Compilation errors when trying to use ServiceStack Razor plugin with cshrml at root of site

Question

I am currently having some issues getting the ServiceStack Razor to render my page at the root of the site. I am encountering the following error

Compiler Error Message: CS0246: The type or namespace name 'ViewPage' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) public class @__CompiledTemplate : ViewPage {

I just started on the site and here are the contents of the web.config and the razor pages

Here is the web.config file at the root of the website

<!--
  For more information on how to configure your ASP.NET application, please visit
  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=169433
  -->

<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
      <section name="host" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
      <section name="pages" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorPagesSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
    </sectionGroup>
  </configSections>

  <system.web>
    <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.5">
      <assemblies>
        <add assembly="System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
      </assemblies>
      <buildProviders>
        <add extension=".cshtml" type="ServiceStack.Razor.CSharpRazorBuildProvider, ServiceStack.Razor" />
      </buildProviders>
    </compilation>
      <httpRuntime targetFramework="4.5" />
    <httpHandlers>
      <add path="*" type="ServiceStack.WebHost.Endpoints.ServiceStackHttpHandlerFactory, ServiceStack" verb="*"/>
    </httpHandlers>
  </system.web>

  <!-- Required for IIS 7.0 (and above?) -->
  <system.webServer>
    <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false" />
    <handlers>
      <add path="*" name="ServiceStack.Factory" type="ServiceStack.WebHost.Endpoints.ServiceStackHttpHandlerFactory, ServiceStack" verb="*" preCondition="integratedMode" resourceType="Unspecified" allowPathInfo="true" />
    </handlers>
  </system.webServer>

  <system.web.webPages.razor>
    <host factoryType="System.Web.Mvc.MvcWebRazorHostFactory, System.Web.Mvc, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
    <pages pageBaseType="ServiceStack.Razor.ViewPage">
      <namespaces>
        <add namespace="ServiceStack.Html" />
        <add namespace="ServiceStack.Razor" />
        <add namespace="ServiceStack.Text" />
        <add namespace="ServiceStack.OrmLite" />
        <add namespace="FERNSWeb" />
      </namespaces>
    </pages>
  </system.web.webPages.razor>

</configuration>

Here is the default.cshtml file at the root of the site

@inherits ViewPage
This is the body

and the _Layout.cshtml at the root of the site

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <title>FERNS - @ViewBag.Title</title>
</head>
<body>
    @RenderBody()
</body>
</html>

The intellisense does not colorize the "ViewPage" entry in the "@inherits ViewPage" line in the default.cshtml And when i change the line to "@inherits ServiceStack.Razor.ViewPage", intellisense colorizes the ViewPage entry, but I get a exception this time and not a compilation error.

Exception Details: System.InvalidCastException: Unable to cast object of type 'Razor.__CompiledTemplate' to type 'System.Web.IHttpHandler'.

[InvalidCastException: Unable to cast object of type 'Razor.__CompiledTemplate' to type 'System.Web.IHttpHandler'.] System.Web.WebPages.WebPageHttpHandler.CreateFromVirtualPath(String virtualPath, VirtualPathFactoryManager virtualPathFactoryManager) +56 System.Web.WebPages.WebPageRoute.DoPostResolveRequestCache(HttpContextBase context) +264 System.Web.WebPages.WebPageHttpModule.OnApplicationPostResolveRequestCache(Object sender, EventArgs e) +89 System.Web.SyncEventExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() +136 System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +69

The weird part is, if i move the Default.cshtml and the _Layout.cshtml file a Views folder I created for testing, the page renders just fine under the "/views" url. The Views folder does not have a web.config file in it.

Vish Vish · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-27T16:56:37

Just solved the problem i was having above. I had to add the following to the root web.config file to have it work

  <appSettings>
    <add key="webPages:Enabled" value="false" />
  </appSettings>

Not sure that I completely understand why though. Is the default value for "webPages:Enabled" different for the web.config under root and the web.config for folders? That is the only explanation I could think of for this one.

Compilation errors when trying to use ServiceStack Razor plugin with cshrml at root of site

1 Answers