Configuring IIS on the user's machine through code C#

Question

I configured a website to run locally on IIS for use on my machine. My desktop application has something use with this locally running website for some operations.

There are the steps I followed to configure the website

Use IIS Manager to configure a web application pointed at a directory. (C:\somefolder):
Start > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
Expand the left-hand tree view and right-click on "Default Web Site".
Select "Add Application".
Set the "Alias" to "sampleweb"
Click the "Select" button and choose the "ASP.NET 4.0" application pool.
Set the "Physical path" to the directory - C:\somefolder.
Click "OK".
Use IIS Manager to configure a virtual directory pointed at another directory (C:\somefiles).
Start > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
Expand the left-hand tree view and right-click on "Default Web Site".
Select "Add Virtual Directory".
Set the "Alias" to "somefiles".
Set the "Physical path" to the directory - C:\somefiles.
Click "OK".

So, when I distribute the application, I want to be able to set up a local server on the user's machine, and perform the above stesp in IIS.
I have been able to do the setting up of local server part, but I am confused with on how to perform the above stesp programmatically on the user's machine to get the website running.
Any suggestions? I'm on Windows 7 64 bit IIS7

Do you need IIS or you need ASP.NET to be run and serving up requests? In the latter case you can simply start the ASP.NET subsystem within any .NET application. — Peter Aron Zentai, Apr 12 '12 at 08:56

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 12 '12 at 09:01

8

Take a look at the Microsoft.Web.Administration namespace - it contains managed classes to manage all aspects of IIS, including the configuration you are talking about.

The Microsoft.Web.Administration namespace contains classes that a developer can use to administer IIS Manager. With the classes in this namespace, an administrator can read and write configuration information to ApplicationHost.config, Web.config, and Administration.config files.

You can use these classes in your C# code or from PowerShell.

answered Apr 12 '12 at 09:01

Oded

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Start by creating an instance of Microsoft.Web.Administration.ServerManager – Stephen Oberauer Jun 18 '12 at 14:19
Start from ensuring IIS and Microsoft.Web.Administration installed http://stackoverflow.com/a/29211817/173073 – Dzmitry Lahoda Mar 24 '15 at 11:10

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 12 '12 at 09:07

3

Read this Creating Sites and Virtual Directories in IIS and this Using IIS Programmatic Administration i hope this will help

answered Apr 12 '12 at 09:07

Likurg

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There is more up to date information for IIS 7 and above http://www.iis.net/learn/manage/scripting/how-to-use-microsoftwebadministration – Dzmitry Lahoda Mar 24 '15 at 11:12

Configuring IIS on the user's machine through code C#

2 Answers2