Starting and stopping IIS Express programmatically

Although, it's too late, I'll provide an answer to this question.

IISVersionManagerLibrary.IISVersionManager mgr = new IISVersionManagerLibrary.IISVersionManagerClass();
IISVersionManagerLibrary.IIISVersion ver = mgr.GetVersionObject("7.5", IISVersionManagerLibrary.IIS_PRODUCT_TYPE.IIS_PRODUCT_EXPRESS);

object obj1 = ver.GetPropertyValue("expressProcessHelper");

IISVersionManagerLibrary.IIISExpressProcessUtility util = obj1 as IISVersionManagerLibrary.IIISExpressProcessUtility;

That's it. Then you can call StopProcess method on util object.

However, you have to get notice from Microsoft.

" Version Manager API (IIS Express) ; http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg418429(v=VS.90).aspx

Note: The IIS Version Manager API supports the IIS Express infrastructure and is not intended to be used directly from your code. "

This implementation works for starting/stopping IIS Express programmatically, can be used from tests.

public class IisExpress : IDisposable
{
    private Boolean _isDisposed;

    private Process _process;

    public void Dispose()
    {
        Dispose(true);
    }

    public void Start(String directoryPath, Int32 port)
    {
        var iisExpressPath = DetermineIisExpressPath();
        var arguments = String.Format(
            CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "/path:\"{0}\" /port:{1}", directoryPath, port);

        var info = new ProcessStartInfo(iisExpressPath)
                                    {
                                        WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Normal,
                                        ErrorDialog = true,
                                        LoadUserProfile = true,
                                        CreateNoWindow = false,
                                        UseShellExecute = false,
                                        Arguments = arguments
                                    };

        var startThread = new Thread(() => StartIisExpress(info))
                                 {
                                     IsBackground = true
                                 };

        startThread.Start();
    }

    protected virtual void Dispose(Boolean disposing)
    {
        if (_isDisposed)
        {
            return;
        }

        if (disposing)
        {
            if (_process.HasExited == false)
            {
                _process.Kill();
            }

            _process.Dispose();
        }

        _isDisposed = true;
    }

    private static String DetermineIisExpressPath()
    {
        String iisExpressPath;

        iisExpressPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.Is64BitOperatingSystem 
            ? Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesX86
            : Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFiles);

        iisExpressPath = Path.Combine(iisExpressPath, @"IIS Express\iisexpress.exe");

        return iisExpressPath;
    }

    private void StartIisExpress(ProcessStartInfo info)
    {
        try
        {
            _process = Process.Start(info);

            _process.WaitForExit();
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
            Dispose();
        }
    }
}

I feel you are doing it in a hard way. Take a hint from this question Automatically stop/restart ASP.NET Development Server on Build and see if you can adopt the same process.

Answering your question, I think pinvoke.net might help you. They have lot of examples as well which can help you build your solution.

Harvey Kwok had provided a good hint, since I want to tear up and tear down the service when running integration test cases. But Harvey codes is too long with PInvoke and messaging.

Here's an alternative.

    public class IisExpressAgent
{
    public void Start(string arguments)
    {
        ProcessStartInfo info= new ProcessStartInfo(@"C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Express\iisexpress.exe", arguments)
        {
          // WindowStyle= ProcessWindowStyle.Minimized,
        };

        process = Process.Start(info);
    }

    Process  process;

    public void Stop()
    {
        process.Kill();
    }
}

And in my integration test suit with MS Test, I have

       [ClassInitialize()]
    public static void MyClassInitialize(TestContext testContext)
    {
        iis = new IisExpressAgent();
        iis.Start("/site:\"WcfService1\" /apppool:\"Clr4IntegratedAppPool\"");
    }

    static IisExpressAgent iis;

    //Use ClassCleanup to run code after all tests in a class have run
    [ClassCleanup()]
    public static void MyClassCleanup()
    {
        iis.Stop();
    }

