Updating from previous Versions or the Shareware Version

Web Connection is updated frequently and so you'll often have to update an existing installation with the core files from a new version. This topic refers to same version updates (ie. 7.10 -> 7.12 for example).

Updating from the Shareware Version

If you are updating from the Shareware version or you had previously installed the Shareware version, or you have already installed and are seeing shareware version prompts we recommend a full delete of all files in the Web Connection installation folder followed by a full reinstall as a Fresh Install as described below.

Do a Fresh Install!

Web Connection 6.x and later uses a new project system that doesn't write anything of interest into the Web Connection Install folders after installation. So the installation folder doesn't have any files worth keeping between releases and it is safe to delete the installation files and reinstall.

For this reason a complete delete all and reinstall is the preferred way to update a Web Connection installation now.

You can install Web Connection anywhere you like, but the following assumes \wconnect as the install folder.

If you build applications using the new project system all application related files will be in your project folders. So it's perfectly safe to:

Backup your existing installation to something like \wconnectXXX
Delete all content in the original \wconnect folder
Reinstall or Unzip Web Connection into \wconnect

There are potentially some files that you may have customized and you may want to copy back from your old install:

wconnect_override.h
wwSession and WebRequestLog tables if you need to retain logs/sessions
Any other files you've explicitly put in the install folder (not recommended)

Once copied we recommend you also run setup.exe again, to update the Visual Studio Addin and Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code templates etc. but this is optional. Setup doesn't touch any of your project files so it's safe to run without breaking existing applications.

If Things Go Wrong

If things don't work out with the new version and you have breaking changes that you don't want to fix, you can easily roll back simply by changing your FoxPro path to point at the old Web Connection folder (ie. \wconnectXXX). In your config.fpw (or in SETPATHS.prg) just use \wconnectXXX\classes;\wconnectXXX instead of \wconnect to point at the old folders.

In Place Update

If you have an older version of Web Connection, or you frequently store custom files in the Web Connection folder you may prefer to do an in-place update. So rather than nuking all the files you'll essentially copy the new version ontop of the old version.

Run the registered version installer and choose the existing installation folder (\wconnect by default). Simply unzip the new files into your old installation directory.

Note that if you've modified any of the samples files, or any of the framework files you won't want to update the existing installation or at least make sure you do a backup prior to installation of the new version. In general doing a back up of the old install is probably a good idea.

After you've installed the new files over the existing installation, make sure you:

Delete all FXP files in the project directories
Recompile all PRG and VCX files
Update DLLs in production apps
Update the Web specific files (DLLs, Scripts,CSS)

Recompiling

To recompile all code files to the latest version is necessary to ensure that both the FXP files as well as your project is recompiled. You can do the following from the VFP Command Window in the Web Connection startup directory:

CLOSE ALL
CLEAR ALL
DELETE FILE classes\*.fxp
DELETE FILE *.fxp
COMPILE classes\*.prg
COMPILE CLASS CLASSES\*.vcx

You can also use:

DO CompileWC()  && in '\tools' folder

Shareware Version Update

If you are updating from the Shareware Version and you're overwriting make sure you:

Delete wconnect.app
Make sure that #DEFINE SHAREWARE .F. in wconnect.h
Ensure you recompiled everything as described above

Update DLLs in Production Apps

Web Connection 7 and later uses self-contained projects to hold all resources associated with a Web Connection project - nothing gets stored in the Web Connection install folder, and all support files other than the Web Connection code dependencies are contained within the project's folder hierarchy.

