The WebSiteConfiguration utility sets a number of configuration options. A number of different actions are performed which will be described a little later on from a more technical perspective. The application on a number of settings, which can be made through the visual user interface and then stored to an XML file.

The XML Configuration File

The general idea is that you always run the application once in Windows mode to create the XML configuration file. When you exit the application all the settings are written to the XML configuration file. The file stores all path information in relative path format, which is relative to the running EXE file. This is so when the application and config file get moved for installation on a new machine the relative paths should still be valid. Thus you can create an installation on your local machine and move those settings to the server and run it there to simply commit these settings there.

A typical configuration file may look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<WebConfiguration xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
   <MSDEServerName>(local)</MSDEServerName>
   <ShowVisualStudioConfiguration>false</ShowVisualStudioConfiguration>
   <ShowMSDEConfiguration>false</ShowMSDEConfiguration>
   <ShowDirectoryPermissionConfiguration>true</ShowDirectoryPermissionConfiguration>
   <Virtual>
      <AnonymousUserName />
      <AuthNTLM>true</AuthNTLM>
      <AuthAnonymous>true</AuthAnonymous>
      <AuthBasic>true</AuthBasic>
      <DefaultDocuments>default.htm,default.aspx,default.asp</DefaultDocuments>
      <DomainName>localhost</DomainName>
      <ApplicationPool>Classic .NET AppPool</ApplicationPool>
      <DotNetVersion>2.0.50727</DotNetVersion>
      <ErrorMessage />
      <ServerType>IIS6</ServerType>
      <Virtual>wwHoverPanel</Virtual>
      <Path>.</Path>
      <FriendlyName />
      <IISPath>IIS://localhost/W3SVC/1/ROOT</IISPath>
   </Virtual>
   <ScriptMaps />
   <VisualStudioSolutionPath />
   <VisualStudioWebProjectWebPath />
   <DirectoryPermissions>
      <DirectoryPermission>
         <Pathname>.</Pathname>
         <Username>IUSR</Username>
         <UserRights>R</UserRights>
         <InheritSubDirectories>true</InheritSubDirectories>
         <OverrideExistingRights>false</OverrideExistingRights>
      </DirectoryPermission>
      <DirectoryPermission>
         <Pathname>.</Pathname>
         <Username>NETWORKSERVICE</Username>
         <UserRights>F</UserRights>
         <InheritSubDirectories>true</InheritSubDirectories>
         <OverrideExistingRights>false</OverrideExistingRights>
      </DirectoryPermission>
   </DirectoryPermissions>
   <ApplicationName>Web Configuration Utility</ApplicationName>
   <MSDELoginMode>SQLServer</MSDELoginMode>
</WebConfiguration>

The XML file contains all the information available in the UI. In addition, the XML file also contains a couple of additional flags that let you configure the operation of the application. These settings can only be modified after the XML file has been created. They are:

<ApplicationName>Web Store Configuration</ApplicationName>

which lets you configure the caption of the application.

<ShowVisualStudioConfiguration>true</ShowVisualStudioConfiguration>
<ShowMSDEConfiguration>false</ShowMSDEConfiguration>
<ShowDirectoryPermissionConfiguration>true</ShowDirectoryPermissionConfiguration>

These three settings allow you to control which pages are displayed or rather not displayed. By default all pages are displayed.