Installing 2.1 in a subdirectory vs. root

Hi All,

I'm running CS 2.1 on ASPNET 2.0 on an ASPNIX shared host (highly recommended, having spent enough time on GoDaddy to throw in the towel finally). The current install is into a /cs subdirectory, which is preferred to reduce clutter in root as I have a lot of content to manage in root. However, I want to use the cs/default.aspx as my home page or main root page. So I copied the default.aspx file to my root directory and get an error message. It won't run, but runs fine in the /cs subdirectory.

Their tech support says it won't run in root, but didn't sound sure (I realize this is new tehcnology and configs all around, so I thought I'd ask any of the aces here for their opinion.)

Thanks in advance.

Paul H.

No, you definitely can't just copy the default.aspx from the CS subdirectory to root like that. At the minimum, you'd have to install any necessary CS assemblies and all .config files to the root. If you're running an ASP.NET application there, then you'd have to merge the web.config file and amend the SiteUrls.config file to direct requests to the correct subdirectory. Might be easier to just set up a redirect to the CS subdirectory so requests for www.yoursite.com bring up www.yoursite.com/cs instead.

BTW, ASPnix' support is pretty solid when it comes to CS, so if they say something won't work, you can largely take their word for it.  

Thanks for the reply Gary. Seems like it is indeed possible, but requires some serious tinkering. As you say, the ASPNIX tech support is great, and I highly recommend them, but still, I raise a larger issue that will make CS easier to install and configure down the road.

It SHOULD be installable into a subdir, while having the default.aspx and related files accessible in root (I want to use that as my home page, or dynamic main page like it's designed). I am not a programmer or SQL ace, so I just raise the issue for you guys to consider. If there's an alternative I'll go with that, and it looks like the ASPNIX folks will just move the /cs files over to root. But then, my root directory has a skillion folders, and three times the files to manage.

Keeping CS in a subdir, with all its concomitant complexity, just makes sense in sites that have a lot of content to manage like I do (CS has over 3,000 files! itself), thinking of parsimony and Occam's razor, at least in relation to scientific work. Less is so much more somtimes.

Keep up the good work, we're all in this together.

Paul H.

This is not a specific limitation of CS - ANY compiled ASP.NET application needs to have it's assemblies and any necessary configuration files installed at the root level of the application folder.

Paul M. Helfrich:

Hi All,

I'm running CS 2.1 on ASPNET 2.0 on an ASPNIX shared host (highly recommended, having spent enough time on GoDaddy to throw in the towel finally). The current install is into a /cs subdirectory, which is preferred to reduce clutter in root as I have a lot of content to manage in root. However, I want to use the cs/default.aspx as my home page or main root page. So I copied the default.aspx file to my root directory and get an error message. It won't run, but runs fine in the /cs subdirectory.

Their tech support says it won't run in root, but didn't sound sure (I realize this is new tehcnology and configs all around, so I thought I'd ask any of the aces here for their opinion.)

Thanks in advance.

Paul H.

 

Try this instead.  In your root directory, create a file called default.asp and put this code into it

<% Response.Redirect("/cs" %>

What this will do is automatically redirect the browser to the cs directory.  That way, you can install cs in any directory you want and have the redirect in place once your community site is ready for deployment to the public.