Question

I’m developing a Web application that uses a couple XML files to store data. I have their Build Action set to Content, and on install the files are copied successfully to the Applications Virtual Directory:

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\ApplicationName\

The problem I’m having is that writing to these XML files (in order to save settings and things like that) causes a lot of write permissions issues. Therefore to get around it, I’m trying to copy these files from the virtual directory they’re installed to to a new directory under the C drive, using the following PostBuildEvent in the Web Deployment Project:

xcopy "$(TargetDir)*.xml" "C:\CompanyName\ApplicationName\" /y

However, this does nothing. I’m not sure if this is because PostBuildEvents in the installer are not actually fired on install, but only on building the installer, or if TargetDir represents the bin directory:

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\ApplicationName\bin\

instead of the root application virtual directory:

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\ApplicationName\

Does anyone have any ideas? Has anyone dealt with this sort of thing before? I’m really stumped on this one.

Update:
I included a PostBuildEvent that should give full permissions to all users:

icacls "$(TargetDir)" /grant Users:F

But it doesn’t seem to have resolved the problem.

I’m also unsure where exactly $(TargetDir) if pointing to, if it would be ..\ApplicationName\ or ..\ApplicationName\bin\

Answer 1

All you have to do is give full permissions to the user under whose context the Web Application Pool runs.

You can find this user by starting IIS manager and look at the Application Pools and Identity column

Something like

cacls C:\inetpub\wwwroot\ApplicationName /G Users:F

will give all permissions to this subdirectory to all users on the computer, If you are running under ApplicationPoolIndentity refer here