patterns & practices: Web Client Software Factory Contrib

New Post: Modular Sitemaps / Pageflows

pshort — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:48:25 GMT

Hi guys,

Sorry Ive delayed with this so much! I have been searching for a way to get this code out to whoever wants a look and for the time being anyway stuck it in a project on codeplex : HERE
At the moment its just a quick dump so its probably missing things like the actual ent lib and wcsf contrib dlls, if you're desperate you can fix those references but i hope later today when i have more time ill clean up the project a bit and fix the references etc so its just a download, compile type thing. To the WCSF contrib guys, im not that familiar with open source so if I'm doing something wrong here then please tell me and Ill do whatever you guys think is the right way to share this.

Best Regards

Peter Short

New Post: Modular Sitemaps / Pageflows

nuchild — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:10:57 GMT

@pshort Very cool stuff. Could this perhaps support one module adding links/nodes to the sub tree of another?
i.e. a module exposing it's nav graph for other modules to see?
Still waiting for the code...

Thanks

New Post: Modular Sitemaps / Pageflows

BBuff — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:16:06 GMT

This is exactly what I've been researching. It makes sense to me that this needs to be implemented in order to truly support a modularized web application. I'd love to see the code.

Thanks for your effort with this!

Commented Issue: possible bug in Add Page Flow Project (WorkFlow Foundation)

u40135 — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:37:30 GMT

Possible bug:
When I add a Page Flow Project to a solution folder, and the name of the project contains a dot (.), then the Finish button is disabled in the recipe wizard.
(I can add PageFlow Projects when the name doesn't contain a dot)

I installed the Page Flow Guidance by doing the following:
- I downloaded wcsfcontrib-17811
- I built the PageFlow Guidance Package solution (wcsfcontrib-17811\Trunk\src\GuidancePackages\Pageflow)
- Then I ran the msi file that got created by the build.
- I enabled the package through the Guidance Package Manager in Visual Studio.
Comments: ** Comment from web user: u40135 **

I would vote that this issue has a greater impact that assigned as it effects the standard naming pattern used through all the documentation and WCSF generated projects.

New Post: Sub-web WAP performance in WCSF

jimitndiaye — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:18:29 GMT

Hi all,
My team and I currently developing a fairly large WCSF web application which we've divided in to sub-web applications under one root WAP. They are however experiencing severe performance constraints when running the solution in VS2008 (they say it can take up to 15mins for the application to load after hitting F5, 15mins after build time). Anyone else had this problem? I'd prefer they maintain the solution structure as modules since we want to keep them largely independent of each other.
I'd appreciate any feedback on possible causes and solutions
thanks
Jimit

New Post: Modular Sitemaps / Pageflows

jimitndiaye — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:12:26 GMT

@pshort: That sounds really interesting. I for one would very much like to see the code. Good going!

New Post: Modular Sitemaps / Pageflows

pshort — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:16:55 GMT

Hi I created a POC for some pageflow "features":

Each module has its own sitemap file in its directory. This file is read and loaded at runtime.
The global sitemap can then act as the view provider for pageflows.
Pageflow provider header info can be defined in the main web.config, then stuff like nav graphs and views can be defined in the modular web.configs. Each module can then have their own navigation graphs loaded by the one provider at load time.
Instead of defining the pageflow xml in the web config you can define an assembly graph which loads the xml pageflow defs from an embedded resource in the assembly.

At the moment this code is working but lacks unit testing (which i will probably make (possibly)) and proper integration with the current xmlpageflow provider module stuff. Are these ideas interesting to the community? Would it be worth while submitting some code somewhere and seeing what can grow from this?

Best Regards

Peter Short

Updated Wiki: Documentation

jonathan — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:08:06 GMT

Documentation

Updated Wiki: Home

jonathan — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:08:01 GMT

Welcome to the WCSF Contrib project!

News

Page Flow Package: Provides an infrastructure that helps you control the sequence of the Web pages that users see as they interact with your application. This package includes:

Page Flow Application Block source code (includes XML and WorkFlow Providers).
Quickstarts.
Guidance Package and its installer with the source code.
Documentation in CHM format.

Download Package

E-Commerce Catalog sample application. The “E-Commerce Catalog” is an Web Client Software Factory application intended to:

Show recommended practices in incremental Web development.
Demonstrate how a WC-SF project can be faced and developed.
Demonstrate how Web Client Software Factory assets help to solve common technical challenges.

Documentation | Download Source Code

What is WCSF Contrib?

WCSF Contrib is a community-developed library of extensions to the patterns & practices Web Client Software Factory.

