Portal UI Customization: Advanced

Setting Up the .NET Development Portal

This page explains how you can use Visual Studio to compile and run the UI projects, as well as create a new DLL files directly from the zipped source code files.

Note: This content applies to AquaLogic Interaction (Plumtree Portal) 6.x.  For 5.0.x development documentation, click here.

Note: This instruction set is intended for use on development machines. It is a best practice for custom development to install the portal environment on a development machine and then migrate the resulting custom DLL files to a production machine. This requires the use of an IDE such as Visual Studio; development in TextPad or another text editor is NOT SUPPORTED.

The table below lists the environment variables associated with portal applications.

Variable

Application

Default Location: 6.0

Default Location: 6.1

PT_HOME

ALI (formerly Plumtree Foundation)

C:\Program Files\plumtree

C:\bea\alui

PORTAL_HOME

Portal

C:\Program Files \plumtree\ptportal\6.0

C:\bea\alui\ptportal\6.1

SOURCE_HOME

UI Source Code

C:\ptportaluisource_60

C:\plumtree_ui_source

Software Requirements & Recommendations

Before beginning any installation, make sure you have installed the components listed in the table below.

.NET Component

Location

Notes

Windows 2003

Purchase from Microsoft

 

IIS 6.0 or above

Windows CD

Install the application using the Add/Remove Windows Components dialog box.

Portal 6.0 or 6.1 (.NET)

Portal CD, Product Center

Before beginning any development, you must install the .NET version of the portal.

Ant 1.6.2

http://archive.apache.org/dist/ant/binaries/apache-ant-1.6.2-bin.zip

 

Java 1.4.2

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html

 

Visual Studio .NET (2003), including .NET SDK Framework 1.1.4322

Purchase from Microsoft

 

Installing Portal Source Code

The UI Customization Installer (UICI) is an add-on to the Portal Installer. The UICI allows you to install UI source code, as well as Visual Studio configuration files that facilitate setting up a debugging environment. The UICI also imports the required environment variables. If you have trouble with installation, refer to the Installation and Upgrade Guide for the AquaLogic Interaction (Plumtree Foundation).

Note: Before running the UICI, you must ensure that you can successfully bring up the 6.0 .NET portal on your development system.

  1. Download the UI Customization Installer (UICI) from the Utilities & Developer Tools page in the Developer Center section of the AquaLogic User Interaction Support Center.

  2. Add the necessary environment variables to the system:

    1. Press Window and Break (or navigate to Control Panel | System).
    2. Select the Advanced tab.
    3. Click the Environment Variables button.
    4. Select New under System Variables and add the following variable:

Variable Name

Value

DOTNET_HOME

DOTNET_HOME (for example, C:\WINNT\Microsoft.NET)

  1. Launch the UICI by double-clicking the PlumtreePortalUICustomizationInstaller_v6-x.exe file.
    The UICI installs a solution file with the following projects and associated source code:

The next step is to compile the UI source code and generate the .csproj files unique to your machine.

Compiling Portal Source Code (.NET)

After you run the UICI or make changes to the source code, you must compile the UI source code and generate the .csproj files unique to your machine.

Before you compile the UI source code, verify that there is a file called PlumtreeFoundation_silent.properties in your PT_HOME directory. This file should have already been installed by the portal installer.

Follow these instructions to compile the portal UI source code using Ant. You must follow this procedure whenever you make changes to your UI source code.

  1. Once you have configured Ant, launch the Visual Studio .NET command prompt by clicking Programs | Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 |Visual Studio .NET Tools| Visual Studio .NET 2003 Command Prompt.

  2. Navigate to the directory where you installed the UI source code (i.e., C:\ptportaluisource_60 for 6.0 or C:\plumtree_ui_source for 6.1).

  3. Change the directory to SOURCE_HOME\portalui\6.0.x\ for 6.0 or SOURCE_HOME\portalui\6.1.x\ for 6.1.

  4. Execute the following command to build the product: ant build  

    Note:     If you are asked to configure a silent.properties file, follow the instructions.

  5. Execute the following command to generate the project and solution files for your specific installation:
    ant vstudio      

    Note    : If you use a version of Ant prior to 1.6.2, the correct files will not be generated.

  6. Execute the following command: ant install.

The next step is to debug the compiled source code.

Next: Debugging the Portal Source Code