Licensing a Web Application - *NOT* a WebSite Project

[icecrew]

Hi,

I build an ASP.NET Web Application Project using other 3rd party components. These components use .NET Licensing just like yours. I was able to successfully deploy my app to a production server - up until the point where I started to use your components. The documentation suggests two scenarios:

1. Distribute the App_Licenses.dll file with my app.
2. Precompile the app.

Option 1 does not apply to me since my project is a web application and *not* a website. There is no "Build Runtime Licenses" context menu, it appears that menu is applicable only for websites.

Apologies for asking what may seem like an obvious question ... but ... am I correct in concluding that I simply cannot deploy a web application project using your components unless I precompile it?

Thanks.

[icecrew]

Ok I answered my question, sorry for wasting time here. Yes you can deploy a web application project that uses the Devart components without precompiling the app. After banging my head against the wall for hours, I decided to try my deployment on another server (Win2K server) and it worked - flawlessly. I am still baffled why I am getting a ProviderException on the Win2k3 server tho. Without changing anything at all, the same app works perfectly on the Win2K server, but blows up on the Win2k3 box ... hmmmmmm ...

[Shalex]

1. If your project is ASP.NET Web Application (not Web Site), there should be created only licenses.licx file in the root directory (without generating App_Licenses.dll). Please refer to http://www.devart.com/dotconnect/postgr ... nsing.html.
2. Please post here the exact text of the error you are getting in your deployment environment. The deployment article is here.

[icecrew]

Hi again.

The error message wasn't very detailed. It was a ProviderException and the message was "An exception occurred. Please contact your network administrator". This occurred when I made a call to Membership.ValidateUser.

In reading over the help document I realized something that I overlooked, my licenses.licx file was not in the root folder. Visual Studio automatically creates this file under the "My Projects" sub-folder the Solution Explorer. In addition to this, VS hides this file by default. I had to select the "Show All Files" button at the top of the Solution Explorer then drag the licenses.licx file to the root folder of the solution. After I rebuilt the app and re-deployed, it worked.

May I suggest that the License tool be updated to warn the user if the licenses.licx file is not found under the root folder?

Thanks for the help.

[Shalex]

1. If you get a high level exception that doesn't provide enough information, there should be a way to get inner exception and call stack to identify the reason of the problem: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... 80%29.aspx.

2. I cannot reproduce the problem with putting licenses.licx that resides in a wrong place.
Please give us the following information:
a) the version of your dotConnect for PostgreSQL. You can find it in the Tools | PostgreSQL | About menu of Visual Studio;
b) the version of your Visual Studio ( the Help | About menu of Visual Studio);
c) the exact steps from scratch to reproduce your scenario with licenses.licx in a wrong place:
- What is your "My Projects"?
- You created the ASP.NET Web Application project, and it was placed into a default solution. Is this correct?
- How can I enforce Visual Studio to create license.licx implicitly in this case and where should I look for license.licx?
- What information does the Tools | PostgreSQL | About window contain when the problem exists?

Thank you for your assistance.