Here is my solution too. It runs IIS Express with hidden windows. Manager class controls several IIS Express instances.

class IISExpress
{               
    private const string IIS_EXPRESS = @"C:\Program Files\IIS Express\iisexpress.exe";        

    private Process process;

    IISExpress(Dictionary<string, string> args)
    {
        this.Arguments = new ReadOnlyDictionary<string, string>(args);

        string argumentsInString = args.Keys
            .Where(key => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(key))
            .Select(key => $"/{key}:{args[key]}")
            .Aggregate((agregate, element) => $"{agregate} {element}");

        this.process = Process.Start(new ProcessStartInfo()
        {
            FileName = IIS_EXPRESS,
            Arguments = argumentsInString,
            WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden                
        });
    }

    public IReadOnlyDictionary<string, string> Arguments { get; protected set; }        

    public static IISExpress Start(Dictionary<string, string> args)
    {
        return new IISExpress(args);
    }

    public void Stop()
    {
        try
        {
            this.process.Kill();
            this.process.WaitForExit();
        }
        finally
        {
            this.process.Close();
        }            
    }        
}

I need several instances. Designed manager class to control them.

static class IISExpressManager
{
    /// <summary>
    /// All started IIS Express hosts
    /// </summary>
    private static List<IISExpress> hosts = new List<IISExpress>();

    /// <summary>
    /// Start IIS Express hosts according to the config file
    /// </summary>
    public static void StartIfEnabled()
    {
        string enableIISExpress = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["EnableIISExpress"]; // bool value from config file
        string pathToConfigFile = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["IISExpressConfigFile"]; // path string to iis configuration file
        string quotedPathToConfigFile = '"' + pathToConfigFile + '"';

        if (bool.TryParse(enableIISExpress, out bool isIISExpressEnabled) 
            && isIISExpressEnabled && File.Exists(pathToConfigFile))
        {                
            hosts.Add(IISExpress.Start(
                new Dictionary<string, string> {
                    {"systray", "false"},
                    {"config", quotedPathToConfigFile},
                    {"site", "Site1" }                        
                }));

            hosts.Add(IISExpress.Start(
                new Dictionary<string, string> {
                    {"systray", "false"},
                    { "config", quotedPathToConfigFile},
                    {"site", "Site2" }
                }));

        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Stop all started hosts
    /// </summary>
    public static void Stop()
    {
        foreach(var h in hosts)
        {
            h.Stop();
        }
    }
}

No, you don't inherit the interface. You can create an instance of IISVersionManager with the new keyword. How that gets you a reference to an IIISExpressProcessUtility instance is completely unclear. The MSDN docs are awful. Maybe you can new one but it doesn't look like it supports that.

If you modify the web.config file of the web application, IIS (including Express) will restart the app pool. This will allow you to deploy updated assemblies.

One way to modify web.config is to copy it to a new file, and then move it back.

copy /Y path/web.config path/web_touch.config
move /Y path/web_touch.config path/web.config

You may want more control over IIS Express than simply restarting the app pool. But if that's all you need, this will work.

I have adopted a different solution. You can simply kill the process tree using "taskkill" and the name of the process. This works perfectly locally and on TFS 2013

public static void FinalizeIis()
{
    var startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
    {
        UseShellExecute = false,
        Arguments = string.Format("/F /IM iisexpress.exe"),
        FileName = "taskkill"
    };

    Process.Start(startInfo);
}

Figure I'd throw my solution in here too. Derived from the SeongTae Jeong's solution and another post (Can't remember where now).

1. Install the Microsoft.Web.Administration nuget.
2. Reference the IIS Installed Versions Manager Interface COM type library as noted above.

