Evolutility.org 4.1
 

Installation

Because Evolutility is "generic" and metadata-driven, you will only need one single web control for all the different applications built with it.

Installing the download

  1. Copy the directory "EvolutilityWeb" which contains the web site to your web server.
  2. Attach the database (located in the "App_Data" directory of the web site).
  3. If necessary, Change the database connection string in the "appSettings" section of the Web.config file (or in every ASPX page).

Integrating Evolutility in your web site

To add Evolutility applications to your web site you will need the following files:

Assemblies

Bin
Evolutility.UIServer.dll - Evolutility Web control
Evolutility.DataServer.dll - Http handler for dependent fields
Evolutility.Toolbar.dll - Toolbar (optional)

 

Client-side resources

Evol.css - Stylesheet
PixEvo
JS
lang - Translations
EvolUtility.js - Javascript library
EvolDate.js - Widget for dates
nicEdit - Rich Text Editor
EvolUI.gif - Sprites for UI elements

 

Web.Config file

The following are the necessary Web.Config entries for Evolutility.

<configuration >
<appSettings />
<add key="SQLConnection" value="YOUR_DATABASE_CONNECTION" />
</appSettings>
...
<system.web >
<httpHandlers />
<add verb="*" path="evolutility.aspx" type="Evolutility.DataServer.DataServer,Evolutility.DataServer" />
</httpHandlers>
</system.web >
...
</configuration >

 

Database pre-requisites

Before running Evolutility you will need to run the SQL scripts coming with the download. These scripts contain the necessary database objects for Evolutility.

More information on Evolutility database pre-requisites.

Accessing the component definition (metadata)

Each application component is linked to an XML document. You must create a directory on the server to store your XML files and use the control property XMLFile to specify the path to it's metadata. 

Example: XMLFile= "XML/addressbook.xml"

Embedding the Control into the Page

To embed the control, you will copy the control DLL into the bin directory of your web application and add two lines of code to your page. The first line registers the control tag prefix (place this at the top of the page):

<%@ Register TagPrefix ="EVOL" Namespace="Evolutility" Assembly="Evolutility.UIServer" %>

The second line embeds the Evolutility control (place anywhere within the page):

<EVOL:UIServer id = "Evo1" runat = "server"
    XMLfile= "xml/Customers.xml"
    VirtualPathToolbar = "PixEvo"
... />

With Visual Studio .Net, you can use drag & drop to embed the control into your page. This option requires that the control has been added to the Toolbox. To add a control to the Toolbox, perform the following steps:

  1. Open an .ASPX page in Design view, and make the Web Forms tab active in the Toolbox.
  2. Right-Click the Toolbox, click Add/Remove Items...
  3. In the Customize Toolbox dialog box click the Browse button on the lower right below the components list.
  4. Navigate to the directory that contains the assembly into which your controls are, and click the name of that assembly (for example, C:\Evolutility\Evolutility.UIServer.dll).
  5. Click OK to close the dialog box. The control now appears in the Toolbox under the Web Forms tab.