Setting up IIS for the Ajax .Net Deployment Option

For Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 the following roles and services will need to be enabled as the very first step. Apart from the role services that are enabled by default, the ones in bold will also need to be enabled.

Server Roles

Web Server (IIS)

Role Services

Common Http Features

Static Content

Default Document

Directory Browsing

Http Errors

Application Development

ASP

ASP.NET

.NET Extensibility

ISAPI Extensions

ISAPI Filters

Health and Diagnostics

Http logging

Request Monitor

Security

Request Filtering

Performance

Static Content Compression

Management Tools

IIS Management Console

Please make sure that the .Net 3.5 Framework has been installed prior to setting up the Internet Information Services (IIS) – the Ajax .Net Deployment Option is dependent on this version of the Framework. Having checked the Framework version proceed to install the Ajax .Net Deployment Option. Following this install the next step is to configure IIS, please note that there are a number of versions of IIS (IIS 5.1 - Windows XP, IIS 6.0 - Windows Server 2003, IIS 7.0 - Windows Server 2008 / Windows Vista, IIS 7.5 - Windows Server 2008 R2 / Windows 7) this guide is specific to IIS 7.5 but the principles generally apply to the older versions. IIS can be accessed via 'Start' / 'Control Panel' / 'Administrative Tools' / 'Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager'.

Firstly create an application under the 'Default Web Site' by right-clicking and selecting 'Add Application'.

On the dialog that appears, give the application an 'Alias' and enter its 'Physical Path' (this can be done by using the button from which a new folder can be created – it is suggested to make a new folder under 'C:\inetpub\wwwroot\').

Pressing the 'Select …' button should show the associated 'Application pool' – this should be set to use Version 2.0 of the .Net Framework and the Integrated Pipeline mode. Also make sure for 64-bit operating systems that 'Enable 32-Bit Applications' is set to 'True' for the application pool, this can be accessed via the 'Advanced Settings'.

Deploy the Knowledge Builder application to a writeable folder and then copy the contents to the location of the alias. It should now be possible to view the application in a browser for example using 'http://localhost/ajax/ajax.html'