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Processing an .aspx File From A Console Window, Without Using IIS

10. Jul, 2006 by admin 0 Comments

In this article you will learn how to execute an ASPX file from console.

Requirements

Platform : WIN NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 , .NET Framework Beta 2

Steps

1.Copy this code to a new file and save it as ConsoleHost.cs

// project created on 2/5/2002 at 4:43 PM
// compile csc ConsoleHost.cs /r:System.Web.dll
using System ;
using System.IO;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Hosting;
public class ConsoleHost : MarshalByRefObject // if you forget to extend this class
 // You'll get a SerializationException...!!! 
{
 public void HandleRequest( String fileName ) 
 {
 Console.WriteLine ( "The output from the {0} file" , fileName ) ;
 // Create a Worker to execute the aspx file
 HttpWorkerRequest worker = new SimpleWorkerRequest( fileName, "" , Console.Out ) ;
 // execute the page
 HttpRuntime.ProcessRequest( worker ) ;
 }

}

public class Host
{
 public static void Main(String[] args) 
 {
 ConsoleHost myHost = ( ConsoleHost )ApplicationHost.CreateApplicationHost
 ( typeof( ConsoleHost ) , "/test" ,
 Directory.GetCurrentDirectory( ) );
 foreach ( String fileName in args ) 
 {
 myHost.HandleRequest( fileName ) ;
 }
 }
}

2.Write a small ASPX file or copy this code and save it as test.aspx

<html>

<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0">
<meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
<title>Console Host</title>
</head>

3.Compile ConsoleHost.cs by typing csc ConsoleHost.cs /r:System.Web.dll
4.Execute the test.aspx by typing ConsoleHost test.aspx, Now you can see theoutput from the test.aspx file as a static html in the Console window.

Nope….I got an error…!!!!
Unhandled Exception: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: File orassembly name ConsoleHost, or one of its dependencies, was not found. File name: "ConsoleHost"

You have to create a bin directory assubdirectory to your current directory and move a copy of ConsoleHost.exe to it.Now you have two copies of ConsoleHost.exe, one in the current directory (in mycase f:/temp/test/) and another in /bin (in my case f:/temp/test/bin) directory.

Now type again ConsoleHost test.aspx, you should see an output like this,
output Processing an .aspx File From A Console Window, Without Using IIS