Hi Alexander,

After more thought, this seems a very good idea to handle this error as it improves the setup experience.

If setting up a site on a remote host, previously the user would have to check the error log because the error is not displayed, only the friendly error page was shown. This was bad because new users may have no idea about the existence of the error log. Installing on a local machine was ok because the error message shown is clear.

Now the user will be directed to the setup page instead and shown an error message that they need to check the connection string. The raw error message will also be displayed to help diagnose the problem with the connection string.

This is implemented in svn.

Thanks,

Joe

Yeah I struggled with that decision because it defeats the purpose of the friendly error page in hiding the error details from possible hackers.

It would be nice to show it if we can be sure its just during setup but I don't know a way to know this if the db is not available.

So I can remove the stack trace and error detail but I can't solve the original problem without redirecting to the setup page. I think its ok to see the setup page if the database is unavailable as that is a narrow kind of error but I agree its probably better not to show the error detail.

Any user can currently go to the /Setup/Default.aspx page or the /Setup/Upgrade.aspx page if they navigate there.
There is nothing particularly sensitive displayed there other than version info

Maybe I should add a Web.config setting AllowNavigationToSetup which would default to true, but after installation it could be set to false and we could either re-direct to the error.htm or to AccessDenied unless the user is logged in as admin.

What do you suggest?

Joe

Well one thing I like about being able to go to setup page even when setup is complete is that I have had support incidents where the site was working fine then somehow folder permissions changed and the site no longer works.

The setup page will show these problems if they exist so its nice to have the option to go there, I don't want to force redirect to home unless its a configured option.

Also with the Upgrade.aspx page there is special functionality that is only apparent in certain situations.
For example, if the site is upgraded an attempt to run the upgrade scripts will be made but in a hardened security installation it may not be possible to run the script using the connection string so there is an option if this is detected so that a different connnection string can be entered if the existing one has insufficient permission.

For example, I may create my MS SQL db tables and procs as sa but then I may create a user which only has permission to exec stored procedures and has no direct table permission. In this case the upgrade cannot happen automatically so the upgrade page allows the user to try a different connection string. If ssl is available ssl is forced in this situation.

Yes, I know I need to document these things ;-) I need a secretary

Joe