CSS files are not showing on server - ASP.NET MVC Bundles error. 403 - Forbidden: Access is denied

Question

My MVC 4 application works fine on my local computer.

However, the CSS files are not working after I publish (are not affecting the layout of the website).

I can see CSS the files are on the server.

When I look at the source code, I can see

<link href="/Content/css?v=fxCdHAOgPDvcROxkMfEwGQggO9uCfzckN3PaN8BOIzI1" rel="stylesheet"/>

where as on my local computer, the source code shows as

<link href="/Content/css/myFile.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<link href="/Content/css/myFile02.css" rel="stylesheet"/>

So, in the source code view on the server, I clicked on Content/css?v=fxCdHAOgPDvcROxkMfEwGQggO9uCfzckN3PaN8BOIzI1 and the browser took me to a 403 - Forbidden: Access is denied.

I am adding the CSS files with the BunldeConfig.cs class

    public class BundleConfig
    {
        // For more information on Bundling, visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=254725
        public static void RegisterBundles(BundleCollection bundles)
        {
            bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/bundles/javascript").Include(
                        "~/Scripts/1.9.1.js",
                        "~/Scripts/jTools.js",
                        "~/Scripts/script.js"
                        ));

            bundles.Add(new StyleBundle("~/Content/css").Include(
                "~/Content/Css/website.css", 
                "~/Content/Css/banner.css", 
                "~/Content/Css/reusable.css",
                "~/Content/Css/lists.css",
                "~/Content/Css/tooltip.css",
                "~/Content/Css/overlay.css"
                ));


        }
    }

My question is, assuming this isn't an IT issue with the server (it has been working fine until recently) is there something wrong with my code?

Answer 1

Your problem is that you are using ~/Content/css as a bundle alias in new StyleBundle("~/Content/css"), while this path actually exists.

So when you are requesting <link href="/Content/css?...> you are essentially asking for a directory listing and that is forbidden.

Try using something else, like new StyleBundle("~/Content/styles").

NOTE: If you do use something like ~/Content/styles as an alias you may have issues with relative urls in your .css files. It may seem odd, but you may better use something like ~/Content/Css/someAlias

Answer 2

In the section of <system.web>of your root web.config file , the debug mode is not included. when you publish your application it does not include the debug attribute. So you include the following code:

<compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.5"> instead of <compilation targetFramework="4.5"> in your web.config file.

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