Mathias Kunto's blog

EPiServer’s ContentReference.StartPage is an empty reference when lacking binding

I was setting up a new port for SSL on my local development machine for added security on a client’s EPiServer 7.5 website when I stumbled across an exception that was not all at once obvious. I set up a new https binding in the IIS along with a self signed certificate; my normal unsecure site continued to respond just fine to calls on http://localhost:17002/ after this. However, when I tried accessing it through https://localhost:17004/, which was what I had selected for SSL I got hit with the parameter-does-not-have-a-value exception below.

NOTE: Also see Ted Nybergs comment about scheduled jobs below.

Message: The provided content link does not have a value. Parameter name: contentLink

StackTrace:
at EPiServer.DataFactory.Get[T](ContentReference contentLink, ILanguageSelector languageSelector)
at EPiServer.DataFactory.Get[T](ContentReference contentLink)
at Xxxxx.Web.Helpers.ResultFilters.PageContextActionFilter .OnResultExecuting(ResultExecutingContext filterContext) in c:\Projekt\MyProject\Xxxxx.Web\Helpers \ResultFilters\PageContextActionFilter.cs:line 80
at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker .InvokeActionResultFilter(IResultFilter filter, ResultExecutingContext preContext, Func`1 continuation)
at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker .InvokeActionResultFilter(IResultFilter filter, ResultExecutingContext preContext, Func`1 continuation)
at System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker .InvokeActionResultWithFilters(ControllerContext controllerContext, IList`1 filters, ActionResult actionResult)
at System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncControllerActionInvoker.<>c__DisplayClass25.b__22(IAsyncResult asyncResult)
at System.Web.Mvc.Controller.<>c__DisplayClass1d.b__18(IAsyncResult asyncResult)
at System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncResultWrapper.<>c__DisplayClass4.b__3(IAsyncResult ar)
at System.Web.Mvc.Controller.EndExecuteCore(IAsyncResult asyncResult)
at System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncResultWrapper.<>c__DisplayClass4.b__3(IAsyncResult ar)
at System.Web.Mvc.Controller.EndExecute(IAsyncResult asyncResult)
at System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.<>c__DisplayClass8.b__3(IAsyncResult asyncResult)
at System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncResultWrapper.<>c__DisplayClass4.b__3(IAsyncResult ar)
at System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.EndProcessRequest(IAsyncResult asyncResult)
at System.Web.HttpApplication.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web .HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute()
at System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously)

After some debugging it turned out that it was EPiServer’s ContentReference.StartPage that was not set correctly; it was just empty.

EPiServer ContentReference.StartPage is not set when there is a binding missing.

The solution for this is really rather simple. Turns out that I had forgot to set the corresponding host name binding in EPiServer’s admin mode. Adding an entry containing the proper https port number fixed it right up.

EPiServer website hostnames.

Mathias Kunto

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7 responses to “EPiServer’s ContentReference.StartPage is an empty reference when lacking binding”

  1. Good tip!

    You may run into similar problems in scheduled jobs. One way around it is to add a wildcard binding (“*”) for your default site.

    That will then be your default site definition (as in SiteDefinition.Current.StartPage or ContentReference.StartPage) when there’s no current site, or outside of web requests.

  4. So glad I found this post!
    “*” solved our problems with a scheduled job.