WEBDEV Concepts

Part 3: Development environment 107 5 Deploying a site containing an external component 5.1 Overview Sites that use one or more components are deployed in the same way as standard sites: on the "Project" tab, in the "Generation" group, expand "Deploy site". When deploying a site that uses a component, the following files are automatically installed on the server: • <Component name>.WDK, • the files required for the component and the application. 5.2 Updating components and deployed websites When updating a component and/or a deployed site, the following elements can be installed on the deployment computer of the site: • the site, the component and the necessary files. • the site and the files required for the site. • the component and any necessary files. For more details on the compatibility between sites and components, see the online help. Two methods can be used to update a component on the end-user computers: 1. Recompiling the host project Recompile the project that uses the component and redistribute the site with the component. In this case, no version problem or compatibility problem will occur. The recompilation is required in the following cases: • New features have been added to the component and must be taken into account. • The parameters of some procedures have been modified. • Incompatibility between new and earlier versions of the component. • ... 2. Distributing the .WDK file directly Provide an upgraded version of the component (.WDK file) to the end users without recompiling the project. In most cases, this possibility applies when: • The new version is used to correct problems of an earlier version. • New features have been added to the component but they are not required to run the site. 6 Modifying an external component 6.1 Overview A component can be modified at any time once it has been created and generated. These are some of the changes that can be applied: • add elements to the component. • remove elements from the component. • change rights on the elements of the component. • make changes to one of the elements of the component. In any case, the component must be regenerated to take these changes into account. 6.2 Types of compatibility Compatibility is linked to the versions of the component. If changes are made to the component, the sites that use the component may encounter runtime problems if they are not synchronized with it. Compatibility is an important step when making changes to a component. There are two types of compatibility: • backward compatibility : the version of the component (.WDK file) used to compile the sites must always be greater than or equal to the version that has already been deployed. This type of compatibility is automatically managed. If the version of the component installed with the site is earlier than the version used by the site, the site will not run. • forward compatibility : you can prevent the use of a new version of a component with a project compiled using a previous version. You need to recompile the projects to use the new version of the component.