Tag: ASP.NET

Increasing the Maximum file size for Web.Config

This can happen in any ASP.NET Web Application, but as Sitecore 8's default web.config file is now 246 kb this makes it extremely susceptible to exceeding the default 250 kb limit.

To change the size limit you need to modify/create the following registry keys:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InetStp\Configuration\MaxWebConfigFileSizeInKB  (REG_DWORD)

On 64-bit machines you may also have to update the following as well

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\InetStp\Configuration\MaxWebConfigFileSizeInKB (REG_DWORD)

You will probably find that these keys need to be created, rather than just being updated. After changing them you will also need to reset IIS.

Alternatively

Alternatively you can leave the default values at 250 kb and split the web.config files into separate files.

More information on doing this can be found here:

http://www.davidturvey.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/how-to-split-the-web-config-into-mutliple-files/

My personal preference for Sitecore projects is to update the the max file size as this allows keeping the web.config file as close to the default install as possible. The benefit of doing this is it makes upgrades easier, rather than needing to know why your web.config doesn't match the installation instructions.

Bundling and Minification with Sitecore

There's various ways to add bundling and minification to a site, but one of the easiest is to use Microsoft's support from the Microsoft.AspNet.Web.Optimization package. This implementation has some great features including:

  • Automatically create the bundles and minify them as files are changed
  • Create unique urls to each version of a bundle to force browser refreshing of the file
  • Debug mode which outputs links to the raw files rather than the bundled minified version

The functionality is also fully compatible with Sitecore. To use it in your Sitecore solution follow these steps:

1. Add Microsoft.AspNet.Web.Optimization to your project from NuGet. This is the package from Microsoft that contains the functionality to do bundling and minification

 

2. Create your CSS and Javascript bundles. Where you put the logic for this is up to you but it will need to run when the application starts. Outside of Sitecore my main development is on bespoke ASP.NET MVC and Web API projects so I like to organise startup scripts into an App_Start folder and reference it from the Application_Start event in the global ascx file.

If you are running a Sitecore instance with multiple sites or if you do not have direct access to the production config files, it may be better to keep the logic separate and use a pipeline to create the bundles.

My bundle definitions would look something like this

1using System;
2using System.Collections.Generic;
3using System.Linq;
4using System.Web;
5using System.Web.Optimization;
6 
7public class BundleConfig
8{
9    public static void RegisterBundles(BundleCollection bundles)
10    {
11        bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/bundles/scripts").Include(
12                    "~/Scripts/jquery-{version}.js",
13                    "~/Scripts/bootstrap.js"));
14 
15        bundles.Add(new StyleBundle("~/bundles/css").Include(
16            "~/Content/bootstrap.css",
17            "~/css/site.css"));
18    }
19}

And in my Global.asax.cs file I would have some logic like this to call the other function

1protected void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
2{
3    BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(System.Web.Optimization.BundleTable.Bundles);
4}

3. Replace your Javascript/CSS references in your layout or rendering files with a call to render the bundle

Webforms

1<%: System.Web.Optimization.Scripts.Render("~/bundles/scripts") %>
2<%: System.Web.Optimization.Styles.Render("~/bundles/css") %>

MVC

1@Scripts.Render("~/bundles/scripts") 
2@Styles.Render("~/bundles/css")

4. In your web.config file there are a couple of changes needed to get things to work.

First you need to set an ignore url prefix to stop Sitecore trying to resolve the URL to the bundle. In this example mine is called bundles (note: you should add the prefix the what is already in your config file. e.g. |/bundles)

1<!--  IGNORE URLS
2      Set IgnoreUrlPrefixes to a '|' separated list of url prefixes that should not be
3      regarded and processed as friendly urls (ie. forms etc.)
4-->
5<setting name="IgnoreUrlPrefixes" value="/sitecore/default.aspx|/trace.axd|/webresource.axd|/sitecore/shell/Controls/Rich Text Editor/Telerik.Web.UI.DialogHandler.aspx|/sitecore/shell/applications/content manager/telerik.web.ui.dialoghandler.aspx|/sitecore/shell/Controls/Rich Text Editor/Telerik.Web.UI.SpellCheckHandler.axd|/Telerik.Web.UI.WebResource.axd|/sitecore/admin/upgrade/|/layouts/testing|/bundles" />
6

Next a dependant assembly binding needs to be set up for Web Grease. Without it you will see an error about the Web Grease version number

1<dependentAssembly>
2  <assemblyIdentity name="WebGrease" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
3  <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-1.5.2.14234" newVersion="1.5.2.14234" />
4</dependentAssembly>

If you have done this and are still getting a version number error check the assembly binding tag. Older versions of Sitecore have the applies to property set which may be only applying the bindings to .Net 2 and you may be using .Net 4.

1<assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" appliesTo="v2.0.50727">

5. If you are using IIS7 you will also need to make a change in your web.config file

1<system.webServer>
2    <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true">
3    </modules>
4</system.webServer>

6. Publish your changes into your Sitecore site. Depending if you have compilation mode set to debug or not you will now either have a bundle reference for all your JavaScript and CSS or the individual file references.

Creating 301 redirects in web.config

For various reasons at times you may need to create a 301 redirect to another URL. This could be as a result of a page moving or you just need to create some friendly URLS.

As a developer you may be tempted to do something like this in code...

1private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
2{
3    Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently";
4    Response.AddHeader("Location","http://www.new-url.com");
5}

But do you really want your project cluttered up with files who's only purpose is to redirect to another page!

You may also be tempted to try doing something with .NET's RouteCollection. This would certainly solve an issue on creating a redirect for anything without a file extension, but there is a better way.

In your web.config file under the configuration node create something like this

1<location path="twitter">
2  <system.webServer>
3    <httpRedirect enabled="true" destination="http://twitter.com/TwitterName" httpResponseStatus="Permanent" />
4  </system.webServer>
5</location>

The location path specifies that path on your site that this redirect will apply to. The destination value in the httpRedirect is where the redirect will go to. As well as setting Permanent for the httpResponseStatus you can also specify Found or Temporary depending on your needs.