asp.net mvc - Owin Self host & ASP .Net MVC

Question

I have an ASP .Net MVC app which works just fine under IIS. I need to be able to run the same app from a self hosted console app. How do I do that? Should I use OWIN? What the code should look like?

Answer 1

Update

Now that ASP.NET Core is out there are a few ways to Self Host a web application. One option is to use an OWIN based web server such as Nowin.

var host = new WebHostBuilder()
    .UseNowin()
    .UseContentRoot(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
    .UseStartup<Startup>()
    .Build();

Alternatively, Kestrel has also been a popular choice for hosting ASP.NET Core applications.

var host = new WebHostBuilder()
    .UseUrls("http://*:1000") // default URL
    .UseKestrel()
    .Build();

Original Answer

You cannot self host ASP.NET MVC 5 (the current version of MVC). However you can use NancyFx today or have a look at ASP.NET vNext which does support OWIN.

• NancyFx
• ASP.NET vNext (Not production ready)

Note you can also use WebApi with OWIN today if you need to make single page apps (but then it's not server side MVC).