remove(mimeTypeEl);
    }

    ConfigurationElement mimeMapElement = 
                  staticContentCollection.CreateElement("mimeMap");

    mimeMapElement["fileExtension"] = mimeProps[0];
    mimeMapElement["mimeType"] = mimeProps[1];

    staticContentCollection.Add(mimeMapElement);
}

manager.CommitChanges();

//At this point all is working but the config file does not reflect the change

Answer 1

I just tried your code and it works fine. You are aware that this mime type is being added to the global mime type collection and not to a site?

It also gets added to the end of the <staticContent> list, this list isn’t re-sorted when you do ServerManager.CommitChanges().

Also on Windows 2008-R2 the correct location for applicationHost.config is at:

C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config

I’m guess you’re either using notepad.exe or NotePad2 to open this file (32 bit editors can’t open it). Notepad won’t reload the file upon a change and NotePad2 needs to be told to display a file change notification (alt-F5), out of the box it won’t.

Also try adding something unusual like .xxx, run your update then open the config file and do a search. I guarantee it’ll be there.

Update:

Further to your comments below, I’m not sure how you’re able to open applicationHost.config using NotePad++ or any 32-bit editor, I certainly can’t. Can you download NotePad2 which is a 64-bit editor:

http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html

The release candidate works just fine.

On a default install of any 64 bit Windows 2008 or Windows 7 there shouldn’t be an applicationHost.config in the C:\Windows\SysWOW64\inetsrv\Config folder. I’m not sure why you’d be seeing one there.