If you are building custom tools and extensions and want to share them then WCSF Contrib will get it out to the masses.
If you've got a great idea for new extensions than WCSF contrib is the place to find developers ready, willing, and able to make it happen.
If you use WCSF within your org, then WCSF contrib is the place to find tools and extensions to add to your arsenal.
If you want to connect with others who are pushing the bar on WCSF development, then WCSF is the place to be.

WCSF contrib is about YOU. With your help we can make WCSF Contrib a vibrant resource for WCSF developers world-wide.

If you have any suggestions on additional extensibility points that you think we should provide please email WCSF Feedback

What's in WCSF Contrib? (Currently available only through the Source tab)

The latest release of WCSF Contrib contains the following functionality:

Sample - Inject Dependencies into MasterPages and UserControls
QueryStringValue<T> Class
EventBroker Extension for UI Composability
(TBA)
E-Commerce Catalog
CreateShared attribute
Page Flow Package

See the Documentation index for information on how to use each of these extensions and components.

Note: No release binaries / zips are currently available. To download the contrib projects get the latest change set from the Source Code tab.

Contributing to WCSF Contrib

Would you like to join as a developer of the WCSF Contrib project to share your own extensions or improve the existing codebase? Great! Here is what you need to know

Other p&p Contrib Projects

Updated Wiki: Register Page Flow Guidance Package

jonathan — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:06:43 GMT

Register the Page Flow Guidance Package

To use the automated guidance package provided with the Page Flow Package, you must install a prerequisite run-time component named the Guidance Automation Extensions. If you want to modify the guidance package or author your own guidance package, you must also install the Guidance Automation Toolkit. For more information, see Guidance Automation Toolkit and Guidance Automation Extensions Download.
You can use the Page Flow Development guidance package to automate page flow–enabled application development activities that you would otherwise have to manually perform. It includes recipes and templates to generate Visual Studio artifacts such as projects and page flow definitions.
To use the Page Flow Guidance Package you have two options:

1. Register the Page Flow Guidance Package from the Solution, to do this follow the steps described in Registering a Guidance Package.
2. Build the Guidance Package and installer from the source code and install the Page Flow Guidance Package, to do this follow the steps in Building the Guidance Package and Installer, Installing the Guidance Package and Enabling the Guidance Package.

To uninstall the Guidance Package see Uninstalling.

Building the Guidance Package and Installer

The guidance package is available as source code. If you do not select the option to register the guidance package when you install the software factory, you must compile the guidance package before you can install (or register) it. The following procedure describes how to compile the guidance package and the installer.
To compile the guidance package and guidance package installer

1. Using Visual Studio, open the solution file Pageflow Guidance Package.sln.
2. On the Build menu, click Rebuild Solution. By default, this is a debug build.

Note: The Visual Studio solution Pageflow Guidance Package includes the setup project PageFlowPackageSetup. This project creates an installer that you can use to distribute the guidance package. When you create a new guidance package with the Visual Studio Guidance Package template, the template unfolds a setup project along with the package solution. This means you do not have to manually create a setup project for a guidance package.

Installing the Guidance Package

To distribute a guidance package, you create and distribute a Windows Installer package. Developers run the setup program and then enable the guidance package. If you distribute a new version of the guidance package, developers must uninstall the previous instance of the guidance package before installing the new one. All instances of Visual Studio must be closed to install a guidance package.
The following procedure describes how to install the guidance package Page Flow Development. This procedure assumes that you have built the guidance package setup project.
To install the Page Flow Development guidance package

1. Close all instances of Visual Studio.
2. Execute the file PageFlowPackageSetup.msi. This file is located in the output directory of the PageFlowPackageSetup project.

Note: By default, the Windows Installer package installs the assemblies in the folder named PageFlowPackageSetup. This folder is located in the Program Files\patterns & practices directory. The Guidance Automation Extensions do not support assemblies in the global assembly cache and do not load assemblies that are placed there, even if the assembly is explicitly referenced in the guidance package.After the installation package that executes the guidance package is installed, it appears in the Add/Remove Programs dialog box.

Enabling the Guidance Package

To enable the Page Flow guidance package

Select and enable the guidance package in Guidance Package Manager

To enable the Page Flow guidance package with the Guidance Package Manager

1. Using Visual Studio, open your solution.
2. On the Tools menu, click Guidance Package Manager.
3. In the Guidance Package Manager dialog box, click Enable / Disable Packages.
4. In the Enable and Disable Packages dialog box, select the Page Flow Development check box.
5. Click OK.

Note: The recipes in the Page Flow guidance package are designed to work with a solution that you create with a Web site/application. For a description of the requirements for a recipe, see the documentation for that recipe.

