Is there a way on entry to WIWA to check if a clients computer has custom control libraries installed and if not to download and install them?

Question

I may be missing a key piece of the puzzle but it seems silly (a defect on the TFS WIT side) that clients who only occassionally will use WIWA have to install custom control libraries in order for their web interface to be able to see custom controls.

Is there a way to check on logging into WIWA if the client computer has the libraries and if not to download and install them?

With any web application it should be that I only need to install everything on the server side and clients should be access the intended information.  Even with other Microsoft products such as Excel and macros created, it only needs to be created on the original file and anyone else opening the file will be prompted about whether or not they choose to allow the macro.

I believe that checking the computer on login is the best solution for the following reasons:
1. Only users who access WIWA will be prompted to install the libraries
2. rolling out software onto every client does not consider those who will never use WIWA
3. those who get new systems after the roll out and will require the libraries again
4. Users accessing WIWA on their home computers connected through VPN will not be included in any software roll outs

Answer 1

Hi,

WIWA is a webapplication and user does not need to install custom control on client.

If you use a custom control in WIT and you want users to use WIWA, you need create another custom control for WIWA, which is a ASP.Net Server Control.
 
There is an article anout TSWA workitem custom control under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team System Web Access\Sdk

If my understanding is not right, please feel free to tell me.

Best Regards,
Ruiz 

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Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. Sincerely, Ruiz Yi

Answer 2

Hi Ruiz,

The question I posted here was a follow up to another question I posted and got a response to.  http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/tfsworkitemtracking/thread/6ba11521-8f2b-4dc2-972c-a92a39b185fd

All the literature that I've read online has said that creating a custom control for WIT requires that the library be installed on ALL client machines even for the web forms custom controls.  If this is not so, then please advise as I'm very confused about the stuff I've been reading.

Thanks

Answer 3

Looking at the articule in the SDK folder and opening the TSWebAccess.CustomControlSamples.csproj file I get the warnings that I'm missing the following:

1. all the gif files
2. WebCustomControls.cs
3. WebCustomControls.wicc

I tried to follow the instructions here http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:Qv_hwEbm-FkJ:vstsrocks.com/blogs/mickey_gousset/archive/2006/10/20/1167.aspx+mickey_gousset/archive/2006/10/20/1167.aspx&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca on how to try them out.

But I can't build the code without the files.  Can you explain if I'm missing something?  Can I not run the samples directly?  Do I have to create my own web control solution and copy all the "samples" source code over?

Thanks

Answer 4

Hi,

I also lost those files but you can exclude them.

Do you develop web site/application before? For web application, ASP.NET will render the control to HTML element which can be displayed by IE, and client only need to install IE.

For windows form application(VS2008 is a WinForm App), it will use local dll to display control, so dll is needed for all client.

Best Regards,
Ruiz

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Answer 5

Hi Ruiz,

I have never developed a web site/application before.  So you're saying that you excluded the missing files (gifs, cs and wicc files)?

I will give that a try and let you know what happens.

Answer 6

I was able to build the library file when I excluded those missing files.

However, when I try to deploy the custom control in a work item it is not working.

I have changed the web.config to include the customControl search path and have double checked the wicc files to ensure that there is nothing funny going on in there.

Is there a reason why I can't see the custom control in the work item on the web?

I'm trying to make the triage field into a multivalue field just for testing purposes:

<FIELD name="Triage" refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Triage" type="String" reportable="dimension">
        <HELPTEXT>Status of triaging the escalation</HELPTEXT>
        <READONLY not="[project]\Escalation Executives" />
        <SUGGESTEDVALUES>
            <LISTITEM value="[Approved]" />
            <LISTITEM value="[Investigate]" />
            <LISTITEM value="[Not Approved]" />
        </SUGGESTEDVALUES>
</FIELD>

And in my form section of the XML
<Control Type="MultiValueControl" FieldName="Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Triage" Label="Triag&amp;e:" LabelPosition="Left" />

The error I get is "Unable to create workitem control 'MultiValueControl'."

I followed the doc that is found in the SDK folder of the web access parent folder.

Answer 7

Hi ,

Did you add following code to web.config and copy assembly including custom control to the folder and create wicc file?

<webAccessSettings>

    <customControls>

      <searchPaths>

        <add path="~/App_Data/CustomControls/v1.0"/>

      </searchPaths>

    </customControls>

…

</webAccessSettings>

Best Regards,
Ruiz

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Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. Sincerely, Ruiz Yi

Answer 8

Yes I did add that code to the web.config.  I also created the folder structure and added the dll and wicc file to the new folder.

Answer 9

I tried again and I still get the error:

"Unable to create workitem control 'MultiValueControl'."

Answer 10

When I hover over the error message in the field I get the following tooltip message:

"Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WebAccess.WorkItemTracking.Controls.WorkItemFormException: Unable to load custom control manifest for 'MultiValueContol'. at
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WebAccess.WorkItemTracking.Controls.ControlFactory.GetCustomControlType(String controlName) at
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WebAccess.WorkItemTracking.Controls.ControlFactory.CreateCustomControl(ControlDefinition controlDefinition) at
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WebAccess.WorkItemTracking.Controls.ControlElement.CreateWorkItemControl"

Answer 11

Hi,

'MultiValueContol' ? Could you check that whether your spelling is correct?   The correct one is "MultiValueControl"

Best Regards,
Ruiz
 

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Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. Sincerely, Ruiz Yi

Answer 12

Hi Ruiz,

I copy and pasted the lines from the work item xml, but I double checked anyways and they were correct.

The tooltip error message was spelled wrong in my post because I couldn't figure out how to copy and paste the tooltip message and instead did a screen capture and then manually typed that into a post.

Answer 13

Hi Noodles,

Are you using TSWA or WIWA?

The exception occures when TSWA did not find the .wicc file under specified path. or current account has no permission to access the path.

The specified paths include the paths you specidifed in

<webAccessSettings>
    <customControls>
      <searchPaths>
        <add path="~/App_Data/CustomControls/v1.0"/>
      </searchPaths>
    </customControls>
</webAccessSettings>

and default "~/bin/CustomControls", "~/App_Data","~/App_Data/CustomControls","~/CustomControls"

All of them are relative path to the web site(application) root.  So you can try to copy MultiValue.wicc and  customControlSamples.dll to other folder. If the issue  is still existing, please check the IIS setting.

Best Regards,
Ruiz

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Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread. Sincerely, Ruiz Yi

Answer 14

Hi Ruiz,

I tried configuring both TSWA and WIWA but neither worked.  I'd like to get TSWA working.


When I open IIS manager I can see the wicc file and the dll file in the folder.  I'll try putting the wicc and the dll file in main folder instead.

Answer 15

AMAZING!

It was a permission issue!

When I put the wicc and dll in the main folder it worked!  THANKS!