what is the function of webpages:Enabled in MVC 3 web.config

Question

I just started a new MVC 3 project. Can anyone tell me what

<add key="webpages:Enabled" value="false" />

in my web.config file does?

Hemphill

blogs.msdn.com/b/marcinon/archive/2011/01/13/… – Selhorst

It would be helpful to note what happens if this is set and you attempt to browse a .chstml file. You get the error "This type of page is not served." Spent hours on this one :/ #12534105 – Hegumen

Answer 1

webPages:enabled with value false prevents .cshtml or .vbhtml files in the Views folder from being directly accessible from a web browser.

Oldtimer

Actually it prevents them from being access directly regardless of where they reside in the application. In the views folder, in the root, in a different folder... doesn't matter you get the same error. The type of page you have requested is not served because it has been explicitly forbidden – Fala

Isn't that what the "BlockViewHandler" configuration is for? What is the difference? – Definitive

Sorry, running a Nancy project on Mono and this setting appeared via nuget. So I wonder, is this an IIS thing, and MVC 3 thing, or which part of the stack actually consumes this setting? – Azaleeazan

I'm not allowed to see Views by default, but if i add this setting and set it to false, they are now parsed and attempted to be viewed. – Megaphone

WebPages:Enabled enables it whether the value is true or false, the default value is null. – Megaphone

Answer 2

According to documentation it prevents .cshtml and .vbhtml files from being accessed directly (www.myweb.com/views/home/index.cshtml for example)

Leffert

I've been searching, but can't find a reference where this is explained. What I'd specifically like to know is what is the effect of omitting <add key="webpages:Enabled" value="???"> entirely. Is the default true or false? – Maratha

So I've dug into the source code and the default value is actually null - meaning that webpages are enabled if application contains any *.cshtml or *.vbhtml files. Checking for files can be either disabled by setting this value to true or false. You can see for yourself here. – Millibar

According to which documentation? – Dependence

Answer 3

To allow Razor pages to be served, it's not enough to set <add key="webpages:Enabled" value="true" />. You also need to add the Microsoft.AspNet.WebPages package to packages.config using NuGet.

Neiman