Dynamicweb Custom Modules or Extenders

Posted on 06/01/2009 13:49:38

Hi,

We often develop specific custom modules or (eCommerce) extenders for our different clients. Since we do our own hosting of all Dynamicweb sites and our clientbase begins to get pretty big, i'm looking for a way to organize these custom modules.

Currently when a client has a custom module or extender we will create a copy of the application directory of Dynamicweb and put the specific DLLs in the bin folder of that directory.

Now when a Dynamicweb update is at hand, we have to copy the update to all the spefic application folders of those website.

What I want to achieve is one application folder for all websites that share that application.

I remember that I heard about 6 months ago or something that you were working on improving the management of these custom modules and even per website. Any news on that ?

Kind Regards,

Emil

p.s.: Happy New Year! :-)

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Posted on 06/01/2009 14:06:21

It's not quite that scenario we're seeking to accomodate. I think you're refering to packing both logic, webforms and other resources related to a module in one single assembly for easy distribution.

When you host the solutions yourself, or if you have a dedicated server for that matter, there's nothing wrong with setting up one single application folder containing all custom functionality and then implement some kind of management system to specify what is available on each solution. For custom modules you can flip the ModuleAccess bit in the module table to true, and the modules are installed on that solution, but for extenders and other Extensibility based logic you need a different approach.

Compared to the way we usually install solutions, all solutions' home directories should point to the global CustomModules directory and of cause all admin virtual directories should point to that of the standard application of the server.

One downside to this is that when you install a SalesDiscountProvider, or an Import/Export activity, they are visible to all solutions running the application set. That might be a task for us to enable some kind of management for that. On the bright side, when there's an update for DW or your custom appllication, you only have to update one directory for the update to be issued on all solutions.

Posted on 07/01/2009 15:25:15

Hi Lars,

Thanks for your clear answer.

Posted on 07/01/2009 16:01:44

No problem at all. Give me a call if you want to discuss this subject in further detail.

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Dynamicweb Custom Modules or Extenders

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