AbleCommerce Shopping Cart Software

Hi -

Trying to get started here... Is there a Visual Studio solution file for the AC7 storefront? If not, does anyone know a decent way to create one short of manually adding every class and control to an empty solution?

Thanks!

I know I didn't have to do much - I think I just started VS 2005 then added a new website and selected my test website in IIS.

Hi,

I have the same question. I'm working with the trial version to see if this is something we want to use - I can get AC going just fine as a web site. However, it would be nice to make it an ASP.NET Web Application with a .sln file, code behind, the ability to add other projects, etc. I've actually been trying to do what RV9Factory suggested and have yet to get it to compile and run.

Mark

I think it as simple as Judy pointed out

...I just started VS 2005 then added a new website and selected my test website in IIS.

Hmmm. I think Judy might be right. I've never edited a website in the way she suggested. I'm used to a solution and project files, but so far her suggestion seems to work.

Hi,

Hmmm - I come from an in-the-box application dev background so feel like something is missing without a compiled .dll. When I first downloaded the trial it was easy to do as Judy suggested, but I envisioned AbleCommerce as a component of a website rather than being the entire website. Therefore, I assumed there would be a project (.csproj) that I could add to a web solution. We did something like that on another job using InstantForum (another prepackaged web service). In the case of what Judy did, is the C# code simply interpreted rather than compiled?

I decided to attempt migrating the website to a web application using this good tutorial. I ended up having to manually create .cs and .designer.cs files for a lot of controls so that references to them work. The effort was not trivial, but after persistent elimination of compilations errors I got it building as an "ASP.NET Web Application" with a compiled .dll for my new solution.

This may get away from actual discussion about AbleCommerce, but hopefully it will help others with the same questions. If you have a simple "ASP.NET Web Site", versus an "ASP.NET Web Application" (these are the exact terminologies in Visual Studio 2005), can you add other projects to it, the way you can add other projects to a solution (e.g. .sln)? Do most of AbleCommerce's customers use their product as Judy showed us (e.g am I making this more difficult than necessary), or do others also turn the AbleCommerce into a solution?

Thanks,

Mark

From what I've seen from the forum posts, there are several different kinds of users. I've seen posts from people who were "real" programmers and wanted to integrate Able with something else or maybe just made a solution in VS because they were familiar with the programming. There are some who are customizing Able but not integrating with anything else and they seem to know the C#/VS type of programming. Then there are those of us who are just trying to customize Able some and may or may not have VS 2005. When I was using VS2003 and tried to make a project with Able 5.5, it was a lot harder. VS 2005 makes working with it a lot easier and Able 7 itself is "true" .net where Able 5.5 wizard was a conglomeration of .net, asp, vb script, etc.

MarkI wrote:...In the case of what Judy did, is the C# code simply interpreted rather than compiled?

...If you have a simple "ASP.NET Web Site", versus an "ASP.NET Web Application" (these are the exact terminologies in Visual Studio 2005), can you add other projects to it, the way you can add other projects to a solution (e.g. .sln)?

...Do most of AbleCommerce's customers use their product as Judy showed us (e.g am I making this more difficult than necessary), or do others also turn the AbleCommerce into a solution?

The C# code is compiled on the fly the first time the page/control/class is used.

"ASP.NET Web Site" and "ASP.NET Web Application" are both project types (not solution types). A single solution can have multiple project types; including multiple web sites, multiple web applications, and any other project type. The biggest difference between a web site and a web application is the compilation: web sites are mostly compiled on the fly, while web applications are mostly pre-compiled.

I can't answer for anyone but myself, but I use the same method as Judy then add projects to the solution for my own stuff. That said, if I was adding AbleCommerce 7 to an existing website that was created as a web application, I would probably do what you did and add the AC7 files to the existing web application.

Yes Open Web Site, Local IIS is the way to do it for now. You can also open it with the File System choice - the difference is VS will use it's own .Net engine when you debug pages if you choose the File System route.

I prefer the Local IIS method as it most closely resembles my production environment.

I think Able will be releasing a VS 2005 solution file when the source code is released.

The biggest difference between a web site and a web application is the compilation: web sites are mostly compiled on the fly, while web applications are mostly pre-compiled.

Is AC7 a Web Site or Web Application?
If I make a change to a .aspx.cs page in AC7, do I just upload the page
or do I need to build the application?

(In older .NET 1.1 apps, you would build the app then upload the .dll)

Just upload it.

Mike718NY wrote:(In older .NET 1.1 apps, you would build the app then upload the .dll)

This was one of the frustrating limitations with AC55 that prevented us from using a full .NET solution (codebehind) because many of our merchants need to modify the files but did not have the ability to recompile.

.NET 2.0 is much better about compiling changes on the fly, so you can modify the file and upload it and your changes take effect immediately.

I think one of the problems you will find in trying to make the whole application a DLL is that we opted to use inline (code-beside I think it's called) scripting in some files. This is a valid file structure in VS2005 and had advantages, but I discovered a downside when I tried to compile the AbleCommerce website as a single distributable DLL (Web Application). If you have two files with the same name (Admin/Shipping/Default.aspx and Admin/Payments/Default.aspx) it cannot create the DLL because internally the class names conflict.

When the above was discovered, our development standard was updated to require CodeBehind for all new files. Unfortunately there were a large number of admin files already created with codebeside. I have suggested that we update all files use codebehind for the next release so that the application can be compiled as a Web Application.

Also, Web Application Projects are not even available on
Visual Studio 2005, you have to install the Web Application Projects Add-on,
or now just install the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/asp.net/aa336618.aspx

jmestep wrote:I know I didn't have to do much - I think I just started VS 2005 then added a new website and selected my test website in IIS.

I created a new site using VS2005 and added a new website, now what exactly do you mean by "selected my test website"?

Thanks in advance.
JM

I had already set up my test website on the file system and IIS before I started VS, so I just selected that site.