Use the Update Project Wizard (or Console Command)

The easiest way to update projects is to use a new utility in Web Connection 7.12+ which lets you update existing projects. There are two ways to do this:

Launch the Web Connection Console (DO Console)
Choose Update Project Resources
Pick a project folder
Choose components to update
Finish

Alternately you can use a Console Command like this:

DO CONSOLE WITH "UPDATEPROJECTRESOURCES", "\WebConnectionProjects\SecurityTest","modules,dlls,libs,scripts,css,views"

This updates the following:

modules - Web Server Integration Module Dlls
dlls - Support DLLs for the FoxPro Server (wwdotnetbridge and .net helpers)
libs - Web JavaScript and CSS libraries (bootstrap, fontawesome etc.)
scripts - Web Connection specific support scripts (ww.jquery.js)
css - project specific default CSS file: application.css
views - project specific Views (be careful since these you might have changed - back them up)

Manually Updating

The UpdateProjects tooling makes it easy to update relevant components. The following are more details on what is actually updated.

FoxPro accessed DLLS

Web Connection uses a number of DLL files that are distributed in the Web Connection root folder. These files are required in deployed applications and should match the versions that you are running during development.

Make Backups before Updating

Always back up or commit your current application's changes to source control before updating files so you can roll back or copy the old files if necessary.

The DLLs in questions include:

Core Dependencies

wwIPstuff.dll
wwDotnetBridge.dll
Newtonsoft.Json.dll
zlib1.dll

General Purpose

dzip.dll, dunzip.dll
wwImaging.dll

.NET Interop

Markdig.dll
Renci.SshNet.dll

Of these files wwIPStuff.dll, wwDotnetBridge.dll and zlib1.dll are core dependencies that have to be present as they are used internally in Web Connection.

Newtonsoft.Json.dll is required for all JSON related operations including the wwJsonSerializer, REST Services, wwJsonServiceClient and anything else your code might use to parse JSON.

The remainder of files are specific use cases but I recommend you copy and update them nevertheless.

We recommend you copy all the DLLs from the Web Connection install folder to your live application deploy folder. You can also use the build.ps1 file in Web Connection projects to create a Build folder that includes your binary files along with the Web Connection required dlls in the \deploy folder.

Web Server Integration Modules

These are the Web Server connectors that connect the Web Server to the FoxPro Web Connection Server. That's the ASP.NET Handler, the old ISAPI module, and the new Web Connection Web Server.

These files are copied from \Templates\Scripts into \web\bin.

Copy Web Support Files

You'll also want to update your Web directory support files that provide support images and JavaScript files for the current version. These files should be updated in the Web folder of each application.

Next update scripts, css and Page Templates (selectively):

To do this copy the following:

Always Update (unless you manually manage these)

templates\ProjectTemplate\Web\lib -> Web Dir\lib
templates\ProjectTemplate\Web\scripts -> Web Dir\scripts*

Conditional Update (Update if you don't change default themes/layouts)

templates\ProjectTemplate\Web\css -> Web Dir\css
templates\ProjectTemplate\Web\Views -> Web Dir\Views

The first set are core libraries that are used by Web Connection internally to display administration pages, stock startup, information and error pages as well as the default Layout templates. You need to update these libraries to keep them up to date.
These files include libraries like jQuery, BootStrap and FontAwesome as well as some Web Connection support script files.

The Conditional Updates are optional, because it's quite likely that the files in these sets may have been modified as part of your application. These files include the default css formatting that Web Connection uses, as well as the default layout templates in the Views folder

Important: Always create a backup first and then use a comparison tool like Beyond Compare or WinMerge to check for changes when in doubt.

Important: If you've modified any of the files, they will be overwritten. Especially make sure that you rename application.css in your application to something that is specific to your own application - something like myapp.css and then link that in your layout files.

Update Project Generated Files

When you create a new project Web Connection generates a number of files which is a one time process. These files are generated from templates and these templates occasionally change, so from time to time it's a good idea to check and see what has changed.

A good recommendation if you would like to update these files is:

If you have older projects and you want to update to the latest support files I recommend:

Create a new project into a new folder
Use BeyondCompare or similar to compare files

You'll want to compare at the following files:

build.ps1
install-iis-features.ps1
deploy\bld_YourApp.prg
deploy\yourApp_serverConfig.prg
deploy\yourAppMain.prg