Host And Publish .NET Core 6 Web API Application On IIS Server

Introduction

Basically, Internet Information Service (IIS) is the flexible and general-purpose web server provided by Microsoft that will be run on Windows and used to serve requested files.

Required Tools

• IIS Manager
• .NET Core SDK 6
• Visual Studio 2022

Let’s start

Step 1. Create a new .NET Core Web API Project.

Step 2. Configure your new project.

Step 3. Provide additional information like .NET Framework Version, Open API, and HTTPS

Step 4. Project Structure

Step 5. Create the Product Controller and add one endpoint inside that class and also check other files that are created by default

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
namespace WebAPI.Controllers {
    [Route("api/[controller]")]
    [ApiController]
    public class ProductsController: ControllerBase {
        [HttpGet]
        [Route("list")]
        public IDictionary < int, string > Get() {
            IDictionary < int, string > list = new Dictionary < int, string > ();
            list.Add(1, "IPhone");
            list.Add(2, "Laptop");
            list.Add(3, "Samsung TV");
            return list;
        }
    }
}

Program.cs file

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
// Add services to the container.
builder.Services.AddControllers();
// Learn more about configuring Swagger/OpenAPI at https://aka.ms/aspnetcore/swashbuckle
builder.Services.AddEndpointsApiExplorer();
builder.Services.AddSwaggerGen();
var app = builder.Build();
// Configure the HTTP request pipeline.
if (app.Environment.IsDevelopment() || app.Environment.IsProduction()) {
    app.UseSwagger();
    app.UseSwaggerUI();
}
app.UseHttpsRedirection();
app.UseAuthorization();
app.MapControllers();
app.Run();

Here also, you can see we configure the HTTP request pipeline for both Development and Production Environment.

WebAPI.csproj file

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Swashbuckle.AspNetCore" Version="6.2.3" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

launchSetting.json file

{
  "$schema": "https://json.schemastore.org/launchsettings.json",
  "iisSettings": {
    "windowsAuthentication": false,
    "anonymousAuthentication": true,
    "iisExpress": {
      "applicationUrl": "http://localhost:11254",
      "sslPort": 44315
    }
  },
  "profiles": {
    "WebAPI": {
      "commandName": "Project",
      "dotnetRunMessages": true,
      "launchBrowser": true,
      "launchUrl": "swagger",
      "applicationUrl": "https://localhost:7047;http://localhost:5047",
      "environmentVariables": {
        "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT": "Development"
      }
    },
    "IIS Express": {
      "commandName": "IISExpress",
      "launchBrowser": true,
      "launchUrl": "swagger",
      "environmentVariables": {
        "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT": "Development"
      }
    }
  }
}

Step 6. Run your application and hit the API endpoint using Swagger UI

Step 7. Check your all IIS Services are running on your system properly or not. If not, then open the control panel go to the program and features, and click on Turn Windows Feature on or off

Apply the changes as I showed you in the above image. Click on apply and then restart your computer

Step 8. After restarting your computer will see IIS Manager in the search box and open it.

Now, check your running IIS using localhost in the browser

Step 9. Install ASP.NET Core 6.9 Runtime – Windows Hosting Bundle Installer

• Windows hosting bundle installer

Step 10. Now, we are going to publish our application for that; right-click on WebAPI Project and click on Publish

As you see, it will take the default path, so change that path to c:\inetpub\wwwroot\publish after creating the publish folder over there

Step 11. Here you can see all the configurations related to publishing, like path and some environmental variables, and later on, click on Publish

Step 12. Open IIS Manager and create a new Web Application after right click on the sites

Step 13. Click on Web API, and on the right side, you can see the browse option, so click on that and open the application inside the browser

Step 14. In the browser, when you hit the Web API endpoint using Swagger, then will see the following list of products as an output

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed .NET Core 6 Web API hosting and publishing related things using IIS and things related to that step-by-step. I hope you understand all things.

Happy Coding!