Registering a Guidance Package

The installation process works well when you distribute a guidance package. However, it makes it difficult to efficiently test incremental changes as you modify a guidance package. For developers of guidance packages, the Guidance Automation Toolkit provides the following recipes to make it easier to test changes:

Register Guidance Package. This recipe registers the package you are developing on your computer. Registration is a form of installation that you can perform without leaving the Visual Studio development environment.
Quick Register. This recipe performs a quick registration of the guidance package. You must perform a full registration of the guidance package before you use the Quick Register recipe.
Unregister Guidance Package. This recipe reverses the registration.

To register the guidance package and guidance package installer

1. Using Visual Studio, open the solution file Pageflow Guidance Package.sln.
2. On the Build menu, click Rebuild Solution. By default, this is a debug build.
3. Use the Guidance Package Manager to enable the Guidance Package Development guidance package. You must do this before you can use the Register Guidance Package recipe, Quick Register recipe, and Unregister Guidance Package recipe.

Note: After you enable the Guidance Package Development guidance package, the Guidance Navigator will appear in Visual Studio. This window displays an overview of the guidance package and available recipes.

4. In Solution Explorer, right-click PageflowPackage, and then click Register Guidance Package. After you register a guidance package, you can open a new instance of Visual Studio to test the functionality of the package. This means that you do not have to continually rebuild the setup project and run the Windows Installer package for the guidance package every time you want to test the progress of your development.

You should unregister the package if you want to do one or both of the following:

Install the guidance packages using the Windows Installer package.
Remove the guidance package from your computer.

After you unregister a guidance package (or uninstall it), you can register it again by executing the Register Guidance Package recipe.

Uninstalling

If you want to uninstall the Guidance Automation Toolkit and Extensions, you must first uninstall (or unregister) each guidance package, as described in the following procedure.
To uninstall the Guidance Automation Toolkit and Extensions

1. Open a solution that is using an automated guidance package.
2. On the Tools menu, click Guidance Package Manager.
3. In the Guidance Package Manager dialog box, click Enable/Disable Guidance Packages.
4. In the Enable/Disable Guidance Packages dialog box, clear the check box next to the guidance package you want to unregister.
5. Click OK, and then click Close.
6. Repeat the process until you remove all the guidance packages, including the Guidance Automation Toolkit package.
7. Close Visual Studio.
8. In Control Panel, open the Add/Remove Programs item.
9. Select the entry for the Guidance Automation Toolkit, and then click Remove.
10. Select the entry for the Guidance Automation Extensions, and then click Remove. If you receive an error message when attempting to uninstall the Guidance Automation Extensions, you can manually clean up the stored settings for registered guidance packages using the following procedure. This may be required if you do not first unregister all the guidance packages registered on your computer. You can also use this technique to remove individual guidance packages if required.

To manually remove a guidance package

1. In a text editor, open the file C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Recipe Framework\ReceipeFramework.xml. The contents of the <GuidancePackage> elements will help you to locate the entries you must remove from Windows Registry.
2. On the taskbar, click Start, and then click Run. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Open the registry key HKLM\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0 and look for the following subkeys:
Packages\{77d93a80-73fc-40f8-87db-acd3482964b2}\Templates. Delete all subkeys that refer to guidance packages you want to remove (each has a GUID as its key name that matches the entry in the XML file).
Languages\CodeExpansions\CSharp\Paths. Delete all values that refer to guidance packages you want to remove.
Menus. Delete all values that refer to guidance packages you want to remove (they will probably be at the end of the list following those with GUID names).
NewProjectTemplates\TemplateDirs. Expand each of the subkeys (the name of each one is a GUID) and expand the /1 key below that. If you find one where the (Default) value is the name of a guidance packages you want to remove, delete the entire GUID key and the /1 key below that.
4. Go back to your XML file, remove all the <GuidancePackage> elements that refer to guidance packages you want to remove, and then save the file.
5. If you installed any of the guidance packages you want to manually remove from a Windows Installer, run the Windows Installer CleanUp utility to clean up the Windows Installer–related registry settings. For information about the Windows Installer CleanUp utility, including download information, see Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility.
6. If you have removed the settings for all registered guidance packages and want to remove the Guidance Automation Extensions from your computer, the Remove option in the Add/Remove Programs dialog box will now succeed.

Source code checked in

jonathan — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:10:41 GMT

Updated Page Flow Package Help: - New 'Exploring the Page Flow Package' topic. - Restructured 'Preparing Visual Studio for Automated Guidance' topic. - Minor fixes.

CREATED ISSUE: Strange behavior in XmlPageFlowDefinition Constrained property

BrandonHaynes — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:57:02 GMT

XmlPageFlowDefinition's Constrained property depends on its NavigationGraph as follows:

public bool Constrained
{
get { return !navigationGraph.Constrained; }
}

Note the "!" on the return value. So if the NavigationGraph's Constrained value is false, the Definition's Constrained value will be true.

