Exclude App_Code directory on Azure

[bill_sorensen]

Using Octopus 3.2.15, we are attempting to deploy an ASP.NET Web Forms (VB) project to an Azure Web App (using a process step).

Deployment works, but the site crashes with “The directory /App_Code is not allowed because the application is precompiled”. We have pages under App_Code that we need currently.

We do not have this problem with Web Deploy. Publishing from Visual Studio works.

We are using OctoPack. Excluding the folder appears to require a .nuspec file, but once we add we have to be explicit about which files to include, and we have a lot of folders/files. That would create significant maintenance overhead.

Another option appears to be using a PostDeploy script, but since we aren’t using a tentacle, we’re unsure how to target Azure with that. (We are using Azure deployment slots if that matters.)

What is the simplest way to deploy this through Octopus?

[Dalmiro (Dalmiro Grañas)]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for reaching out.

Before pushing files to Azure, Octopus unpacks the nuget/zip package to a temp work folder. When the files are there, you can do anything you want to them using a pre-deploy script. If you were for example to add a script that goes remove-item .\App_Code -recurse -force, It’ll delete the folder App_Code so it wont be there for Octopus to push it to azure.

If you are using the “Deploy an Azure Web App” step type (which doesn’t run on a Tentacle), you can simply add the feature “Custom deployment scripts” and add the code snippet as a pre-deploy script. See attached images for reference.

Hope that helps,
Dalmiro