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Wednesday, June 19, 2013PrintSubscribe
Tools for Excel–Enhanced App Generator Detection

Tools for Excel release 1.0.8.2 will correctly detect the app generator installed with “For Everyone” option. Install this update if you are receiving an instruction to download Code On Time even though it is installed on your computer.

App generator will not perform check for new releases when launched from Tools for Excel.

Monday, June 17, 2013PrintSubscribe
How to Configure CKEditor

Client library uses HTMLEditorExtender control to provide rich text editing capabilities. The rich text editor can be enabled for a data field using the Text Mode property. The picture below shows rich text editor enabled on the Description field of Categories controller.

Default Ajax Control Toolkit rich text editor control.

The popular open source WYSIWYG text editor CKEditor can be enabled as a replacement.

First, download a copy of CKEditor. There are multiple versions with different features and licensing terms that can be downloaded at http://ckeditor.com/download. Every download package contains “ckeditor” folder. Extract the folder to the root of your project output.

Copying the ckeditor folder into the project folder.

Deployment with Web App and Azure Projects

Note that for Web App Factory projects, the folder must be copied to WebApp folder. Azure Factory projects must have the folder placed in WebRole1 folder.

Copying the ckeditor folder into the 'WebApp' folder of a Web App Factory project.

In addition, Web App and Azure Factory projects must have the folder included in the solution to ensure that ckeditor is published along with the application files. The following instructions explain the process.

Click on the project name on the home screen of the generator and press Develop to start Visual Studio.

At the top of Solution Explorer, click on Show All Files.

Activating 'Show All Files' button in the Solution Explorer.

Right-click on the ckeditor folder that appeared and press Include In Project.

Including the ckeditor folder in the project.

On the menu, press File | Save All to save changes.

Regenerating the Project

Switch back to the app generator. Proceed to regenerate the web application. The generator will detect the presence of the ckeditor folder and automatically reconfigure the code to link ~/ckeditor/ckeditor.js to the pages. The client library will use CKEditor for rich text fields when the corresponding JavaScript type is available.

Navigate to the Categories page, and start editing a record. CKEditor will now be used instead. The example below shows CKEditor 4.1.2 Standard.

CKEditor control has replaced the standard rich text editor control.

Note that if you are trying multiple versions of CKEditor to preview its capabilities, make sure to clear the browser cache every time the files are replaced.

Sunday, June 16, 2013PrintSubscribe
Multiple Databases

Multiple database services are common in the modern business environment. Code On Time generator has the capability to tie this data together in a single web application.

In this example, DB1 holds the Categories and Products tables of an web-based order management system. DB2 holds the Suppliers table used by the purchasing department. You can see the database schemas in the picture below.

The schemas for databases DB1 and DB2.

Suppose that business requirements demand displaying vendor information next to the product name. We would like to add fields in Products to capture information from the Supplier, as well as allow access to information about Suppliers, all in the same application.

How do we overcome the physical separation of DB1 and DB2?

Take a look at the default web app generated from DB1 below. You will see that two pages have been created for Categories and Products, respectively. We will need to add Suppliers to this web app as well.

Categories and Products are available in the DB1 database.

Code On Time Generator does not support generation from multiple databases. Creating an application that handles different data sources will require a combined sample database that you can generate from. After the web app is created, you can change the connection strings to connect the remote data. In this example, it would be easiest to add the Suppliers table to DB1. Also, add SupplierID and SupplierCompanyName to the Products table. These fields, while not foreign keys in the database, will capture information from DB2 when we set them up as lookups.

Adding Suppliers Table to DB1

Start SQL Server Management Studio. In the Object Explorer, right-click on Databases / DB1 / Tables node, and press New Table.

Adding a new table to database DB1.

Assign the following values:

Column Name Data Type Allow Nulls
SupplierID int no
CompanyName nvarchar(50) no
ContactName nvarchar(50) yes
ContactTitle nvarchar(50) yes
Address nvarchar(50) yes
City nvarchar(50) yes
Region nvarchar(50) yes
PostalCode nvarchar(50) yes
Country nvarchar(50) yes
Phone nvarchar(50) yes
Fax nvarchar(50) yes
HomePage ntext yes

Press Ctrl+S to save the table. Assign the table a name of “Suppliers”.

Entering the name for 'Suppliers' table.

In the Object Explorer, right-click on Databases / DB1 / Tables / dbo.Products table node, and press Design.

Designing the Products table of database DB1.

Add the following columns:

Column Name Data Type Allow Nulls
SupplierID int yes
SupplierCompanyName nvarchar(50) yes

Save the table. Switch back to the app generator, click on the project name, and press Refresh.

Check the boxes next to Products controller and dbo.Suppliers table, and click Refresh.

Refreshing Products and Suppliers tables.

Proceed to regenerate the application.

When complete, notice that the Suppliers page has been added to the web app. However, there are no suppliers to be found. We will need to change the connection string for the Suppliers controller.

No suppliers are present in DB1 database.

Adding a Second Connection String

Switch back to the app generator. Click on the project name, and press Settings. Click on Web Server Configuration.

In the Web.Config modification instructions textbox, add the following:

AppendChild: /configuration/connectionStrings
<add name="DB2" connectionString="Data Source=.;Initial Catalog=DB2;Integrated Security=True;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />

Press Finish to skip to the Summary page. Click Design to activate the Project Designer. In the Project Explorer, switch to the Controllers tab and double-click on Suppliers controller node.

The Suppliers controller selected in the Project Explorer.

Change the Connection String Name property:

Property Value
Connection String Name DB2

Press OK to save.

Configuring Cross-Database Lookups

Double-click on Products / Fields / SupplierID node.

SupplierID field in the Products controller.

Make the following changes:

Property Value
Items Style Lookup
Items Data Controller Suppliers
Data Value Field SupplierID
Data Text Field CompanyName
New Data View createForm1
Copy SupplierCompanyName=CompanyName

Press OK to save. At the top of the Project Browser window, switch to the Data Fields tab. Assign an Alias of “SupplierCompanyName” to all SupplierID data fields.

Setting the Alias of SupplierID data fields to 'SupplierCompanyName'.

In the Project Explorer, double-click on Products / Fields / SupplierCompanyName (String(50)) node.

SupplierCompanyName field selected from the Products controller.

Switch to the Data Fields tab. Mark all data fields as hidden.

Marking the SupplierCompanyName data fields as hidden.

Viewing the Results

On the toolbar, press Browse. Navigate to the Products page, and start editing a record. Click on the SupplierCompanyName lookup – a list of suppliers will be displayed.

The lookup displays a list of suppliers.

Select a supplier. The ID will be inserted into the field, but the name will be displayed.

The Supplier lookup displays the Company Name.