Adding simple custom schema to IIS Configuration

Let's see if I can get 2 blog posts written in the same month!  :) 

As I was talking last post, our team had an app-building week (everyone will see the results over the next couple months; there were some VERY cool tools that I'm excited for people to see).  I wanted to document part of my journey on getting a custom schema added. 

One thing that I noted is that it's important to make sure your schema file is well-formed XML, or all sorts of tools will choke in various ways. 

I looked at the existing iis_schema.xml for examples of various elements that I could use.   Also, this IIS.net article is extremely helpful in getting started:  http://www.iis.net/articles/view.aspx/IIS7/Extending-IIS7/Extending-IIS7-Configuration/Extending-IIS7-Schema-and-Accessing-the-custom-sec 

I ended up creating this schema:

<configSchema>
  <sectionSchema name="ENC-Pony">
    <attribute name="CanIHaveAPonyPlease" type="bool" defaultValue="false" />
    <attribute name="YesResponse" type="string"  defaultValue="Yes, you can have a pony" />
    <attribute name="NoResponse" type="string"  defaultValue="No, you cannot have a pony" />
    <element name="ponies">
      <collection addElement="add" >
        <attribute name="PonyLocationType" type="enum" defaultValue="AsciiFile">
          <enum name="AsciiFile" value="0" />
          <enum name="ImageFile" value="1" />
          <enum name="HttpLink" value="2" />
        </attribute>
        <attribute name="value" type="string" validationType="nonEmptyString" />
      </collection>
    </element>
  </sectionSchema>
</configSchema>

I wanted to automate adding my custom Section to the IIS config system, so I saw that MVolo has a tool to do just that; it works great.  It's really just adding one line to applicationhost.config, but it's easier said than automated. 

The line that needs to be added to the <configSections> element is:

        <section name="ENC-Pony" overrideModeDefault="Allow" allowDefinition="Everywhere" />

Here is the iisschema.exe tool which will let you add this line item automatically. 

http://mvolo.com/blogs/serverside/archive/2007/08/04/IISSCHEMA.EXE-_2D00_-A-tool-to-register-IIS7-configuration-sections.aspx 
http://www.harbar.net/archive/2007/08/08/IISSCHEMA.EXE--A-tool-to-register-IIS7-configuration-sections.aspx

At this point, I could read and write configuration through tools like appcmd and the rest of the configuration stack (including the UI Configuration Editor module). 

The next post will be how to develop a managed module that runs in the IIS pipeline. 

Comments

1. » Adding simple custom schema to IIS Configuration
   October 31, 2007

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2. Mike Volodarsky
   November 1, 2007

   Hey Dave,

   Glad to hear its working for you!  Adding the section declaration is really a very simple task, but without an automated way to do it, its a very big nuisance :)

   The cool thing about iisschema.exe is the ability to automatically install the schema file and register ALL of the sections in it in applicationHost.config in a single shot, so you dont need to worry about how to do any of the steps and just get to using your config section.

   iisschema.exe /install myschemafile.xml

   Then you are good to go and use all of the sections you created right away.

   Looking forward to see the module!

   Thanks,

   Mike
3. ca domain name » Adding simple custom schema to IIS Configuration
   November 1, 2007

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4. software configuration management » Adding simple custom schema to IIS Configuration
   November 6, 2007

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5. http://blogs.iis.net/davcox/archive/2007/10/31/adding-simple-custom-schema-to-iis-configuration.aspx
   April 14, 2008

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