Finally there after attempts at setting website

It has a been a turbulent yet productive start of the year in 2025, I have finally got this website (mashtheweb.com) back up again. A lot of to and froing (is the last word and actual word, seems like so!)in trying to diagnose why the website which was initially published in Azure in the Umbraco 10 framework was not loading properly and that I couldn't log as admin into the Umbraco backend, which wasn't a great start. So I had to work out if I can just do an database update on the existing website which , turns out installing even in Umbraco 13, doesn't allow the database upgrade automatically, it throws this error which involves manipulating the actual SQL database. In the log file, it shows as: -

{"@t":"2025-01-08T17:36:27.4447844Z","@mt":"Exception ({InstanceId}).","@l":"Error","@x":"Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0x80131904): Invalid column name 'isContainer'.\r\n at Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection, Action1 wrapCloseInAction)\r\n at Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection, Action1 wrapCloseInAction)\r\n .....

Not very useful at all! Therefore, I had to resort to a vanilla complete install of Umbraco 15 from scratch to thus also keeping the old database in the background but not utilizing it (hopefully the Azure costs remains low!)

A thing to note from the Umbraco website, production only , here is something useful to know about the Models mode taken from the Umbraco documentation.

Models mode

Specifies how the models builder will generate models and when to generate them. The options are:

• Nothing - The modelsbuilder will not generate any models, this means that all views will use IPublishedContent, instead of strongly typed models.

• InMemoryAuto - Models will automatically be generated each time a content type change occurs, and will then be compiled, and loaded into memory dynamically. This means that the models are only available in views, however they will be available instantly.

• SourceCodeManual - Models will be generated as .cs files whenever a user clicks the "Generate models" button on the models builder dashboard - however, the models will not be compiled and loaded into memory dynamically. This means that models are available to edit within the project. The project needs to be recompiled and restarted for the new models, or model changes, to take effect.

• SourceCodeAuto - This mode behaves the same as SourceCodeManual with one difference, the generation of models happens automatically every time a content type change occurs.

The website then couldn't just work with the Content Models missing, which I then commented all the models code just to ensure the VS project compiles, which it did once I got the home website at least working under Production mode with using the above reference within the appsettings.json.

"Umbraco": {
  "CMS": {
    "ModelsBuilder": {
      "ModelsMode": "Nothing"
    }
  }
}

After skittering through articles the next day, I found that the Content Models in the Umbraco backend had to be generated, from the local machine , not on the website deployment itself, the code with the help of Github had generated the actual model content files as seen in the screenshot below: -

Happy days!

Next day, I had skittered around again in setting up the optimum setup which This then works in Development Mode as in Production Mode it doesn't work with the logs showing the error below : -

{"@t":"2025-01-08T19:39:26.4929763Z","@mt":"Runtime mode validation failed for Production:\nUmbraco application URL needs to be set in production mode.","@l":"Error","SourceContext":"Umbraco.Cms.Infrastructure.Runtime.RuntimeState","ProcessId":24580,"ProcessName":"w3wp","ThreadId":1,"ApplicationId":"ea6c9907b5dfb977abd279e5dd977d85f29f78cb","MachineName":"WEBWK00000E","Log4NetLevel":"ERROR"}

With Production set to Nothing in the ModelsMode for Models Builder, it cannot , I may be missing a trick here but the Content Models need to be placed onto bister deployment first as Nothing will not load any of the Content Models and the website will appear blank.

Anyway, It is currently present which is the below in the appsettings.json.

"Umbraco": {
  "CMS": {
    "ModelsBuilder": {
      "ModelsMode": "SourceCodeManual",
      "ModelsNamespace": "Umbraco.Cms.Web.Common.PublishedModels",
      "FlagOutOfDateModels": false,
      "ModelsDirectory": "~/umbraco/models",
      "AcceptUnsafeModelsDirectory": false,
      "DebugLevel": 0
    }
  }
}

Finally the website back up again and I am contented :D!