Visual Studio 2017 Enable SSL

Question

How do you enable SSL for a project in Visual Studio 2017?

In VS15, I could select Project -> Properties -> Debug -> Enable SSL. This option is not available in VS2017. Where has it moved to?

Edit:

I've even tried editing .\vs\config\applicationhost.config to no avail:

        <listenerAdapters>             <add name="http" />             <add name="https" />         </listenerAdapters>          <sites>             <site name="WebSite1" id="1" serverAutoStart="true">                 <application path="/">                     <virtualDirectory path="/" physicalPath="%IIS_SITES_HOME%\WebSite1" />                 </application>                 <bindings>                     <binding protocol="http" bindingInformation=":8080:localhost" />                 </bindings>             </site>             <site name="Filters" id="2">                 <application path="/" applicationPool="Clr4IntegratedAppPool">                     <virtualDirectory path="/" physicalPath="c:\Users\Ashley\documents\visual studio 2017\Projects\Filters\src\Filters" />                 </application>                 <bindings>                     <binding protocol="http" bindingInformation="*:51107:localhost" />                     <binding protocol="https" bindingInformation="*:43107:localhost" />                 </bindings>             </site>             <siteDefaults>                 <logFile logFormat="W3C" directory="%IIS_USER_HOME%\Logs" />                 <traceFailedRequestsLogging directory="%IIS_USER_HOME%\TraceLogFiles" enabled="true" maxLogFileSizeKB="1024" />             </siteDefaults>             <applicationDefaults applicationPool="Clr4IntegratedAppPool" />             <virtualDirectoryDefaults allowSubDirConfig="true" />         </sites>          <webLimits /> 

Edit:

Another option I've tried, which just feels clunky, and kind of defeats the point of an IDE, is to configure Kestrel to use HTTPS. This isn't ideal since I had to export a copy of a certificate for localhost from IIS, and IIS Express still tries to load the site on a different port.

public class Program {     public static void Main(string[] args)     {         var host = new WebHostBuilder()             .UseKestrel(options =>                 options.UseHttps(new X509Certificate2("path/to/cert.pfx", "password")))             .UseContentRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())             .UseUrls("http://localhost:5100", "https://localhost:4300")             .UseIISIntegration()             .UseStartup<Startup>()             .Build();          host.Run();     } } 

Sadly, this doesn't work when run from VS17. The first time around I got a 502.2 (I think) error, now all I get is an unable to connect error in Chrome. I can run dotnet run from PowerShell and it works fine.

As a workaround, it does the trick. But it doesn't seem neat.

Answer 1

Ports are locked down in IIS Express so that it doesn't have to be run as Administrator...

Valid Ports are 44300 - 44399

Check out the Dev Community article https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/39430/changing-port-number-in-a-web-project-does-not-imm.html

You can edit launchSettings.json, but the ssl ports must fall in this range.