ServiceStack httpHandlers not loading - asp.net-mvc-4

Question

BaseLine: ServiceStack sample works for me in a stock MVC 4 app. I am using the variant, followed all the instructions in the readme, no problems.
Plugin Framework
I am building a plugin framework for MVC and servicestack.net is one of the plugins, that being all the assemblies are plugins which get loaded, using BuildManager.AddReferencedAssembly(assembly);
BuildManager.AddCompilationDependency(assembly.FullName);
All the ServiceStack dlls are found and successfully loaded from my personal shawdowFolder.
webconfig:
<location path="api">
<system.web>
<httpHandlers>
<add path="*" type="ServiceStack.WebHost.Endpoints.ServiceStackHttpHandlerFactory,ServiceStack" verb="*" />
</httpHandlers>
</system.web>
<!-- Required for IIS 7.0 -->
<system.webServer>
<modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true" />
<validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false" />
<handlers>
<add path="*" name="ServiceStack.Factory" type="ServiceStack.WebHost.Endpoints.ServiceStackHttpHandlerFactory,ServiceStack" verb="*" preCondition="integratedMode" resourceType="Unspecified" allowPathInfo="true" />
</handlers>
</system.webServer>
</location>
*NOTE: I am calling from Application_Start AppHost.Init(), and I can step it so ServiceStack is truly loaded and usable before the ASP.NET app goes into full swing.*
On first launch: /api/metadata results in:
Server Error in '/' Application.
The resource cannot be found.
Description: HTTP 404. The resource you are looking for (or one of its dependencies) could have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please review the following URL and make sure that it is spelled correctly.
Requested URL: /api/metadata
Stopping the debugger and simply relaunching, which deletes all assemblies from my personal shawdowFolder, copies them, loads them, references them, results in.
A working ServiceStack.net
StarterTemplate ASP.NET Host
The following operations are supported. For a formal definition, please review the Service XSD.
etc.
I suspect that this problable has to do with .NET's shadowfolder and appdomain, but perhaps it is something with ServiceStack. Where would I find logs to see if ServiceStacks httphanderfactory is having problems.

Answer 1

I Changed my config as follows :
SetConfig(new EndpointHostConfig
{ ServiceStackHandlerFactoryPath = "ss"}
and my config :
<system.webServer>
<modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true">
<add type="DevExpress.Web.ASPxClasses.ASPxHttpHandlerModule, DevExpress.Web.v13.1, Version=13.1.4.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b88d1754d700e49a" name="ASPxHttpHandlerModule" />
<add name="FormsAuthenticationDisposition" type="ServiceStack.ServiceInterface.SuppressFormsAuthenticationRedirectModule, ServiceStack.ServiceInterface" />
</modules>
<handlers>
<add type="DevExpress.Web.ASPxUploadControl.ASPxUploadProgressHttpHandler, DevExpress.Web.v13.1, Version=13.1.4.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b88d1754d700e49a" verb="GET,POST" path="ASPxUploadProgressHandlerPage.ashx" name="ASPxUploadProgressHandler" preCondition="integratedMode" />
<add type="DevExpress.Web.ASPxClasses.ASPxHttpHandlerModule, DevExpress.Web.v13.1, Version=13.1.4.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b88d1754d700e49a" verb="GET" path="DX.ashx" name="ASPxHttpHandlerModule" preCondition="integratedMode" />
<add path="ss*" name="ServiceStack.Factory" type="ServiceStack.WebHost.Endpoints.ServiceStackHttpHandlerFactory, ServiceStack" verb="*" preCondition="integratedMode" resourceType="Unspecified" allowPathInfo="true" /></handlers>
<validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false" />
<security>
<requestFiltering>
<requestLimits maxAllowedContentLength="30000000" />
</requestFiltering>
</security>
</system.webServer>
Now I have to type in the following to get to my servicestack area : http://localhost/ss/
My take on what is going wrong is that mvc/asp.net forms/ servicestack each needs one entry point to map its handler to an url route, servicestack is overriding the url route for "/" your MVC project hence no resources is found.
Thus in my application I used to seperate entries points:
*http://localhost/* .... is my normal entrypoint for webforms (in your case MVC4[stock])
http://localhost/ss .... is my servicesstack entrypoint
If you are using the MVC razor engine you won't run into this.