a section registered as allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' beyond application level

Question

After adding the assebly of System.Data.Entity to my web config I got this error: It is an error to use a section registered as allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' beyond application level. This error can be caused by a virtual directory not being configured as an application in IIS.

I have deleted the obj and bin folders, I removed the line authentication="windows", tried to reopen as some has said it worked, I have checked that there is only 1 web.config within the main folder (Entity Framework - Folder for forms, model, DAL and BLL)...

What other reasons is there that this will happen? I searched everywhere and it's basically the above reasons I found....

This is my web.config if it makes a difference:

    <configuration>
  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="ApplicationServices"
     connectionString="data source=.\SQLEXPRESS;Integrated Security=SSPI;AttachDBFilename=|DataDirectory|\aspnetdb.mdf;User Instance=true"
     providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
    <add name="CStringVKB" connectionString="Data Source=.;Initial Catalog=VKB;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=websiteservice;Password=websiteservice" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
  </connectionStrings>
  <system.web>
    <compilation debug="true" optimizeCompilations="true" targetFramework="4.0" >
      <assemblies>
        <add assembly="System.Data.Entity, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" />
      </assemblies>
    </compilation>
    <!--<authentication mode="Windows">
      <forms loginUrl="~/Account/Login.aspx" timeout="2880" />
    </authentication>-->
     <membership>
      <providers>
        <clear/>
        <add name="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider" connectionStringName="ApplicationServices"
         enablePasswordRetrieval="false" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="false" requiresUniqueEmail="false"
         maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="5" minRequiredPasswordLength="6" minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0" passwordAttemptWindow="10"
         applicationName="/" />
      </providers>
    </membership>
    <profile>
      <providers>
        <clear/>
        <add name="AspNetSqlProfileProvider" type="System.Web.Profile.SqlProfileProvider" connectionStringName="ApplicationServices" applicationName="/"/>
      </providers>
    </profile>
   <roleManager enabled="false">
      <providers>
        <clear/>
        <add name="AspNetSqlRoleProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider" connectionStringName="ApplicationServices" applicationName="/" />
        <add name="AspNetWindowsTokenRoleProvider" type="System.Web.Security.WindowsTokenRoleProvider" applicationName="/" />
      </providers>
    </roleManager>
  </system.web>
  <system.webServer>
     <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"/>
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>

What can I do to solve this?

Chris Noreikis Chris Noreikis · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-24T16:26:09

Basically, the error means that there is a web.config file in one of your subfolders that has a configuration element that it should not have. Is this you root/only web config file? If not, could you please post those as well?

Also, it sounds stupid, but I would double check that you're opening the website itself in your IDE (and not mistakenly opening a parent folder) I have seen people spend a couple hours trying to debug this same error, when all along they weren't in the right directory.

Here is a good explanation on how the web.config hierarchy is set up for ASP that will help you visualize how this works: http://scottonwriting.net/sowblog/archive/2010/02/17/163375.aspx

a section registered as allowDefinition='MachineToApplication' beyond application level

3 Answers