Internet Information Services (IIS)

Laserfiche WebLink works with Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) to provide access to the documents in the Laserfiche repository. WebLink requires Internet Information Services 8 or above. This section of the documentation describes some of the additional configuration that may be necessary.

Note: If you have an http redirect configured for your IIS site, and you upgrade or install a new version of WebLink, you will have to reconfigure the redirect for the new WebLink virtual directory. It will not inherit the existing redirect settings by default. Installing or upgrading WebLink will not change the default IIS settings.

Installing Required IIS Features

IIS offers a wide variety of configuration options, so the exact features you install may depend on your organization's needs. In addition to the features required for basic Web server functionality, make sure the following features are installed.

Features:

  • Static content
  • ASP.NET 4.5
  • Windows Authentication

To install these features

Note: The following instructions are for Windows Server 2012. Instructions will be similar but not identical on other versions of Windows. See Microsoft TechNet for information on other versions of Windows.

  1. Open Programs and Features.
  2. Select Turn Windows features on or off. The Add Roles and Features Wizard will open. Click Next.
  3. In the Installation Type step, select Role-based or feature-based installation. Click Next.
  4. In the Server Selection step, select the server you want to configure. Click Next.
  5. In the Server Roles step, expand Web Server (IIS) and Web Server and select the following features:
    • Static content (located under Common HTTP Features)
    • ASP.NET (located under Application Development)
    • Windows Authentication (located under Security)
  6. Click Next and proceed through the rest of the wizard.
  7. Restart if prompted.

Changing the Default Virtual Directory

The WebLink installation process automatically creates an IIS virtual directory for the WebLink website. A virtual directory points to the physical location where Laserfiche WebLink is actually installed. The virtual directory acts as the name of the URL that a user would specify to access WebLink. For example, the virtual directory name for a default WebLink installation is "WebLink." This means that to access the WebLink website, a user would specify "http://YourWebserverAddress/WebLink." If you would like to use a different name for your Laserfiche WebLink virtual directory, use IIS Manager to create a new virtual directory with the desired name.

Note:  The following instructions are for Windows Server 2012. Instructions will be similar but not identical on other versions of Windows. See Microsoft TechNet for information on specific versions of Windows and IIS.

  1. Open the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
  2. Expand the server name, then the Sites folder.
  3. Right-click Default Web Site and select Add Virtual Directory...
  4. In the Alias option, type a name for the virtual directory. This is the name the user will type in the URL.
  5. In the Physical path step, type or browse to the physical directory where Laserfiche WebLink is installed.
  6. Click OK to create your virtual directory.

After creating the new virtual directory, you should add Login.aspx as the default document and ensure the directory security on the new virtual directory is correct.

  1. Open the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
  2. Expand the server name, then the Sites folder.
  3. Expand Default Web Site and right-click the new virtual directory you created.
  4. In the center pane, open Default Document.
  5. Click Add in the Actions pane on the right.
  6. Type Login.aspx in the Add Default Document dialog box.
  7. Click OK.

Some organizations want employees and public users to log in to WebLink in different ways. To do this, a second virtual directory must be created. This will ensure employees log in, for example, using Windows Authentication, while the public is logged in automatically as a specified Laserfiche user.

  1. Navigate to the folder containing the WebLink site files. By default, this folder is: C:\Program Files\Laserfiche\WebLink\WebLink\Web Files.
  2. Copy the Web Files folder to a new location\directory on the same server. For example C:\Program Files\Laserfiche\WebLink2.
  3. Open Internet Information Services (IIS) and expand Sites, then click Default Website.
  4. Right-click on Default Website and select Add Application.
  5. Choose an alias for the new instance. For example, WebLink2.
  6. Click Select next to Application Pool then click WebLinkAppPool.
  7. Set the Physical Path to the location of the Web Files were copied to in step 2.
  8. Click OK.
  9. In the new application, double-click Default Document.
  10. In the Actions pane on the right, click Add….
  11. Enter Welcome.aspx (or the preferred default page) in the Name field, then click OK.
  12. Ensure this new entry is at the top of the list.
  1. Navigate to the directory for the new site’s files (see step 2 under To create a second virtual directory above) and open the web.config file.
  2. Locate <system.identityModel.services> (on or near line 171), then find the cookieHandler node.
    • Change the path value of the cookiehandler node to match the new site’s Alias. For example, <cookieHandler requireSsl="true" name="LFAuth" path="/WebLink2” />
  3. Save the changes to the web.config file.
  4. Verify Windows Authentication is Enabled in the application’s IIS Authentication settings.
  1. In the WebLink Designer, click Register at the top left of the page.
  2. Select the new site created under To create a second virtual directory above, and click OK.
  3. Configure the new WebLink instance.
    • Use the new site's Alias in the Laserfiche WebLink Host URL.
    • For example, ServerName/WebLink2/

Configuring the .NET Trust Level in IIS

In Internet Information Systems (IIS), an application's Trust level determines the permissions that are granted to it by .NET code access security (CAS) policy. By default, IIS is configured with Full trust, meaning that unrestricted permissions are granted to applications. In order for WebLink to function correctly, IIS must be configured with Full trust.

To configure the .NET Trust level to Full in IIS

  1. Open the Internet Information Systems (IIS) Manager.
  2. In the Connections pane, expand the server name, then expand Sites.
  3. Expand Default Web Site, then select WebLink.
  4. Double-click .NET Trust levels.
  5. From the Trust level drop-down menu, select Full (internal).
  6. Click Apply.