Monthly Archives: July 2010

ASPDOTNETSTOREFRONT Excel Import error Ignoring bad/duplicate CategoryRef

If you are trying to do a bulk product import into ASPDNSF and come across the following error

Ignoring bad/duplicate CategoryRef, Name=

This is usually solved in one of two ways.

First, you have a malformed XPATH (category) field. The proper syntax is /category name 1/category name 2/subcategory name 1

for example, /Sports/All types of balls/Basketballs

NOTE: You do not need to manually create the categories in the admin interface. If you’ve formed the categories properly as above, the system will auto-create the categories during the import process. This is a real timesaver.

Second, this import error message can also be triggered if the “PRODUCT SKU’s” are duplicated in the import file. Please check your import data carefully to ensure that you don’t have duplicate SKU numbers for the same category (or at all). Good business practices dictate that you have a unique sku for each product.

First access on ASPDOTNETSTOREFRONT on a W2K8 R2 server…

Ok, so you’ve completed your install of ASPDNSF 9.x onto a Windows 2008 R2 server, and when you first try to access the domain, you get this error:

Server Error in ‘/’ Application.


Configuration Error

Description: An error occurred during the processing of a configuration file required to service this request. Please review the specific error details below and modify your configuration file appropriately.

Parser Error Message: Could not load file or assembly ‘System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

Source Error:

 Line 244:        <add assembly=”System.Configuration, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B03F5F7F11D50A3A” />Line 245:        <add assembly=”System.Configuration.Install, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B03F5F7F11D50A3A” />

Line 246:        <add assembly=”System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089″ />

Line 247:        <add assembly=”System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089″ />

Line 248:        <add assembly=”System.Data.DataSetExtensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089″ />

Source File: C:\Websites\www.whatevermysiteisnamed.com\www\web.config    Line: 246

Assembly Load Trace: The following information can be helpful to determine why the assembly ‘System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089’ could not be loaded.

 WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF.To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1.

Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging.

To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].

 


Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.4927; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.4927

What to do???

This is an easy fix. 

Go to Start-> Administrative Tools -> Server Manager – > Features ->Add Feature and ADD .NET Framework 3.5.1 Features

ASPDOTNETSTOREFRONT Proper Permissions under Windows 2008 server

I hope this is of help to anyone trying to get a current version (meaning 8.x or 9.x) of ASPDOTNETSTOREFRONT running on a Microsoft Windows 2008 server, or Windows 2008 R2 Server. One issue that we have experienced that is not documented or explained well are the permissions for certain directories you need to configure for the app to properly run. The official documentation from ASPDNSF is here, but I have not had any success in my setups getting the application to function properly. When I use the settings below the app works properly and can accept image uploads from the admin interface, etc.

You need to grant the following permissions to the directories below:

AddIns
Images
web.config (file in root directory)

{servername}\IIS_IUSRS (Read, Write, and Modify access)

so if your server box name is webserver1, you would grant webserver1\IIS_IUSRS the Read, Write, and Modify access permissions.

The official documentation from ASPDNSF specifies “Network Service” instead of IIS_IUSRS, but I have never been able to get the app to work properly using that permission.  It does seem to work properly with the permission above.

DISCLAIMER: Please do these AT YOUR OWN RISK. We accept NO responsiblity for the integrity of your server. I am just relaying my experiences with the installation and use process of this ASPDNSF application.

Exporting IIS 7 web site settings…

Well, now that Microsoft is shipping Windows 2008 Server R2, we need to know how to (easily) migrate a site from one W2K8R2 machine to another, right?  Microsoft didn’t exactly make this an easy process because there is no built-in method in the IIS 7.0 GUI to do the site export.  So to do the export (and import on another IIS 7 box), you need to drop to a command line and run the following commands:

EXPORT site from IIS 7 (Windows 2008 R2 server)

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\AppCmd.exe LIST SITE "www.yoursitenamehere.com" /config /XML > D:\mysitesconfiguration.xml

IMPORT site into IIS 7.0 (after you have created the above export XML file…)

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\AppCmd.exe ADD SITE /IN < D:\mysitesconfiguration.xml

The last step is to create a new application pool and assign this IMPORTED site to the new application pool.

NOTES:  It is very important that you run this from a command prompt, not the “start bar box” on the Start Menu in Windows 2008 R2 Server.  Instead run the command prompt as Administrator and do this command by keying it in, or create a batch file and execute it as the administrator on that machine.