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IIS 7.0 : Editing Configuration - Setting Configuration

4/18/2011 11:19:39 AM
To set configuration, you need to know three things: the name of the section that contains the desired configuration settings, the desired property of that section, and the configuration path at which you want to set this setting to apply (as we discussed in the previous section). You will typically know the first two from the documentation of the feature you are attempting to configure. For more information about what configuration sections are available and their format, you can consult the schema files in the %windir%\system32\inetsrv\config\schema directory.

When you know this information, you can specify the corresponding section element in the configuration file.

<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<defaultDocument ... />
</system.webServer>
<configuration>

Note the <configuration> element—this must always be the root element of any configuration file. Also, notice the <system.webServer> element—this is the section group element for the <defaultDocument> section (and all other IIS 7.0 configuration settings) that is being configured.

Configuration sections contain the properties that you intend to configure, such as defaultDocument, but you need to do more than just provide a name. You turn the default document feature on and off and provide the list of default documents using attributes or collection elements contained inside the section.

Setting Section Attributes

The majority of configuration settings are expressed via attributes, which may either be exposed on the collection element itself or in one of the child elements of the collection.

To specify a value for the attribute, you simply need to set the value of that attribute. This effectively overrides any default value or value previously set to this attribute in earlier configuration paths. Following is an example of setting the enabled value on the <defaultDocument> section.

<defaultDocument enabled="true" />

Each attribute has a specific type and may have additional validation rules associated with it in the schema definition of the section. Likewise, attributes may be given default values that are taken on by them if they are not explicitly set in configuration. This will be documented for each section to assist you in setting their values.

Manipulating Configuration Collections

In addition to attributes, configuration sections can also contain collections. Collections allow lists of items to be represented in configuration, and they support additional behaviors such as adding or removing elements in multiple configuration levels and preventing duplicate items from being added.

Collections are typically configured through three different operations: adding collection elements, removing collection elements, and clearing the collection.

Adding Items to a Collection with <add />

To add items to a collection, you typically use the <add /> element and specify the desired attribute values inside of it. For example, following is an excerpt from the <files> collection of the <defaultDocument> section specified in applicationHost.config after installation.

        <defaultDocument enabled="true">
<files>
<add value="Default.htm" />
<add value="Default.asp" />
...
</files>
</defaultDocument>

In this case, elements in the <files> collection only support a single attribute called “value”. However, collection elements are not limited to a single attribute—they can define any number of attributes, child elements, or even subcollections. In fact, each collection element has the same schema flexibility as any other configuration element or the section itself. Following is an example from the <sites> section.

        <sites>
<site name="Default Web Site" id="1">
<application path="/">
<virtualDirectory path="/
" physicalPath="%SystemDrive%\inetpub\wwwroot" />
</application>
<bindings>
<binding protocol="http" bindingInformation="*:80:" />
</bindings>
<traceFailedRequestsLogging enabled="true" />
</site>
</sites>

The <sites> section is a collection of <site> elements (notice that it uses <site> as the name for its <add> element—this is a capability provided by the IIS configuration schema that some sections take advantage of for readability). Each <site> element in turn is a collection of <application> elements, which in turn contain a collection of <virtualDirectory> elements. Each <site> element also has a <bindings> child element, which itself is a collection of site bindings.

Luckily, the <sites> section is the most complicated section on the entire IIS 7.0 configuration schema, and most other sections are a lot simpler.

Most collections enforce item uniqueness to prevent duplicate items from being added. This is done by marking one or more of the attributes allowed on the collection <add> elements as the collection key. If an item with a duplicate key is specified, the collection will trigger a configuration error when accessed.

When you add collection elements at a particular configuration level, they add to the existing elements that were inherited from a parent level. For example, the <defaultDocument> section can use this to specify a base set of default documents in applicationHost.config and then add specific default documents at the site or virtual directory levels.

The ordering of collection items inside a collection is determined by the order in which they are added. When collection items are inherited from the parent configuration levels, they are placed before the collection items specified at the current level. This is true for most collections, except for collections that elect to have a prepend order—these collections place the elements declared at the current level before elements inherited from parent levels. These include the IIS <handlers> and the ASP.NET <authorization> sections.

Removing Items from a Collection with <remove />

Because of the collection inheritance, it is sometimes necessary to remove elements that are declared at a higher configuration level. For example, you may want to remove a specific module from the <modules> configuration collection for a specific application if you do not need this module to run.

Note

If you are removing a collection element that is added at the current configuration level, you can simply delete the corresponding <add> element. Use <remove> to remove the elements that are specified by parent configuration levels.


To do this, you can use the <remove> element. Each remove element specifies the attributes that together comprise the collection key to uniquely identify the element that is to be removed. For example, following is the configuration you can use to remove “Default.asp” from the <files> collection of the <defaultDocument> section.

       <defaultDocument>
<files>
<remove value="Default.asp" />
</files>
</defaultDocument>

Clearing the Collection with <clear />

Sometimes you may want to completely clear the collection items that are defined by the parent configuration levels and specify only the items that are required. This is often done whenever the current configuration level has to have complete control over the contents of the collection and cannot inherit parent items.

This is accomplished with the <clear/> element. The <clear/> element removes all of the inherited collection items, leaving only the items that are added at the current level after the <clear/> element. The following example clears the default document collection and adds back a single element to make sure that only Default.aspx is treated as a default document.

        <defaultDocument>
<files>
<clear/>
<add value="Default.aspx" />
</files>
</defaultDocument>

Important

Be careful when using the <clear/> element, however, because it completely stops the inheritance of parent collection items to the current configuration level or its children. This means that if the administrator adds new collection items at the server level, they will not be propagated to the current level. Therefore, use <clear/> only when you want to take complete control over the contents of the collection.

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