How to set default static web page for Katana/Owin self hosted app?

Question

I\'ve set up a web site using an Owin self hosted console app. I\'m serving static files with no problem, the \'root\' of the static part of the site works properly, and th

Answer 1

a more detailed version of fra's answer:

1- NuGet to install Microsoft.Owin.StaticFiles (I assumed you already installed Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi.OwinSelfHost via NuGet)

2- Create a single directory in your solution (in Visual Studio), and put all your client files in it, e.g.

+Web

--+images

--+pages

------page1

------page2

--+scripts

--+css

---index.html

Note: there is a root directory (web) that contains all other directories, and the index.html under the root directly.

3- Now, in the same class that contains your web api routing configuration, add the following code:

var physicalFileSystem = new PhysicalFileSystem(@".\Web"); //. = root, Web = your physical directory that contains all other static content, see prev step
var options = new FileServerOptions
{
    EnableDefaultFiles = true,
    FileSystem = physicalFileSystem
 };
 options.StaticFileOptions.FileSystem = physicalFileSystem;
 options.StaticFileOptions.ServeUnknownFileTypes = true;
 options.DefaultFilesOptions.DefaultFileNames = new[] { "index.html" }; //put whatever default pages you like here
 appBuilder.UseFileServer(options);

4- One more step for the prev code to work: make sure to set the Copy to output directory property of all files in Web directory (and all nested directories) is set to Copy Always [select the file | press F4, or right-click then properties | go to Copy to output directory]

That's all :)