This is very confusing, and if this is an intentional implementation then this properties should be renamed appropriately.

COMMENTED ISSUE: NavigationGraphConfigurationElement does not support "Constrained" attribute

BrandonHaynes — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:25:35 GMT

The PageFlow Xml provider does not support a method to declaratively create an unconstrained PageFlow on a per-PageFlow basis. The XmlPageFlowDefinition uses the underlying NavigationGraph to determine its Constrained status, as:

public bool Constrained
{
get { return !navigationGraph.Constrained; }
}

I propose that NavigationGraphConfigurationElement.cs be modified by adding:

public bool Constrained
{
get { return (string)base["constrained"]; }
set { base["constrained"] = value; }
}

And that WebConfigStore.cs be modified to use this Constrained value during NavigationGraph construction. This may be done by modifying the constructor (at about line 69) to read:

NavigationGraph navigationGraph = new NavigationGraph(configNavGraph.Name,
xmlPageFlowInstanceStore,
temporalViews[configNavGraph.StartView],
configNavGraph.AbortUrl,
configNavGraph.Abandonable,
configNavGraph.NotRunningUrl,
configNavGraph.Constrained,
xmlPageFlowType);

Or by keeping the existing constructor and adding the following:

navigationGraph.Constrained = configNavGraph.Constrained;

I do note that the AllowBackButton property of the xmlPageFlowConfigurationSection does allow a master on/off for XML-based pageflows, but this needs to be configurable on a per-pageflow basis. Further, the use of the "AllowBackButton" property to indicate a PageFlow's constraint status is a bit confusing.
Comments: ** Comment from web user: BrandonHaynes **

Missed the following on the Constrained property definition. Oops!

[ConfigurationProperty("constrained", IsRequired = false)]
public bool Constrained
{
get { return (string)base["constrained"]; }
set { base["constrained"] = value; }
}

COMMENTED ISSUE: NavigationGraphConfigurationElement does not support "Constrained" attribute

BrandonHaynes — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:03:56 GMT

WebConfigStore.cs

COMMENTED ISSUE: NavigationGraphConfigurationElement does not support "Constrained" attribute

BrandonHaynes — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:02:03 GMT

NavigationGraphConfigurationElement.cs

CREATED ISSUE: NavigationGraphConfigurationElement does not support "Constrained" attribute

BrandonHaynes — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 17:00:48 GMT

Source code checked in

jonathan — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:09:36 GMT

Fixed tests files in Page Flow Application Block for VS 2005

Source code checked in

jonathan — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:50:56 GMT

Added Page Flow Application Block solution for Visual Studio 2005.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

jonathan — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:36:41 GMT

Welcome to the WCSF Contrib project!

News

Page Flow Package: Provides an infrastructure that helps you control the sequence of the Web pages that users see as they interact with your application. This package includes:

Page Flow Application Block source code (includes XML and WorkFlow Providers).
Quickstarts.
Guidance Package and its installer with the source code.
Documentation in CHM format.

Download Package

E-Commerce Catalog sample application. The “E-Commerce Catalog” is an Web Client Software Factory application intended to:

Show recommended practices in incremental Web development.
Demonstrate how a WC-SF project can be faced and developed.
Demonstrate how Web Client Software Factory assets help to solve common technical challenges.

Documentation | Download Source Code

What is WCSF Contrib?

WCSF Contrib is a community-developed library of extensions to the patterns & practices Web Client Software Factory.

If you are building custom tools and extensions and want to share them then WCSF Contrib will get it out to the masses.
If you've got a great idea for new extensions than WCSF contrib is the place to find developers ready, willing, and able to make it happen.
If you use WCSF within your org, then WCSF contrib is the place to find tools and extensions to add to your arsenal.
If you want to connect with others who are pushing the bar on WCSF development, then WCSF is the place to be.

What's in WCSF Contrib? (Currently available only through the Source tab)

The latest release of WCSF Contrib contains the following functionality:

Sample - Inject Dependencies into MasterPages and UserControls
QueryStringValue<T> Class
EventBroker Extension for UI Composability
(TBA)
E-Commerce Catalog
CreateShared attribute
Page Flow Package

Contributing to WCSF Contrib

Would you like to join as a developer of the WCSF Contrib project to share your own extensions or improve the existing codebase? Great! Here is what you need to know

Other p&p Contrib Projects

NEW POST: PageFlow: Project type not showing up in Visual Studio

etowah_man — Sat, 31 May 2008 15:35:09 GMT

I have installed the PageFlow application block and I've been able to add the PageStateActivity and TransitionListener activity to the toolbar.

However, I still cannot, through any menu, see the new pageflow project type.

What do I need to do to be able to see this?

Thanks.

EM