To Whom It May Concern --
I was able to resolve my problem (see end of this post) with the help
of Juan T. Llibre, Peter Bromberg and Alvin Bruney. I'm posting a
summary of what the problem was, and how I solved it, in case anybody
else happens across this post.
1) The error message I saw occurred because I had two Web.config files
in my application: one in the root folder (which is OK), and one in a
subfolder (which was causing the problem). Here's what my problematic
Web.config file looked like:
========================================================================
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
<appSettings/>
<connectionStrings/>
<system.web>
<compilation debug="true"/>
<authentication mode="Windows"/>
</system.web>
</configuration>
========================================================================
2) Everything looks correct. However, I make use of the <compilation>
and <authentication> elements, which is where the "
allowDefinition='MachineToApplication'" error message comes from. At
Juan T. Llibre's direction, I opened up the machine.config file for the
version of the .NET Framework v2.0 I was using: for me, that file was
located at [
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\CONFIG\machine.config ].
I then did a string search in that file for [
allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" ], at which point I came across
the following lines of code:
========================================================================
<section name="authentication" type="<snip>"
allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" />
....
<section name="compilation" type="<snip>"
allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" />
========================================================================
3) You'll notice that the "name" property of each of those sections ([
name="authentication" ], [ name="compilation" ] matches the name of
the elements from my Web.config file ( <authentication>, <compilation>
). MSDN documentation (
http://tinyurl.com/y9lyc4 , "allowDefinition >
MachineToApplication" section ) gave me a bit more information about
what that "MachineToApplication" value means:
========================================================================
MachineToApplication - Allows the section to be configured in one of
the following files:
- Machine.config.
- Root Web.config.
- Web.config for an application.
This excludes Web.config files in virtual directories or a physical
subdirectory in the application.
========================================================================
4) The solution, which Juan T. Llibre ended up providing me, was to
remove the <compilation> and <authentication> elements from the
Web.config file in the subdirectory BELOW THE ROOT FOLDER. In my case,
I didn't have a reason to keep that file, so I deleted it, but here's
what it would have looked like:
========================================================================
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
<appSettings/>
<connectionStrings/>
<system.web>
</system.web>
</configuration>
========================================================================
Thanks to everybody who helped walk me through this Scooby-Doo mystery
over the course a full workday. I really appreciate the help!
-= Tek Boy =-
