Where is the Website Administration Tool?

Aubreylc · January 30th, 2014, 01:36 AM

Hello,
Apparently MS has removed the option for "Web Site Administration Tool" in VS 2013. To get this option back, I followed the directions from the link below but it did not work. I'm really working hard to understand but cannot figure it out. Would someone mind helping? I've spent 16 hrs. trying to solve the problem.

Currently using "Visual Studio Express 2013 for Web"
Chapter 16 pg. 629 of "Beginning ASP.NET 4.5: in C# and VB"

Link to instructions on getting back the Admin Tool:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/webdev/archi...dex=2#comments

How can I proceed with this book without the option?

Thanks,

Aubrey

Imar · January 30th, 2014, 04:49 PM

Hi there,

Can you define "did not work"? What's going wrong?

Here's an excerpt from the updated book for VS 2013 that might help:

1. Start a command prompt by typing CMD on the Windows home screen and press enter.

2. Navigate to the folder where IIS is installed (which by default is C:\Program Files\IIS Express) by entering the following command followed by the Enter Key:

cd c:\Program Files\IIS Express

3. Enter the following command and hit enter:

Code:

iisexpress.exe /path:"C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ASP.NETWebAdminFiles" /vpath:"/ASP.NETWebAdminFiles" /port:8082 /clr:4.0 /ntlm

Note: You should enter all of this one line. This command should work on 32 and 64 bits versions of Windows, but check the path to the ASP.NETWebAdminFiles folder in case you get an error when running the command.
When you press enter, you should see that IIS Express has started correctly
Don’t close the command prompt as that will also close IIS Express.

4. Start your browser and navigate to the following URL:

Code:

http://localhost:8082/asp.netwebadminfiles/default.aspx?applicationPhysicalPath=C:\BegASPNET\Site&applicationUrl=/

Again, all of this should be on one line without any spaces. Update the path for the applicationPhysicalPath parameter in case you placed your site in a folder other than C:\BegASPNET\Site. When asked for a user name and password, enter the credentials you use to log in to your Windows machine. After a short delay, the Web Site Administration Tool is loaded

Hope this helps,

Imar

Aubreylc · January 30th, 2014, 11:17 PM

Imar,

Thanks for the help. I tried it and got further. I did do the following and solved it though. Unfortunately this has all been a guessing game for me but your suggestion led me to the answer.

Below is how I solved it -only slight variation from your suggestion.

1. Start a command prompt by typing CMD on the Windows home screen and press enter.

2. Navigate to the folder where IIS is installed (which by default is C:\Program Files\IIS Express) by entering the following command followed by the Enter Key:

Code:

cd c:\Program Files\IIS Express

3. Copy and Past the following string exactly as it appears, into the command prompt:

Code:

"C:\Program Files\IIS Express\iisexpress.exe" /path:c:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ASP.NETWebAdminFiles /vpath:"/asp.netwebadminfiles" /port:8089 /clr:4.0 /ntlm

4. Open your browser and paste in the following URL string as it appears and press Enter:

Code:

http://localhost:8089/asp.netwebadminfiles/default.aspx?applicationPhysicalPath=C:\BegASPNET\Site\&applicationUrl=/

5. -And you're in!!

Imar · January 31st, 2014, 05:03 AM

Hi there,

I don't see much difference from my suggestion other than the inclusion of the full path to IISExpress (which shouldn't be necessary as you were already in that folder) and some quotes. I think my and your solution should both work. Or am I overlooking something?

Note: the Wrox forum messed up the path to the site in step 4. I updated my post so that should now look good.

If you have the time, can you confirm my solution works on your machine as well? It does on mine, and that's how I currently have it in the update for the book, but if it doesn't on yours, I still have time to correct it before the book goes to print.

Cheers,

Imar

Aubreylc · January 31st, 2014, 10:04 AM

Imar,

You are absolutely correct and your updated procedure worked. I think my error was excess spaces in the command.

--the computer only does what you tell it to do and nothing more!--

Thanks much,

-Aubrey

Imar · January 31st, 2014, 02:17 PM

Great, thanks for confirming.

Cheers,

Imar

AlanWheeler · February 4th, 2014, 06:12 PM

That was awesome, Imar. Worked perfect 1st time.

When I went looking on the web people seemed pretty upset about this, so I truly appreciate you providing a bulletproof access to WSAT.

Is there any reason we can't put that all in a batch file?

Best Regards,
Alan

Aubreylc · February 4th, 2014, 11:00 PM

Alan,

I created a batch file and it worked no problem.

Aubrey

Imar · February 5th, 2014, 12:01 PM

Yes, that should work just fine. You may even be able to create an external tool in VS that starts the batch file and pass the path of the site to it. Haven't tried it though. Hopefully, someone is going to create an extension for this at some point.

Cheers,

Imar

daveharney · February 13th, 2014, 06:36 PM

Hi Imar,

I happened to notice this post, tried it and it worked as advertised! I tried other explanations for doing this without any success.

Starting on page 737 in Professional ASP.NET 4.5 in C# and VB there are some little programs I've been using to get around this problem. If for some reason one is not able to find the admin program on their machine these do most of the job.