3. Add the following class:

   using System;
   using System.Diagnostics;
   using System.IO;
   using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
   using IISVersionManagerLibrary;
   using Microsoft.Web.Administration;
   
   public class Website
   {
       private const string DefaultAppPool = "Clr4IntegratedAppPool";
       private const string DefaultIISVersion = "8.0";
   
       private static readonly Random Random = new Random();
       private readonly IIISExpressProcessUtility _iis;
       private readonly string _name;
       private readonly string _path;
       private readonly int _port;
       private readonly string _appPool;
       private readonly string _iisPath;
       private readonly string _iisArguments;
       private readonly string _iisConfigPath;
       private uint _iisHandle;
   
       private Website(string path, string name, int port, string appPool, string iisVersion)
       {
           _path = Path.GetFullPath(Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, path));
           _name = name;
           _port = port;
           _appPool = appPool;
           _iis = (IIISExpressProcessUtility)new IISVersionManager()
               .GetVersionObject(iisVersion, IIS_PRODUCT_TYPE.IIS_PRODUCT_EXPRESS)
               .GetPropertyValue("expressProcessHelper");
           var commandLine = _iis.ConstructCommandLine(name, "", appPool, "");
           var commandLineParts = new Regex("\\\"(.*?)\\\" (.*)").Match(commandLine);
           _iisPath = commandLineParts.Groups[1].Value;
           _iisArguments = commandLineParts.Groups[2].Value;
           _iisConfigPath = new Regex("\\/config:\\\"(.*?)\\\"").Match(commandLine).Groups[1].Value;
           Url = string.Format("http://localhost:{0}/", _port);
       }
   
       public static Website Create(string path,
           string name = null, int? port = null,
           string appPool = DefaultAppPool,
           string iisVersion = DefaultIISVersion)
       {
           return new Website(path,
               name ?? Guid.NewGuid().ToString("N"),
               port ?? Random.Next(30000, 40000),
               appPool, iisVersion);
       }
   
       public string Url { get; private set; }
   
       public void Start()
       {
           using (var manager = new ServerManager(_iisConfigPath))
           {
               manager.Sites.Add(_name, "http", string.Format("*:{0}:localhost", _port), _path);
               manager.CommitChanges();
           }
           Process.Start(new ProcessStartInfo
           {
               FileName = _iisPath,
               Arguments = _iisArguments,
               RedirectStandardOutput = true,
               UseShellExecute = false
           });
           var startTime = DateTime.Now;
           do
           {
               try
               {
                   _iisHandle = _iis.GetRunningProcessForSite(_name, "", _appPool, "");
               }
               catch { }
               if (_iisHandle != 0) break;
               if ((DateTime.Now - startTime).Seconds >= 10)
                   throw new TimeoutException("Timeout starting IIS Express.");
           } while (true);
       }
   
       public void Stop()
       {
           try
           {
               _iis.StopProcess(_iisHandle);
           }
           finally
           {
               using (var manager = new ServerManager(_iisConfigPath))
               {
                   var site = manager.Sites[_name];
                   manager.Sites.Remove(site);
                   manager.CommitChanges();
               }
           }
       }
   }
   

4. Setup your test fixture as follows. The path is relative to the bin folder of your test suite.

   [TestFixture]
   public class Tests
   {
       private Website _website;
   
       [TestFixtureSetUp]
       public void Setup()
       {
           _website = Website.Create(@"..\..\..\TestHarness");
           _website.Start();
       }
   
       [TestFixtureTearDown]
       public void TearDown()
       {
           _website.Stop();
       }
   
       [Test]
       public void should_serialize_with_bender()
       {
           new WebClient().UploadString(_website.Url, "hai").ShouldEqual("hai");
       }
   }
   

And one more point if this is going to also run on a build server. First you will need to install IIS Express on the build server. Second, you'll have to create an applicationhost.config on the build server. You can copy one from your dev box under C:\Users\<User>\Documents\IISExpress\config\. It needs to be copied to the corresponding path of the user your build server is running as. If it is running as system then the path would be C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\Documents\IISExpress\config\.