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

I do it this way:

var physicalFileSystem = new PhysicalFileSystem(webPath);
var options = new FileServerOptions
                          {
                              EnableDefaultFiles = true,
                              FileSystem = physicalFileSystem
                          };
        options.StaticFileOptions.FileSystem = physicalFileSystem;
        options.StaticFileOptions.ServeUnknownFileTypes = true;
        options.DefaultFilesOptions.DefaultFileNames = new[] { "index.html" };
        appBuilder.UseFileServer(options);

Answer 2

Maybe this late answer could help any other :) I just had the same problem with a SelfHost Owin app.

The solution I found is implementing a class from IFileSystem interface that encapsulates a PhysicalFileSystem class (which also implements from IFileSystem).

public class WebPhysicalFileSystem : IFileSystem
{
    private PhysicalFileSystem InnerFileSystem { get; set; }
    private string Default { get; set; }

    public WebPhysicalFileSystem(string root, string defaultFile = "index.html")
    {
        InnerFileSystem = new PhysicalFileSystem(root);
        Default = defaultFile;
    }

    public bool TryGetDirectoryContents(string subpath, out IEnumerable<IFileInfo> contents)
    {
        if(InnerFileSystem.TryGetDirectoryContents(subpath, out contents))
        {
            return true;
        }

        string defaultPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(InnerFileSystem.Root, Default);
        return InnerFileSystem.TryGetDirectoryContents(defaultPath, out contents);
    }

    public bool TryGetFileInfo(string subpath, out IFileInfo fileInfo)
    {
        if (InnerFileSystem.TryGetFileInfo(subpath, out fileInfo))
        {
            return true;
        }

        string defaultPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(InnerFileSystem.Root, Default);
        return InnerFileSystem.TryGetFileInfo(defaultPath, out fileInfo);
    }
}

And in the app:

var options = new FileServerOptions
{
    EnableDefaultFiles = true,
    FileSystem = new WebPhysicalFileSystem("yourRoot");
};

Answer 3

In my case, I was missing the

<handlers>
    <add name="AspNetStaticFileHandler" path="*" verb="*" type="System.Web.StaticFileHandler" />
</handlers>

In system.webServer part of my web.config.

Answer 4

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 :)

Answer 5

Maybe it's a late answer, but if you need just a default document, less code will work:

builder.UseDefaultFiles(new DefaultFilesOptions
{
    DefaultFileNames = Enumerable.Repeat("index.html", 1).ToList()
});

It should be called before builder.UseStaticFiles for whatever reason.

Version of Microsoft.Owin.StaticFiles is 3.0.1