'Hello World' - a starter's tutorial to mod

Apache httpd users 'Hello World' - a starter's tutorial to mod_aspdotnet

Prerequisites

The following must be already in place on your system before you can install mod_aspdotnet:

Windows NT or similar operating system: mod_aspdotnet will only run on a Windows system; for implementing asp.net applications in other environments, there is Mono. Furthermore, the Windows system must be based off of the NT kernel (Windows NT, 2000, XP, and Vista).
The .NET runtime (http://asp.net/download.aspx): .NET runtime 1.0 or 1.1 must be installed. Support for 2.0 is being considered and can be used, but that is beyond the scope of this tutorial.
Apache 2.0.x: For information on setting up your server, the Apache project provides documentation.
A simple knowledge of server configuration: This article assumes you know how to open the httpd.conf file, write lines to it, and save it (and optionally close it).

Installing mod_aspdotnet

Assuming the prerequisites above are met, go ahead and download mod_aspdotnet 2.0.0. This is a self-installing MSI; simply run it to start the automated installation process. Accept all the prompts and continue. Note again that only the Apache 2.0.x binaries are accepted in this official mod_aspdotnet release; support for httpd 2.2 binaries are being considered.

After the MSI finished its installation, the mod_aspdotnet.so module is ready to be used. Open your httpd.conf file and scroll to the end of the file. Create a new section there and copy the following code:

Basic Configuration ## Start mod_aspdotnet configuration section ##

# Load in the mod_aspdotnet module
LoadModule aspdotnet_module modules/mod_aspdotnet.so

# Add support for ASP.NET file types
AddHandler asp.net asax ascx ashx asmx aspx axd config cs csproj \
licx rem resources resx soap vb vbproj vsdisco webinfo
# Technical jargon for attaching to the ASP.NET pipeline;
# Note that the path to Windows below may be incorrect. You'll have to adjust it
# based on your system.
AliasMatch "^/(?i)aspnet_client/system_web/(\d+)_(\d+)_(\d+)_(\d+)/(.*)" \
"C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v$1.$2.$3/ASP.NETClientFiles/$4"

# Technical jargon to allow files from the ASP.NET cache
<Directory "C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v*/ASP.NETClientFiles">
Options FollowSymlinks
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

Note that the paths to Windows contained in the AliasMatch and Directory sections above may need to be corrected from the default of C:/Windows. Note that Apache uses forward slash notation ( / ) instead of the Windows default backslash notation ( \ ).

mod_aspdotnet is now ready to go. Before you can run any ASP.NET applications, however, you must mount them into Apache. The aspdotnet module is extremely powerful and can mount a number of applications without difficulty; for the purpose of this tutorial we will simply mount a sample directory. First, create the sample directory (in this article, I will use C:/helloworld). Inside that directory, create a file called HelloWorld.aspx and copy the following code into it:

HelloWorld.aspx:

<%@ Page Language="VB" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<script runat="server">

</script>

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
    <title>Hello World! - mod_aspdotnet</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>
        <% Response.Write("<h1>Hello World!</h1>")%>
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

Save this file and close it. Open httpd.conf again and scroll down the bottom. Now we will mount the application:

Mounting HelloWorld:
AspNetMount /HelloWorld "C:/HelloWorld"
Alias /HelloWorld "C:/HelloWorld"

<Directory "C:/HelloWorld" >
   Options FollowSymlinks Indexes
   AspNet files
   Order allow,deny
   Allow from all
   DirectoryIndex HelloWorld.aspx
</Directory>

The sample application is ready to run! Open up your browser, go to the sample, and view your ASP.NET masterpiece. From here, the sky is the limit! For further information on mod_aspdotnet, refer to http://httpd.apache.org/docs/trunk/mod/mod_aspdotnet.html.