Aurelia does not load on azure, due to HttpPlatformHandler?

Asked By: Anonymous

I’m using ASP.NET Core RC1 as server to host my Aurelia app. My app was working just fine but the last couple of weeks something changed so that the app does no longer load when hosted on Azure. I’m not sure if it is something I changed or if it’s a change on the Azure side but I’m leaning towards the latter.

I’ve narrowed down the problem quite a bit. The app runs fine locally, with ASP.NET Core Kestrel server and also other servers (e.g. webpack-dev-server). I have continuous deployment setup from Visual Studio Team Services to an Azure Website. The app is published and a web.config is automatically created in my wwwroot:

<configuration>
  <system.webServer>
    <handlers>
      <add name="httpplatformhandler" path="*" verb="*" modules="httpPlatformHandler" resourceType="Unspecified" />
    </handlers>
    <httpPlatform processPath="%home%siteapprootweb.cmd" arguments="" stdoutLogEnabled="true" stdoutLogFile="\?%home%LogFilesstdout.log"></httpPlatform>
  </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Nothing happens when I navigate to my site, e.g. http://demo.azurewebsites.net/. When looking at the console I get a 404. Once I actually got this error but I can’t seem to bring it back: 502 – Web server received an invalid response while acting as a gateway or proxy server

I have index.html set as default document but it is not loading. If I enter it explicitly, the app works: http://demo.azurewebsites.net/index.html

If I remove the httpplatformhandler from the web.config, then it works as expected (index.html is loaded automatically). The same happens when I remove the web.config entirely. In these cases the MVC 6 WebAPI behind the scenes does not work at all. I assume that’s just logical since I remove the platform handler.

So, why is this httpplatformhandler added? Is it necessary? Why is it created? Is there some setting in the Azure portal that I can adjust to prevent this handler to be configured like this?

I also found this link that seems to suggest that things are changing and that this httpplatformhandler is about to be replaced: Closer Look: Hosting ASP.NET Core on Azure App Service

I’m out on deep water here and any and all help is appreciated.

Solution

Answered By: Anonymous

To get default document support with the static file server middleware you need to use app.UseFileServer() instead of app.UseStaticFiles()