Run servicestack side by side with another web framework

In order to avoid conflicts with your existing ASP.NET web framework it is recommended to host your ServiceStack web services at a custom path. This will allow you to use ServiceStack together with an existing web framework e.g. ASP.NET MVC 3 or FUBU MVC, etc.

The location configuration (to your root Web.config file) below hosts your webservices at custom path: /api

<configuration>
  . . . 
  <location path="api">
    <system.web>
      <httpHandlers>
        <add path="*" type="ServiceStack.HttpHandlerFactory, ServiceStack" verb="*"/>
      </httpHandlers>
    </system.web>

    <!-- Required for IIS 7.0 -->
    <system.webServer>
      <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"/>
      <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false" />
      <handlers>
        <add path="*" name="ServiceStack.Factory" 
             type="ServiceStack.HttpHandlerFactory, ServiceStack" verb="*" 
             preCondition="integratedMode" resourceType="Unspecified" allowPathInfo="true" />
      </handlers>
    </system.webServer>
  </location>
  . . . 
</configuration>

<!-- Required for MONO -->
<configuration>
  . . . 
  <system.web>
    <httpHandlers>
      <add path="api*" type="ServiceStack.HttpHandlerFactory, ServiceStack" verb="*"/>
    </httpHandlers>
  </system.web>
  <system.webServer>
    <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false" />
  </system.webServer>
  . . . 
</configuration>

Note: Due to limitations in IIS 6 - the /custompath must end with .ashx, e.g: path="api.ashx"

You also need to configure the root path in your AppHost.

public override void Configure(Container container)
{
    SetConfig(new HostConfig { HandlerFactoryPath = "api" });
}

To avoid conflicts with ASP.NET MVC add an ignore rule in Global.asax RegisterRoutes method e.g: routes.IgnoreRoute ("api/{*pathInfo}");

For MVC4 applications you also need to unregister WebApi, by commenting out this line in Global.asax.cs:

    //WebApiConfig.Register(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration);

Note: If you used Nuget to install the bits, remove the original handler from the web.config system.webserver node e.g:

<add path="*" name="ServiceStack.Factory"
    type="ServiceStack.HttpHandlerFactory, ServiceStack" verb="*" 
    preCondition="integratedMode" resourceType="Unspecified" allowPathInfo="true" />

Due to Mono bug you need to set up explicitly ASP.NET auth to 'windows' mode when using ServiceStack auth on Mono, otherwise auth will be always redirected to /login.aspx insted of getting nice 401 (invalid username or password) response.

Add to web.config under system.web section.

<!-- Required to use ServiceStack auth under Mono -->
<authentication mode="Windows" />

See also:

• Example config file for Asp.Net 3.5 in /api